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Comment by waste_monk | Hacker News Reader

Somewhat off-topic but I am greatly annoyed at the lack of NTP wall clocks for residential use. You can get them, of course, but they're aimed at businesses and generally cost the local equivalent of ~$400 to $500 USD. Which seems excessive.

Do most households still have wall clocks these days, given wristwatches, phones and other personal electronics, etc. all have time functions built-in? I admit I don't, but mainly due to the ongoing maintenance burden of winding/battery replacement and time setting/correction. Maybe I should just bite the bullet and get a nice PoE+NTP wall clock.

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Why the complexity of NTP (network & internet) when you could use a GPS syncing wall clock for much less?

I already have wireless network infrastructure and an internet connection. I also live in an old house with very thick walls... I haven't checked GPS reception indoors here, but if it's anything like mobile phone coverage there will be little to zero reception, and it's far too much effort to run in a cable for an exterior antenna.

Also, just having a quick look I can't see anywhere locally that sells GPS synchronised wall clocks (or at least analogue-style ones, which is what I want)

It was a good suggestion though, thank you. I had not though of NTP alternatives. I did look at radio-controlled clock as well, but there's no public broadcaster of sync signals in Australia. Apparently you can DIY it [1] by playing the signal over headphones and have the RCC pick it up as harmonic leakage from the cable, but that would not look good with a wall-mounted clock.

[1] http://www.jrcomputing.com.au/Set_Watch/Set_Watch_Auto.html

You can get an ipad and hang the display up as a wall clock app, for cheaper

I specifically wanted an analog-style clock to fit with the rest of the decor. I could use a tablet, but it would be jarringly out of place with the rest of the house. And it also seems like a huge waste of compute to have even a low-end tablet just acting as a simple clock.

I need to sit down and dedicate the time to learn some electronics and "maker"-y skills, I'm sure there would be a way to mash together something like an ESP32 and one of those DIY clock quartz movement kits to get what I want.

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