plockton

OK, this will add not one horsepower to your engine, nor help you corner better, or even make your car look better. Still...

In my home I have a couple clocks, one digital from Radio Shack ($39) and one with hands from Atomix ($15 at Marshalls; don't know what regular retail is).

Several times a day they pick up a signal broadcast (I think) by the National Institute of Standards, or Standard Time....whatever...and they correct any error in their time. It's sort of like having an atomic clock in your home. When daylight savings kicks in...or out...they self adjust.

It would be easy to put one of these in a car, but does anyone do this? I'd think it would be a nice attractive feature and another selling point.

Viscous

It would be a great idea if you can ever figure out how to put the electronic signal reception device into our clocks. Because double sided tape and a clock on our dashboards won't be a good selling point.

plockton

Well if I can bury the antenna for my Radio Shack clock in my house, I'm sure it can be buried in the netherworld of the car. And I can't even find a visible antenna on the Atomix clock.

No need for tape; a totally built-in device.

Bags

iTrader: (3)

glue that bad boy to the dash and let us know how it works.

seriously I like the idea. I am lazy so the less I do the better. What about when you go to a different time zone. What are the regions/towns/cities that have antenna's that broadcast the signal?

plockton

You do have to tell it what time zone you are in to start (Radio Shack -- it has a little digital map of the US) or set the hour hand appropriately at first (Atomix). If you changed time zones you'd have to tell the clock and change the hour; can't be any harder than doing that now. But while you are in whatever time zone, your clock would always have the correct time to the second, all the time.

I think the signal comes from a single source (Colorado sticks in my mind). Whether it is bounced around by satellite or rebroadcast somehow, I don't know.

Bags

iTrader: (3)

Oh , cool. off of radio shacks site.

100% accurate. This ingenious clock automatically keeps time by checking a special radio signal tied to the government's atomic clock-the same one used by the military and NASA. Displays time, indoor temperature, date and day of the week. 2 "AA" batteries not included.

I like the idea BUT the size appeared to be rather large. How big is it? Do they make small ones?

Justin95SE

iTrader: (1)

my phone has that atomic clock, went to colorado from texas and it was correct all the way there and back, with timezones.

plockton

I was just thinking that Nissan could take the technology and use it in the clock that is built into the car. I wasn't thinking of using the Radio Shack model in the car. The only thing you'd see in the car is the display, and that can be any size Nissan wanted to make it. The "guts" would be hidden like anything else.

FYI - The Radio Shack model I have is about 4" tall and 3" wide. An inch deep at the base but curves to almost nothing at the top. Has a 2 foot wire that leads to a small 1" x 3" antenna.

Like I said, the Atomix doesn't have a visible antenna of any sort. It's a 12" round wall clock -- I wouldn't stick that on my dash either! (Its electronic mechanism, however, is just approximately 4" x 2" x 1/2".)