Quartz Crystal stability?

Question

Anybody have an idea on the frequency stability of older large low frequency quartz crystals compared to the stability of small tunning fork cyrstals used in watches?

I have an old 31.5Khz crystal in a large can that measures about 5/8 by

3/8 inch that I tried to use in a clock application, but the error is not consistant and seems to vary 5 or 10 seconds a day. Some days it's a few seconds seconds slow, and other days it's a few seconds fast. The error is not consistant, so I'm thinking it may be due to temperature changes. The oscillator voltage is regulated so the voltage is fairly stable.

Anybody have an idea of the temperature stability of the older large quartz crystals?

-Bill

Tom Biasi · Accepted Answer

Not without seeing the specs. Of course the modern ones perform better. Precision crystal oscillators in "the old days" were often in crystal ovens to keep the drift predictable.Tom

Eeyore · Answer

You need the manufacturer's data. Generalities would be misleading.Graham

Bill Bowden · Answer

Yes, the specs would help, but I was thinking "bigger is better" so alarge quartz crystal should be more stable than a smaller "tunningfork" variety?Maybe that's not a good assumption?-Bill

sparc · Answer

Whatever the reason might be for the drift ...possibly temperature as already guessed by him ... i wonder if it wld (almost) average out if we were to use 3-4 crystals and take an average frequency. Before everybody explodes ...this is just a thought on deriving a more accurate clock using a RAIC ... Redundant Array of Inexpensive Crystals ............

Excusez moi ....my mind is already grinding away at the design of a circuit which cld average out a RAIC....

Tom Biasi · Answer

Crystal cut, purity, type etc. who knows?

Quartz Crystal stability?

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