Atomic Clock

dionaea · Post by **dionaea** » Sun 27 Jun 2010 10:30 pm

Yesterday I missed a bid on ebay because I relied on the atomic clock on my WH1080 weather station console. By the time I bid the item had finished! I then noticed that the atomic clock symbol was not showing on the console & that the seconds were flickering.I do have another AC on my desk & that was working correctly. I assumed that the console batteries needed changing, which I duly did somehow adding 9mm of rainfall to my daily & annual records. I sorted out the records & checked the old batteries to find out that they were fine.The clock seems to be going OK but in a manual mode on my time settings & not in atomic mode.
Can I do anything to get the atomic part to work again or is my console failing? If it is , can I just get a new console?
Hope someone has some ideas.

Cheers,
Chris

gemini06720 · Post by **gemini06720** » Mon 28 Jun 2010 3:57 am

Chris, just to make matters clear, your console (or my console) does not have an atomic clock in it ... otherwise you could not keep the console on your desk ... nor could have been able to purchase price of the atomic clock...

You console (or my console) does have a small electronic circuit that receives (usually once a day) the electronic radio wave transmitted by a regional atomic time station (the building where the atomic clock transmitter is located - usually owned by a governmental organisation - being located in western Canada, my weather station console receives its signal from Boulder, Colorado USA).

The signal transmitted by an atomic time station (radio wave) is highly affected by the weather as well the surrounding structures (buildings) - thus, it is quite possible that the clock within a console does not get updated for a day or two due to regional bad weather.

If you know the geographical location of the atomic time station (east, north, south, west of your home), I would recommend that you temporarily move your console to a window that points to the geographical direction of the atomic time station - placing the console against the window reduces the chances of interferences and/or signal reduction.

If that test does not work, then there are strong chances that your console is becoming defective - you did write that you have replaces the batteries from your console. By the way, measuring the voltage only of a battery is not the best way to check that a battery is good as, in most cases, the voltage of a battery might still indicate the right value whereas the current might be almost nul - a unit connected to a battery not only relies on voltage but also on current produced by the battery.

A word of advice: You should never rely on the clock precision of a weather station to place a bid on eBay ... the clock of your computer is much more accurate...

dionaea · Post by **dionaea** » Mon 28 Jun 2010 5:30 am

Hi Ray,
Thanks for that - yes I do realise that I do not have an atomic clock on my desk - that I am only picking up a radio signal. It is clearly that that is not working. I have had this console on my desk for over 2 years & it has worked perfectly until the last few days.As I said, an old console on my desk ( from a weather station that did not link to my computer) is working with no problems so it can't be the signal strength.No transmitter symbol appears on the console that is not working.
Could it be that the console can be re-set & it is something I have missed.

If it is the case that the unit has failed, can I buy a new unit without having to get the complete weather station?

I am not sure I agree about the computer clock - mine seems to be about 4 seconds behind the signal from the atomic clock ( & the Ebay clock for that matter)
Cheers,
Chris

Gina · Post by **Gina** » Mon 28 Jun 2010 6:53 am

May I interrupt and add a further piece of info to this thread?

Those Fine Offset stations that have a radio controlled clock have the clock receiver in the outside unit, in the temperature and humidity sensor/transmitter unit and not in the console. So it's the batteries in the outdoor unit that affect the clock reception directly. Also, the location of the outdoor unit decides if anything is shielding the radio signal for the clock. AFAIK the stations sold in the UK are tuned to the German time transmitter and not our national one near Rugby in Warwickshire.
EDIT... This page shows the location of the time receiver https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.p ... 0&start=20 see the post by hans on 08 Feb 2009, 12:46 showing the DCF-77 time receiver. The tiny ferrite rod aerial for the clock is mounted on the other side of the board with wires fed through a hole.

I suggest changing the outdoor batteries and seeing if that cures the problem. My guess is that it will. Use alkaline or better still Energizer Lithium batteries (longer lasting, better voltage holding and better in cold weather). Do NOT use rechargeable batteries as these are lower voltage to start with. There is plenty of discussion on batteries elsewhere in this forum.

dionaea · Post by **dionaea** » Mon 28 Jun 2010 8:19 am

Hi Gina,
Many thanks for that. I will get the ladder out this evening & change the batteries although I did put lithium batteries in a few months ago. Maybe the change will trigger it to start working again. I will let you know.

Cheers,
Chris

gemini06720 · Post by **gemini06720** » Mon 28 Jun 2010 9:16 am

Gina wrote:May I interrupt and add a further piece of info to this thread?

Gina, you surely may interrupt...

I do not know much if anything about those stations (the Fine Offset and simiular weather stations) as it is just recently that I was made aware of their availability in North America.

On my console (a Davis Vantage Pro2) the receiver is inside the console - on my older console (a La Crosse WS2310) the receiver is also located inside the console.

I have some difficulties understanding the reasoning in placing the receiver inside the ISS (integrated sensor suite) rather than inside the console where it is needed - that means additional data being fed wirelessly to the console and possibly adding to the instability of those weather stations...

teg · Post by **teg** » Mon 28 Jun 2010 9:23 am

The German transmitter explains why I have to set the time zone to -1 hour to get the correct time in the UK. My experience is that the atomic radio signal is random in that it's not there all the time and you can't predict when it will be.

Regards

Trev

Gina · Post by **Gina** » Mon 28 Jun 2010 11:37 am

There are reports of the time receiver system causing problems with the main data transmission if reception is poor. I count myself lucky in having the version without the time receiver - it's not important as the software takes the time from the computer rather than the weather station.

I think it would be better to have a time receiver in the console rather than in the outside unit. The only possible advantage I can see is that the time receiver may get a better signal outside.

mcrossley · Post by **mcrossley** » Tue 29 Jun 2010 7:10 pm

Gina wrote:AFAIK the stations sold in the UK are tuned to the German time transmitter and not our national one near Rugby in Warwickshire.

They moved MSF from Rugby to Cumbria a while back...
http://www.npl.co.uk/science-technology ... ime-signal

Gina · Post by **Gina** » Tue 29 Jun 2010 8:02 pm

mcrossley wrote:
Gina wrote:AFAIK the stations sold in the UK are tuned to the German time transmitter and not our national one near Rugby in Warwickshire.
They moved MSF from Rugby to Cumbria a while back...
http://www.npl.co.uk/science-technology ... ime-signal

Thanks for the update

When I was a lot younger (1949-1959) I lived half a mile from the Rugby (Hillmorton) station. As well as the MSF transmissions they also dealt in ULF radio comms (Reuters I think) with a call sign of GBR - which came through very well on a old iron bedstead

mcrossley · Post by **mcrossley** » Tue 29 Jun 2010 9:40 pm

Oh yes, I had a bash at making a receiver and some software to decode MSF from Rugby. IIRC in those days there were two time signals being broadcast simultaneously - fast and slow. They only seem to broadcast the slow data stream now, never did get it to work reliably. I now have travel alarm clock that cost a few pounds, runs for 2 years or more on a single AA cell and seems to pick up the signal in any orientation!

To get off topic completely

I also worked with a BBC engineer to decode and apply prorogation delay compensation to a time signal they provided over dial-in modems at 600 or 1200 baud for my employer at the time.

dionaea · Post by **dionaea** » Wed 30 Jun 2010 8:46 am

Right, I have finally got the ladder out & am about to change the batteries to see if I can restore the Clock radio signal. Is there any order to go about this so that I don't muck up the data? I think I need to remove the USB & the batteries from the display unit & then replace the batteries in the outside sensor - then the batteries in the display & then connect the USB. Am I correct & will I lose much?

Cheers,

Chris

andrewinpopayan · Post by **andrewinpopayan** » Wed 30 Jun 2010 7:59 pm

Just to offer a bit of help regarding the time on your PC. I have "one of them" PC's that loses a couple of minutes every month and it used to screw up my fleabay last second "sniping" tactics, now whenever I start my PC it synchronises itself with an MSF website in the UK and updates the BIOS clock.

dionaea · Post by **dionaea** » Thu 01 Jul 2010 7:34 am

Sounds useful.Do you have the website?

gemini06720 · Post by **gemini06720** » Thu 01 Jul 2010 8:53 am

dionaea wrote:Sounds useful.Do you have the website?

I just did a search of the CNET Download section and got 427 software results for "Atomic Clock Sync"... There are literally thousands of free and shareware utilities on the Internet, some new and some old...

On all my home/office computers, I have been using two utilities, a very old one called "AboutTime" by Paul Lutus (works well even under Windows 7) and a newer one called "Time Sync" by Karen Kenworthy.

The choices are limitless...

Cumulus Support

Atomic Clock

Atomic Clock

Re: Atomic Clock

Re: Atomic Clock

Re: Atomic Clock

Re: Atomic Clock

Re: Atomic Clock

Re: Atomic Clock

Re: Atomic Clock

Re: Atomic Clock

Re: Atomic Clock

Re: Atomic Clock

Re: Atomic Clock

Re: Atomic Clock

Re: Atomic Clock

Re: Atomic Clock