Spring Break
Campus clocks spin forward one hour following technical snafu Wednesday
Diego Abeloos
Daily Staff Writer
- Page 1 of 1
An error in the electrical system that runs most of the clocks at SJSU caused some wall-mounted clocks in campus buildings to jump ahead by one hour, according to Dan Jansen, electrical shop supervisor for Facilities Development and Operations.
Jansen said the problem surfaced at approximately 10:30 a.m. when testing was done on a damaged underground cable that runs all of the Science building clocks.
"All the clocks are on a master system that automatically corrects the time and it corrects for daylight savings," Jansen said. "The cable was cut to the Science building during construction of (the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Joint Library). So, when we went to repair it today, we sent a short test signal down to the system and that caused the clocks to go ahead one hour."
Jansen said the system sends a six-second signal every hour to the clocks on campus to set every one on the exact same time. Jansen added that the system mistook the three-second test signal for a six-second signal, causing some of the more sensitive clocks to move forward by an hour.
"(Wednesday) at six o'clock, the system will correct itself," Jansen said Wednesday afternoon.
Jansen said the correction at 6 p.m. would be a 12-second signal that sets all clocks on the system to the exact time.
Deana Morris, a customer service representative for Facilities Development and Operations, said the office received two e-mails and five phone calls throughout the day to report the problem.
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