Setting a Typical Electric Clock to Accurate Seconds

I do have one such clock (very old General Electric clock radio). All other units I have encountered will zero-out Seconds when Minutes is changed.

Interesting. I hadn't thought of it that way. That is, synch the clock to the actually zero seconds by starting the process when the real zero seconds approach. I'll try it.

Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA) (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time) Obz Site: 39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet

Some are worse than that. They never zero the seconds when the time is set. You could actually set the hours and minutes and see the minute value change a few seconds later. No chance of ever getting those kind to be accurate to the second.

If you are talking about an "old fashioned" plug-in-the-wall clock with a synchronous motor, your method should work OK. Such clocks keep outstandingly good time because the power company counts the cycles and keeps the average dead-on over long periods. About the only thing you will have to deal with is any initial backlash in the gear mechanism, which might require a couple of trial starts depending on how close you want to get.

Hmmm, as every caver knows, you need to put that knot at the end before you even get on the rope in the first place!

Best regards,

Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis

That's what I thought Wayne was talking about. See my *General Electric clock radio* comment. . .

You have to unplug it long enough to let it forget what time it is, plug it back in at :00 seconds (as Wayne said), then set the time.