I believe this is a manufacturing defect, that is, a firmware bug. My Thoughts on how La Crosse should Handle this The La Crosse Store will send you a 45% coupon for the next purchase on their website." If you would like another clock please look at option 2 below. The clock is nine years old and electronic components do fail in that time. "Unfortunately this clock is past the one year warranty. I wrote back and sent a picture of the clock and NIST time similar to the one above. I wrote to Customer Service at La Crosse so they sent a PDF of the instruction manual (I have the manual that came with the clock). My guess is that the La Crosse clocks of that era use the same type of integrated circuit and share the manufacturing defect: the firmware fault symptoms described on that site. That is, the symptoms agree with those from the site which investigated the Skyscan radio clock problem. After a couple weeks the clock had again drifted by over a second so it does not sync more than once after the batteries are installed, although the tower icon remains ON. it synchronized correctly.Ĭlearly the clock can receive the NIST signal, decode it and synchronize its display, verifying that the clock's electronics are working. I checked the clock against NIST time via the net and they agreed within a second, i.e. All the digits and the tower icon immediately began flashing - the clock synchronized by 0900. NIST has increased their transmit power such that their signal now works much of the day here in Connecticut so at 0845 I removed and reinstalled the batteries to reset the clock. I then waited 2 days for the tower to reappear but it did not: the clock did not sync. The next check was, with the tower icon displayed (and the time 18 second error), change the time via the buttons to make the tower disappear. Batteries were above the minimum specified on the La Crosse site. The several second difference with NIST time from the net is an even clearer indication but who thinks to check this when the clock indicates it is sync'ed? I checked the batteries with a voltmeter since low batteries could cause a failure to sync - although this should also cause the tower icon to disappear. The most obvious - but infrequent - symptom is the failure to correct for DST when the time change occurs. the tower icon is ON indicating recent sync. The clock appears to be working properly and synchronizing daily via radio with NIST's atomic clock in Boulder, i.e. Looking further, I found an Amazon review of La Crosse radio clocks reporting a similar problem. Researching the problem on the net I found a site whose author had very carefully explored a similar problem with Skyscan radio clocks. Research on the NetĪt that point I decided to check the displayed time against NIST time on the net which resulted in the error shown in the picture above. However, in spring of 2014 it did not correct for the DST change and since the batteries were only a few months old I checked the voltage per La Crosse's site and found the batteries were fine. In 2013 I changed the batteries shortly before DST ended and it did not correct for DST so after a week I removed the batteries to reset the clock - and it synchronized to the correct time over night. The clock worked for a couple years on a set of batteries which were replaced over the years as needed. I received this clock as a present for Christmas 2005 so it is well beyond the 1 year warranty. The failure can pass as a problem due to the electronics deteriorating due to age or due to a change in modulation of the NIST radio - but a VERY simple check (see below) can eliminate these as the cause. This failure to update is a firmware problem built into this and many other radio clocks - the failure wasn't apparent initially but it was always in there. In fact, my clock's crystal is quite accurate, it loses 1/2+ second per week, but the clock no longer synchronizes daily as it should - the 18 seconds is the cumulative error since I last changed batteries over 6 months ago!! This update failure also causes the hour error shown because it doesn't update to handle DST either. The 18 second error is disturbing because the clock indicates that it updated recently - the tower icon is ON - so the time should be accurate within a second. The clock is slow by 1 hour and 18 seconds. The clock is on the left in front of my computer's monitor displaying the NIST time. The picture above shows the failure of my La Crosse WS-6002U-A radio controlled clock. La Crosse Radio Controlled Clock Failure It's the Firmware.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |