public:watches:watchcheck
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Watchcheck Python code
I wrote a small python2 application to keep track of a watch/clock's daily rate error. It's a console-only mimic of an Android app that I use on my phone to track my watch timekeeping.
I wrote it mainly as a thought-experiment rather than as a fully functional piece of code.
You put the application in a directory specific to the watch and execute it from that directory. the data from each measurement is stored in a json file in the same directory.
- watchcheck.py
#! /usr/bin/env python ## a text-terminal version of the WatchCheck app ## to track error, daily error rate of timepieces. # auto update? # import time import datetime import json def write_file(text): filename = "logfile.txt" f = open(filename, 'a+') timenow = time.strftime("%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S", time.gmtime(time.time())) log = " ".join((timenow, text, "\r\n")) f.write(log) f.close() def get_delta(): print time.strftime("Current Time = %H:%M") h = time.strftime("%H") w = raw_input("Watch time %s:" % (h)) print w date = time.strftime("%Y/%m/%d") s = date + " " + h +":"+ w +":00" raw_input("Press enter when seconds = 0 ") watchtime = time.mktime(datetime.datetime.strptime(s, "%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S").timetuple()) record_time = time.strftime("%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S") timenow = time.time() delta = watchtime - timenow return record_time,delta def watch_stat(): try: saved_error = open('error_list.json') error_list = json.load(saved_error) except: error_list = [] if len(error_list) > 1: first_record = error_list[0] latest_record = error_list[-1] previous_record = error_list[-2] first_time = first_record[0] first_delta = first_record[1] latest_time = latest_record[0] latest_delta = latest_record[1] previous_time = previous_record[0] previous_delta = previous_record[1] FMT = '%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S' t_latest = datetime.datetime.strptime(latest_time, FMT) t_previous = datetime.datetime.strptime(previous_time, FMT) t_first = datetime.datetime.strptime(first_time, FMT) tdelta = t_latest - t_previous full_delta = t_latest - t_first elapsed_time = tdelta.total_seconds() full_time = full_delta.total_seconds() print "First record time ", first_time print "First record delta ", first_delta print "" print "Previous record time ", previous_time print "Previous record delta ", previous_delta print "" print "Latest record time " , latest_time print "Latest record delta ", latest_delta print "" print "Overall elapsed time ", full_delta print "Latest elapsed time ", tdelta print "" # Current Error rate time_error = latest_delta - previous_delta error_rate = time_error / elapsed_time daily_rate = error_rate * (60*60*24) ppm_daily = error_rate * 1000000 # Overall Error rate total_error = latest_delta - first_delta average_error_rate = total_error / full_time average_rate = average_error_rate * (60*60*24) ppm_overall = average_error_rate * 1000000 print "Latest delta change ", time_error print "Latest elapsed time %d seconds " % (elapsed_time) print "" print "Daily PPM : %0.3f" % ppm_daily print "Daily rate error: %0.1f s/d " % (daily_rate) print "" print "Total Time %d seconds" % (full_time) print "Total error ", total_error print "Total PPM : %0.3f" % ppm_overall print "Total rate error: %0.1f s/d" % (average_rate) print "" print "========================================================" print " Delta : %+0.1f s | Rate : %+0.1f s/d | Average : %+0.1f s/d" % (latest_delta, daily_rate, average_rate) print "========================================================" print "" text = "\t%+0.1f\t\t%+0.1f\t\t%+0.1f" % (latest_delta, daily_rate, average_rate) write_file(text) else: print "No rate yet" def new_record(): try: saved_error = open('error_list.json') error_list = json.load(saved_error) except: error_list = [] s,delta = get_delta() print "" print "%s \n\nDelta %0.1f seconds" % (s, delta) last_data=[s,delta] error_list.append(last_data) #print error_list with open('error_list.json', 'wb') as outfile: json.dump(error_list, outfile) return def delete_last(): try: saved_error = open('error_list.json') error_list = json.load(saved_error) except: error_list = [] error_list.pop() with open('error_list.json', 'wb') as outfile: json.dump(error_list, outfile) return def menu(): print "Wire2waves WatchCheck....." print "=========================\n" print "N : New Record\nD : Delete Last\nS : Stats\nQ : Quit\n" choice = raw_input("Command > : ").upper() if choice == "N": print "New" new_record() watch_stat() menu() elif choice == "S": print "Stat" watch_stat() menu() elif choice == "D": delete_last() watch_stat() menu() elif choice == "Q": return else: print "?" menu() menu()
Running it for the first time, with no previous records stored, looks like this:
Wire2waves WatchCheck..... ========================= N : New Record D : Delete Last S : Stats Q : Quit Command > : n New Current Time = 10:18 Watch time 10:19 19 Press enter when seconds = 0 2022/05/04 10:19:30 Delta -30.2 seconds
and the first time-delta is stored in the error_list.json file like this:
[["2022/05/04 10:19:30", -30.179980039596558]]
Running it again, after only 10 minutes looks like this:
Command > : n New Current Time = 10:30 Watch time 10:30 30 Press enter when seconds = 0 2022/05/04 10:30:30 Delta -30.2 seconds First record time 2022/05/04 10:19:30 First record delta -30.1799800396 Previous record time 2022/05/04 10:19:30 Previous record delta -30.1799800396 Latest record time 2022/05/04 10:30:30 Latest record delta -30.1998269558 Overall elapsed time 0:11:00 Latest elapsed time 0:11:00 Latest delta change -0.0198469161987 Latest elapsed time 660 seconds Daily PPM : -30.071 Daily rate error: -2.6 s/d Total Time 660 seconds Total error -0.0198469161987 Total PPM : -30.071 Total rate error: -2.6 s/d ======================================================== Delta : -30.2 s | Rate : -2.6 s/d | Average : -2.6 s/d ========================================================
The error_list.json file now looks like:
[["2022/05/04 10:19:30", -30.179980039596558], ["2022/05/04 10:30:30", -30.199826955795288]]
There's also a small utility called watchstat.py that reads the error_list.json file to calculate and
display the data
- watchstat.py
#! /usr/bin/env python ## a text-terminal version of the WatchCheck app ## to track error, daily error rate of timepieces. # import time import datetime import json def watch_stat(): try: saved_error = open('error_list.json') error_list = json.load(saved_error) except: error_list = [] if len(error_list) > 1: first_record = error_list[0] latest_record = error_list[-1] previous_record = error_list[-2] first_time = first_record[0] first_delta = first_record[1] latest_time = latest_record[0] latest_delta = latest_record[1] previous_time = previous_record[0] previous_delta = previous_record[1] FMT = '%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S' t_latest = datetime.datetime.strptime(latest_time, FMT) t_previous = datetime.datetime.strptime(previous_time, FMT) t_first = datetime.datetime.strptime(first_time, FMT) tdelta = t_latest - t_previous full_delta = t_latest - t_first elapsed_time = tdelta.total_seconds() full_time = full_delta.total_seconds() print "First record time ", first_time print "First record delta ", first_delta print "" print "Previous record time ", previous_time print "Previous record delta ", previous_delta print "" print "Latest record time " , latest_time print "Latest record delta ", latest_delta print "" print "Overall elapsed time ", full_delta print "Latest elapsed time ", tdelta print "" # Current Error rate time_error = latest_delta - previous_delta error_rate = time_error / elapsed_time daily_rate = error_rate * (60*60*24) ppm_daily = error_rate * 1000000 # Overall Error rate total_error = latest_delta - first_delta average_error_rate = total_error / full_time average_rate = average_error_rate * (60*60*24) ppm_overall = average_error_rate * 1000000 print "Latest delta change ", time_error print "Latest elapsed time %d seconds " % (elapsed_time) print "" print "Daily PPM : %0.3f" % ppm_daily print "Daily rate error: %0.1f s/d " % (daily_rate) print "" print "Total Time %d seconds" % (full_time) print "Total error ", total_error print "Total PPM : %0.3f" % ppm_overall print "Total rate error: %0.1f s/d" % (average_rate) print "" print "========================================================" print " Delta : %0.1f s | Rate : %0.1f s/d | Average : %0.1f s/d" % (latest_delta, daily_rate, average_rate) print "========================================================" print "" else: print "No rate yet" watch_stat()
Running watchstat.py on the newly updated error_list.json
gm4slv@laptop:~/watchcheck_damasko $ python watchstat.py First record time 2022/05/04 10:19:30 First record delta -30.1799800396 Previous record time 2022/05/04 10:19:30 Previous record delta -30.1799800396 Latest record time 2022/05/04 10:30:30 Latest record delta -30.1998269558 Overall elapsed time 0:11:00 Latest elapsed time 0:11:00 Latest delta change -0.0198469161987 Latest elapsed time 660 seconds Daily PPM : -30.071 Daily rate error: -2.6 s/d Total Time 660 seconds Total error -0.0198469161987 Total PPM : -30.071 Total rate error: -2.6 s/d ======================================================== Delta : -30.2 s | Rate : -2.6 s/d | Average : -2.6 s/d ========================================================
watchcheck.py also creates a log file on each run.
04/05/2022 09:30:30 -30.2 -2.6 -2.6
The fields are “date time”, current error, error in seconds per day since last record, average error in seconds per day since the start.
This mimics the behaviour of the Android Watchcheck app
John Pumford-Green Wed May 4 09:09:09 2022
Page Updated : 06/03/25 06:49 GMT
public/watches/watchcheck.1651657497.txt.gz · Last modified: 06/03/25 06:49 GMT (external edit)