Technology1 min ago
Digital clock is slow
6 Answers
The digital clock in my phone (motorola V50) regularly goes slow by three minutes over a couple of months. I always reset it to the second with a radio controlled clock but after 8 weeks or so it needs doing again! I thought digital clocks were the most accurate, seems not. Can the phone clock be regulated at all?
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Digital clocks should be accurate as they are timed by a very small crystal of quartz that rings at an extremely high frequency. This is accurately known from the physical size of the crystal. This frequency is repeatedly divided and eventually resolves to a second, divided further to minutes and again for the hours. Simple counters do the days months and years. There is likely a small capacitance set to "pull" the crystal frequency very slightly, but this is not usually something you can do as it is set at the factory and encased in a chip.
I had a similar Motorola and this was only one of its annoying features, losing about a minute a fortnight. It eventually gave up the ghost completely and I got a different brand. Why I never threw the darned thing away earlier I'll never know. The quality control must be abysmal, as most people with Motorolas of that sort experience problems, lockups, batteries destroyed, random switching off during calls, or worse still just as it is about to ring.
As Hippy says, the oscillator that drives digital clocks should make any digital better than the best analogue. I expect this loss of time would be down to a (phone software) programming error or glitch whereby the phone stalls for a fraction of a second when a particular condition is met. The time on the screen will be completely software-driven. I doubt the clock which drives the hardware is running slow itself.
You mentioned the word Motorola, I am sorry> Their technology seems to be a bit behind some other makes. My old Moto could only end calls by disconnecting the battery, not very good for a sales rep on the road all day. I gave on it, binned it and bought a Nokia, generally I have found to be much more accurate.
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