The March of Time

Long ago (1993), I wrote into the UUCICO program for UUPC/extended support for synchronizing the local PC's clock from an atomic clock by calling (via modem) what was the National Bureau of Standard (now NIST). The NIST dial up Automated Computer Time Service (ACTS) service is still supported, but things have really advanced since then.

Everything in the Kitten Farm West which can automatically synchronize its clock (~20+ devices) does. For example, our Apple, Amazon, Google, and Raspberry Pi devices all use the Network Time Protocol, so no action required there.

But every fall and spring I still have to go on an Easter Egg-like hunt of the remaining time keepers . . .

To start, this house has a bastion of unsynchronized clocks called the kitchen. I've reset the time on four appliances and timers, dumped the ice maker reservoir (it's the first of the month), and verified the forced air thermostat time. Katherine will later use a step stool to the get wall clocks in the both the kitchen and my office.

A call to the house from a cell phone fixed the hour on the landline phones, but they are all off by ten minutes (ZiplyFiber needs to get its Caller Id act together); I can't override that (and have it stay fixed).

In the Living Room our TV, Roku, and Raspberry Pi server are fine (obviously using NTP, you're not perfect to the minute for months without an external source), but the Wii U blissfully thought it was 11:07 until I reset it to 9:35.

The oddest time piece in the house the wireless thermometer in my office, it's synchronized but not via the Internet. Rather it uses radio station WWVB (which broadcasts at 60 Khz, find that on your radio dial!), listened to via the temperature sensor in the backyard for better reception.

My office thermometer synchronized via WWVB
(hence the antenna symbol at the top)

Out in the garage, the MINI Cooper S electronics will magically reset using GPS, but the Audi stereo and the Bike bike computers will need chatting with.

I almost forgot the Master Suite. There are two watches hiding in my nightstand, and a Bose Wave Radio. And the master bath has my Glucose meter. . . . and in two months I'll trip over (and update) some odd device with a clock that I completely forgot about. It happens every cycle. p.s. The networked Nest Protect smoke detectors all got tested too. (They are designed to not get their batteries replaced.)