Different logic is needed to reduce 60Hz to the standard 1 second interval used by quartz clock motors. Both 50Hz and 60Hz variants are shown, but note that things are a little trickier for 60Hz. This can change, and you will learn a lot about the digital logic used for clocks in the process. Compared to most mechanical clocks, they are very good timekeepers, but are fundamentally useless as a reference time standard. As most people have discovered, they are fairly accurate, but can be expected to drift a few seconds each week, and sometimes a lot more. Quartz clocks are cheap - insanely so in fact. Whether anyone will bother with the battery backup version is doubtful, but it's included just in case. The process is as much about learning how things work as anything else, although at the end of it we do get a clock with superb time-keeping. The question must be asked of course - why bother? The main answer is "because we can". If anyone still makes them, I would expect the product to be expensive. However, try to buy a synchronous clock these days. The AC mains frequency is extremely accurate, because it is necessary for the power utilities to enable the rapid changeover of generating equipment. Because they are normally so cheap, most people would be unwilling to spend the extra to obtain guaranteed accuracy, and if such accuracy were needed, no off-the-shelf quartz clock would be good enough.īecause synchronous clocks are locked to the mains frequency, they are as accurate as the mains. While it is certainly possible to make a quartz clock that is extremely accurate, very few manufacturers choose to do so. Synchronous clocks are still by far the most accurate currently available as (second-hand) consumer items.
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