Interesting observation of timegraphers and electrical storms. They don't like them.

[Birbdad]

So there's a massive electrical storm going on all night here in Texas and i went out to a weather observation deck to observe it. Put on my Seiko snzg03 field watch so i had something with good lume to read in the dark. This watch is my best achievement so far in servicing. Amplitude around 290 2 hours from full wind, a delta that's about as low as you can probably get on a 7s26 seiko. Tracked it daily on the wrist and it was running +/- 0 to 1 seconds a day for an entire month. I don't think anybody can get a 7s26 to run better than this.

I got home and the lightning started up again and had my timegrapher out and decided to throw my seiko on there to see if it was still running well and to my horror saw just total chaos. it was a snowstorm on the timegrapher with a reading so bad it couldnt' even figure out what the rate and beat error or amplitude was. I was pretty crestfallen because I thought I had done such a good job on it. I'm looking at the balance and seconds hand and it was ticking along just fine visually. The lightning stops and not really thinking much of it put it back on the timegrapher and i get a perfect signal and exactly the amplitude and rate i would expect. Exactly where i set it months ago. I reboot the timegrapher and put it on again about 10 minutes later wondering if the timegrapher is borked and again it's total choas, no reading, snowstorm etc. I realize the lightning had started up again and thought maybe there was a connection. I proceeded to test this for the next hour and like clockwork. WHen theres a lightning cell overhead and active lightning the timegrapher shows a total mess. When the lightning stops i get a perfect reading. 

Just thought people might find that interesting. I don't know why this happens but it is definitely happening.

Lightning timegrapher reading.

Non lightning timegrapher reading just a minute or two later.

[RichardHarris123]

I would assume that the EMF is overcoming the shielding on the wire from the microphone to the unit.  The microphone turns noise into electrical signals and the EMP is interfering with that. 

[Birbdad]

9 minutes ago, RichardHarris123 said:

I would assume that the EMF is overcoming the shielding on the wire from the microphone to the unit.  The microphone turns noise into electrical signals and the EMP is interfering with that. 

Electronics might as well be magic to me so i have no idea how any of that works but that sounds real plausible haha. Probably why i like mechanical watches so much and not quartz. 

[Endeavor]

If a lightning strikes the grid or in the vicinity, your timegrapher is toast

Edited April 6, 2023 by Endeavor

[Birbdad]

4 minutes ago, Endeavor said:

If a lightning strikes the grid or in the vicinity, your timegrapher is toast

There was actually a brownout right before all this weirdness happened. I did have it plugged into a cheap surge protector power strip

[watchweasol]

Hi years ago when working in the computer industry we uses Rs232 transmission with Norton line drivers to boost signal loss over distance . In an electrical storm  induced current in the lines used to fry th Sn 75110 driver chips, we put them on rafts for easy changing.

[thor447]

About a week ago I had a watch on the timegrapher.  I wasn't thinking and put some case parts into the ultrasonic machine, which is about 15 feet away from the timegrapher.  As soon as I turned it on the timegrapher readings went nuts, looking like a snowstorm.  Turning off the ultrasonic cleaned up the signal on the machine.  It's pretty interesting to see how much it affected the machine, still being quite a good distance away from it.

[Birbdad]

11 hours ago, thor447 said:

About a week ago I had a watch on the timegrapher.  I wasn't thinking and put some case parts into the ultrasonic machine, which is about 15 feet away from the timegrapher.  As soon as I turned it on the timegrapher readings went nuts, looking like a snowstorm.  Turning off the ultrasonic cleaned up the signal on the machine.  It's pretty interesting to see how much it affected the machine, still being quite a good distance away from it.

That's interesting....I'm surprised it even works wehre i have it. I have my pc tower, two monitors, speakers and a gigantic wacom tablet right there on my workdesk.

[JohnR725]

23 hours ago, Endeavor said:

If a lightning strikes the grid or in the vicinity, your timegrapher is toast

actually if you have a lightning strike nearby timegrapher would be the least of your problems. Depending upon where it hits you might not have to worry about anything ever again. Or you blow out all of your electronics. Even with surge protectors they're not designed for a lightning strike in close proximity.  I remember one of my electronic magazines back east were electrical activity like this was quite common he had his own generator and he would just disconnect the main power grid to avoid blowing out all the electronics. Of course if you still have a lightning strike even that's not going to help you out if it's really really close.

21 hours ago, thor447 said:

About a week ago I had a watch on the timegrapher.  I wasn't thinking and put some case parts into the ultrasonic machine, which is about 15 feet away from the timegrapher.  As soon as I turned it on the timegrapher readings went nuts, looking like a snowstorm.  Turning off the ultrasonic cleaned up the signal on the machine.  It's pretty interesting to see how much it affected the machine, still being quite a good distance away from it

if it's a Chinese timing machine there actually quite sensitive to audio noise's the Swiss machines like witschi are better sort of. I was once doing a comparison of the Chinese 1900 and the witschi watch expert number two and I happen walk into the room with my battery-powered shaver and noticed the Chinese machine was very unhappy. So that's why the shavers in the picture the witschi machine is immune the Chinese machine is unhappy. But that's not necessarily true with all the witschi machines at work the ultrasonic is about 3 feet from the primary machine and most the time it just won't time a watch sometimes ill do my pocket watches you make it synchronize the pocket watch that it isn't is concerned with the ultrasonic. The other machine that's about 6 feet away if the ultrasonic is on it won't work at all so even when she gets unhappy about ultrasonic machines producing a heck of a lot of noise that they pick up.

Which is why anything resembling instructions for timing machine will typically tell you to place them someplace that's quite away from things that make noise like ultrasonic which we might not here but the timing machine will.