Help! The Dectalk PC is hosing my clock!

Help! The Dectalk PC is hosing my clock!

[Adam Myrow]

Well, after getting the Dectalk PC2 driver working with Speakup, I never
expected this.  When I'm actively using the Dectalk PC, my clock starts
wondering into the sunset.  For example, by the end of the day yesterday,
it was about 3 minutes slow.  Today, as a test, I set it and then ran a
loop of having ntpdate query the time from time.nist.gov every 60 seconds.
I had it set to query without setting the clock, so I could see how far it
was drifting.  The offsets over just 3 minutes are alarming!

6.317230 seconds slow in minute one, 11.267927 seconds slow after 2
minutes, 16.887154 seconds slow after minute 3, and so on.  If I leave the
computer idle, with ntpd running to constantly adjust the time, it becomes
stable, so it's clearly something that the Dectalk PC is doing.  Has
anybody else had this problem?  For that matter, is anybody even using the
Dectalk PC driver besides me?

RE: Help! The Dectalk PC is hosing my clock!

[shaun Oliver]

were I you, I'd be more concerned about your cmos battery.
it's highly likely it's on it's way out.


-----Original Message-----
From: speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca
[mailto:speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca]On Behalf Of Adam Myrow
Sent: Monday, 3 May 2004 12:31 AM
To: speakup@braille.uwo.ca
Subject: Help! The Dectalk PC is hosing my clock!


Well, after getting the Dectalk PC2 driver working with Speakup, I never
expected this.  When I'm actively using the Dectalk PC, my clock starts
wondering into the sunset.  For example, by the end of the day yesterday,
it was about 3 minutes slow.  Today, as a test, I set it and then ran a
loop of having ntpdate query the time from time.nist.gov every 60 seconds.
I had it set to query without setting the clock, so I could see how far it
was drifting.  The offsets over just 3 minutes are alarming!

6.317230 seconds slow in minute one, 11.267927 seconds slow after 2
minutes, 16.887154 seconds slow after minute 3, and so on.  If I leave the
computer idle, with ntpd running to constantly adjust the time, it becomes
stable, so it's clearly something that the Dectalk PC is doing.  Has
anybody else had this problem?  For that matter, is anybody even using the
Dectalk PC driver besides me?


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Re: Help! The Dectalk PC is hosing my clock!

[Hart Larry]

Hi Adam:  I think I am useing the decpc 1.  I got my first pc in 1994 and these
orriginal drivers are from 1993.
I have never noticed any dectalk clock related issues, however, I receive alot
of console messages like, rtc cannot update from 59 to 4.
If the dectalk is talking while any audio file is playing, the audio  hickups
You mentioned that you had read some of the archives, but I will go over some
observations-and-concerns.  I will be quite interested to see if you experience
any or all of these.
Yes the ' is quite messed up.
Next, even with a dectalk express as well, if we reboot and the first time we
encounter a capital which raises pitch, the regular pitch moves down until the
next reboot.
Unless you interrupt speech in the first 1 second, you may not be able to for 8
or 10 seconds while reading or cursoring.
I cannot switch to single digit numbers.
If there are letters and numbers or numbers and punctuation in the same word,
the dectalk reads them all charactor by charictor.
Lastly Adam, if you ever get your dectalk running with YASR, please let me
know.
Thanks for listening
Hart

Re: Help! The Dectalk PC is hosing my clock!

[Adam Myrow]

Actually, I haven't had any trouble silencing the Dectalk PC.  So, at
least that isn't giving me any problems.  As to the idea that it may be
the CMOS clock, I don't think so.  For one thing, Linux only uses the CMOS
clock to initialize the time.  After that, it runs on its own, essentially
ignoring the CMOS clock until you shut down the system, or manually run
the hwclock command.  The exception is that supposedly, the kernel updates
the CMOS clock every 11 minutes if NTPD is running and has declared the
time to be syncronized.  Most of this is discussed in the Clock
Mini-howto.  Speaking of the clock, do those weird messages show up if you
compile enhanced RTC support into the kernel?

Re: Help! The Dectalk PC is hosing my clock!

[Charles Crawford]

	I was using the dectalk PC for awhile in a computer last fall.  
It worked fine with Redhat 9 and I don't recall any clock problems.  I 
don't remember the Kernel version but probably 2.4.

On Sun, 2 May 2004, 
Adam Myrow wrote:

> Well, after getting the Dectalk PC2 driver working with Speakup, I never
> expected this.  When I'm actively using the Dectalk PC, my clock starts
> wondering into the sunset.  For example, by the end of the day yesterday,
> it was about 3 minutes slow.  Today, as a test, I set it and then ran a
> loop of having ntpdate query the time from time.nist.gov every 60 seconds.
> I had it set to query without setting the clock, so I could see how far it
> was drifting.  The offsets over just 3 minutes are alarming!
> 
> 6.317230 seconds slow in minute one, 11.267927 seconds slow after 2
> minutes, 16.887154 seconds slow after minute 3, and so on.  If I leave the
> computer idle, with ntpd running to constantly adjust the time, it becomes
> stable, so it's clearly something that the Dectalk PC is doing.  Has
> anybody else had this problem?  For that matter, is anybody even using the
> Dectalk PC driver besides me?
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

-- 
-- Charlie Crawford

Re: Help! The Dectalk PC is hosing my clock!

[Adam Myrow]

I'm using kernel 2.4.26 under Slackware 9.1 if that helps.  Just to verify
that it is indeed the Dectalk, I turned off speech and used Brltty only to
read several emails, while repeating the same loop on another console of
comparing the date with the system clock.  It stayed stable.  As soon as I
started up the Dectalk speaking again, it started wondering again.  When I
started typing this message, it was within a few milliseconds, and is now
over 4 seconds off.  Since you were using it under Redhat, I'm wondering
if the Dectalk driver is tuned for Redhat's faster clock rate?  I recall
when Redhat 8 came out, they tweaked a value having to do with the clock
speed of the kernel or something, and a lot of people had to adjust
jiffy_delta and delay_time in Speakup to compensate because it caused
their synthesizers to be choppy.  I'm wondering if adjusting those values
might help?  My jiffy_delta is 50, and my delay_time is 500 now, which are
default values.

Re: Help! The Dectalk PC is hosing my clock!

[Charles Crawford]

I wish I could remember my Jiffy_Delta and delay settings but I think 
they were the default settings.  I do remember a bit of trouble in 
getting the dec pc to shut up with the control key but nothing serious.  
As was suggested by a message from someone else, I don't understand why 
you would have the problem you are having.  The only thing about which I 
can speculate is perhaps a hardware interupt issue?  

On Sun, 2 May 2004, 
Adam Myrow wrote:

> I'm using kernel 2.4.26 under Slackware 9.1 if that helps.  Just to verify
> that it is indeed the Dectalk, I turned off speech and used Brltty only to
> read several emails, while repeating the same loop on another console of
> comparing the date with the system clock.  It stayed stable.  As soon as I
> started up the Dectalk speaking again, it started wondering again.  When I
> started typing this message, it was within a few milliseconds, and is now
> over 4 seconds off.  Since you were using it under Redhat, I'm wondering
> if the Dectalk driver is tuned for Redhat's faster clock rate?  I recall
> when Redhat 8 came out, they tweaked a value having to do with the clock
> speed of the kernel or something, and a lot of people had to adjust
> jiffy_delta and delay_time in Speakup to compensate because it caused
> their synthesizers to be choppy.  I'm wondering if adjusting those values
> might help?  My jiffy_delta is 50, and my delay_time is 500 now, which are
> default values.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

-- 
-- Charlie Crawford