• Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    13 hours ago

    My highschool was small (graduating class under 50; five small towns combined), and in the 90s, ours were synchronized, just realized I always wondered what they used.

    • joel_feila@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Probably the clocks all used a synchronous motor. It spins baaed on ac current. After juat set the clocks to the right time when you plig them in

      • Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        12 hours ago

        Thank you, I’ll need to look into it, it was obvious they were synced because they got adjusted for daylight savings from somewhere and they all slowly changed time over the course of an hour if I recall correctly, it always fascinated me.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        Would that not mean if the power goes out after say a hurricane, the all the clocks have to be reset manually or can they somehow change them all remotely? A mechanism going threw the walls to change them from a single location sounds like a lot of work to get a synchronized clock

          • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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            12 hours ago

            At what point is it not just a digital clock with an analog interface if it has the ability to receive information digitally and perform tasks off of it. (I assume increase/decrease voltage to the motor).

            Unless maybe that’s how they do it, put all the clocks on an individual power source, then manipulate the current to increase/decrease the speed of the motors so they all move synchronized… Idk, cool concept though. Not sure how you would overcome the loss in varying distance of the clocks though… it’s possible but a lot of planning

            • joel_feila@lemmy.world
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              11 hours ago

              Its the Hertz of ac current that comteols timing. But that’s just how it counts the seconds not how it would tell if it is noon. But its uses analog electricity to keep time and maybe a digital comand to set time. Does make it digital or analog?

              • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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                9 hours ago

                I was thinking if you had a set voltage and resistance you could hold a certain rpm for the motor going to the gears. Then if you needed to adjust it you could stop the current by dialing down the voltage or possibly increase the analog dial to increase the voltage and make the clocks motors all spin faster until you reached the desired time and dial it back to standard voltage. But you would have loss over distance in the wire unless you made them all the max length needed, and coiled them to make them all the “same length” from dial to clock.