Time Change

Yup, I've listened to them on shortwave since I was a kid (as far as transmitters, there's also WWVH in Hawaii), and even visited the atomic clock once, when our family visited Colorado.

For those who don't have a shortwave radio, the phone number to hear the atomic clock in Colorado ticking away (so you can set your regular clocks accurately) is: 303-799-4111 (or 808-335-4363 for Hawaii). Jot it down for future use

Interesting sidenote, they broadcast on shortwave (if I remember right, at 5,000, 10,000, 15,000) but for some reason, as a kid, I had a made-in-Singapore GE AM/FM analog clock radio (like this one) -- and when the California weather got hot in the summer, I could tune to the 1610-edge of the AM dial on this clock radio, and pick up WWVB! As a kid, I tried to ask folks why that could be (as AM/MW is 530-1610 -- yet I could always pick up WWVB on hot California days when turning the AM dial to the very end at 1610 on this clockradio), but never got an answer. Just one of those mysteries of life, I guess.

 

That is a US-only solution though. Another option would be to use GPS. Our time server at work uses GPS to time sync.

 

I suspect that the radio drifted when hot so that WWVB became a harmonic of what the radio was tuned to receive.

 

So, when I go to the settings using the meter control switch, there is nothing there except "maintenance schedule" and "charging schedule"--there are no other options. Consequently, I am unable to change the clock. When I check the owners' manual, there are apparently supposed to be a whole slew of options to change under this settings menu, but none of them appear? Is a trip to the dealer in order or is there something I can do to fix it?

 

I just changed my Gen 4. The car needs to be in READY to see the other setup options..

 

This 60kHz atomic clock solution is strictly a Continental US solution, possibly picking up decent portions of Canada and Mexico too. Because of this localization, it won't be on the top of the priority list for a car maker selling around the whole world. Yes, nice to have, but only after the limited available design resources address more important features and requirements.

BTW, my 'atomic' wall clock didn't pick up the time change this morning, so is still on DST. This is not uncommon. Odds are that it will get a strong enough radio signal over the next night or two to catch up.

 

Internet connectivity for cars will solve all this? Or..., we just collectively drop-kick this daylight saving time off the end of the driveway.

 

Why Internet connectivity?
Many of the cars have GPS for navigation anyway. The car just does not sync up the 2 clocks. Just include GPS on the remainder too & sync up the clocks.

 

I vote for the later. Its original purpose -- saving energy from incandescent lights -- didn't pan out as well as expected, and has been rendered obsolete by the greatly improved efficiency of modern lighting.

 

I vote for four time changes instead of two.

 

Both of you are wrong. This is from my Casio Waveceptor watch manual.

 

Looking them up, I'm seeing different broadcast frequencies and different coding formats. I.e. one size doesn't fit all.

And there are more broadcast time signals in other countries. Your watch is missing many of them.

 

A cheap and simple tunable receiver module would work, but I'm sure its not high of any list of priorities. I'm pretty sure that here in the US though, the last change to DST was heavily lobbied for by the candy companies to sell more candy at Halloween...

 

That's true, and all of them are incorporated into a watch that runs exclusively on extremely intermittent solar power. In other words, is extremely cheap and extremely low power.

Of course, the car has GPS already, so incorporating time setting should be easy. Time zone changes are harder because of the differing rules of various jurisdictions and the extremely irregular time zone maps.

 

How cheap is it? The ones I'm seeing are much more expensive than generic quartz clocks. The solar powered one appear even more pricey. Don't forget the degree of penny-pinching imposed by corporate beancounters.

Casio Wave Ceptor - Wikipedia
"The receivers to which the watches can tune vary by watch submodel. Casio says that in Europe the watches tune to the 77.5kHz low frequency time signal radio station DCF77 at Mainflingen in Germany, or 60kHz MSF at Anthorn (formerly transmitting from Rugby, Warwickshire) in the United Kingdom. In Europe the reception range is approximately 1,500 kilometres. In the United States they tune to the 60kHz signal from WWVB at Fort Collins. In Japan they tune to the 40kHz signal from JJY at Mount Otakadoya, near Fukushima (Ohtakadoyayama) and the 60kHz signal from the Haganeyama Transmitter at Mount Hagane (Haganeyama). In China they tune to the 68kHz signal from BPC at Shangqiu."

From my earlier search, I remember at least four differing data formats among those stations. And there are more time stations not listed here.

Among the broader line of Toyota vehicles that may share various internals, including clocks, you are wrong.

 

Not all Gen 4 have GPS though. Mine doesn't

 

My whole watch was $28 at Walmart when I bought it.

 

Have you seen how much effort some manufacturers put into saving pennies? This is often essential for competitive mass-market products. Otherwise, costs tend to rise substantially, customers flock to other sellers, and they eat your lunch.

Yes, this would be a very nice feature to have. But design resources (staff and time and budget) are finite, and upper level managers decide that many 'nice to have' features won't make it into the product. Or at least today's version of it. Next year might be different. Or not.

PS What model is your watch? I want to verify that it receives all the signals shown in your image at #51, not just the ones in the region where you purchased it. Some product manuals are written for multiple models, and your model may not have all features shown. This is definitely true for both my Prius and Forester Owner's Manuals.

 

That came from the manual for my watch core, module 3090.

 

^ Reviewing that manual, I see most of the U.S. population, and a large fraction of European populations, are outside the somewhat reliable reception ranges (the dotted lines, not solid lines). And even within that, there are plenty of reception and interference warnings.

I'm imagining a s***load of annoyed calls to Customer Support when time changes are not reflected properly. Those must be rolled into the manufacturer's cost of offering this feature.