Also, filed under "random electronic fuckery" -

[kyburg]

The timer for the porch lights has died - or lost it's tiny little mind. I have an identical one for the Christmas lights (yes, I do, blame my electrician. I asked for an outdoor outlet, he put that and a timer on it in for me. Programmable from the inside. Yo, he is mighty. And a retired nth degree black belt. Don't mess). It's fine.

This one has an error message that made me call the company this morning. I also have no porch lights right now - thingie is dead dead dead.

Uh, the new DST parameters are screwing with the product and they're sending out a replacement - no charge. No, there is no recovery. And I can't use the energy saving bulbs with it.

I'm calling Cedric this morning and advising him - likely, he'll have to come out and install it - but one, I don't recall this unit having a radio connection to set the clock or determine DST and two, there's likely some resistance thingie Cedric will have to explain to me, but how the eff would it know I wasn't using plain incandescent bulbs in the fixtures and why would it matter?

*hurrr*

A new unit is fine with me. One I have don't work - but the reasons just make my head hurt. Okay?

Comments

[7leaguebootdisk.livejournal.com]

It was the leap second we had added to the end of last year at GMT.

Random geekery, Linux did it, OS X fails to mention it, no idea about windows.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

*buh* You're kidding.

[7leaguebootdisk.livejournal.com]

About it being the cause? Yes. Not kidding about the leap second and the various OS's.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what floors me more - the fact that's the issue, or the fact someone on my FL knew what it was. Precisely.

[7leaguebootdisk.livejournal.com]

The leap second really killed it????

I mean, just because the time before 4pm our time (we both being in PST, that is 12pm GMT) was 3:59:60 instead of 3:59:59 it died? Why not just be sudeny a second off, not a big deal?

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Dead as dead dead.

I think the only reason the other one isn't dead is because I didn't try to change the program on it. What do you want to bet the moment I do, it goes toes up as well?

The display says there is no operating system. And there is no recovery. When I called tech support, there was no question - they just took down my name and address and expressed a new unit to me. First time in my memory that happened so eagerly.

[foogod.livejournal.com]

It probably wasn't the leap second (at least not directly).. more likely they just had a bug in the particular bit of their timezone tables which applies at the moment, and causes it to die when it tries to figure out what time it is. It is possible the bug got introduced by somebody trying to account for the leap-second, but that's hard to know.

You might actually be able to work around it if you can figure out some way to reset the real-time-clock in the device, and then telling it that it's actually, say, last year instead of this year. of course that would probably require opening up the thing and removing the battery or something..

As for the type of lights, the energy-savers are actually mini flourescent lights, with a high-frequency ballast at the base. They're designed to (theoretically) work the same as incandescent bulbs, except that many of the older ones threw high-frequency noise back down through the power line, which caused problems if some of the more sophisticated electronic equipment was involved (they also didn't work too well with dimmers and such). I believe most of the newer ones are much better in this regard, though, and most things can't tell the difference anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if the manufacturer is saying "don't do it" just to be safe, though.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

No workaround possible - you can't access the OS at all. The company advised me that they are going to be notifying anyone they send these replacement units to (because they aren't exact replacements) that when they have the bugs ironed out of the existing units, they are going to be replacing them as well.

You're right - the manufacturer simply said, "don't do it."

wow.

[tomlemos.livejournal.com]

what kind of timers do you have? Sounds pretty damn nifty if it has an OS on it.

yow.

Re: wow.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

My electrician is going to CES this week in Las Vegas. You'd better believe it.

Re: wow.

[tomlemos.livejournal.com]

that's one hell of an electrician. Da-a-a-a-aamn.

Re: wow.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

And he's an olllld friend - goes back 20 years now. Not only is he very good, he's also a second-generation Los Angelean who worked alongside his father since he was old enough to tell one end of a hammer from the other.

He has all of his Dad's experience (particularly with building codes and materials), plus his own - for what he does, there's nobody better.

He's also a very doting son to his (rapidly) aging mother, very single and looking - but I'd have to warn people, you have to get past some very ingrained Rushness (he's been listening to too much talk radio).

Brown Electric in Los Angeles. You need one, he's the guy to call.

Re: wow.

[tomlemos.livejournal.com]

thank you. I will pass that on to my Los Angeles friends who need an electrician.

thank you so much.