Calling all physicists! How does my computer interfere with my Chronos chess clock???

[123RICEandSHINE]

Must be the magnets in the woofer

[tedkanode123]

thanks

[mikiecbr]

The buttons respond to the change in capacitance. Since the macbook 's casing is a large piece of aluminium, the sensor cannot detect the variation caused by your finger.

[GMSamuelRhine]

@mikiecbr ah no wonder you barely have to touch the sensor, these things are great

[gavin32]

magnet of sub woofer?

[jacker372]

everything that runs on energy has an electromagnetic field so a computers electric field interferes with the one the you create . test it by making a mini electro-magnet

[Neuromancer1943]

Van Eck Phreaking

[dodgedurango12345678]

It's the magnetic field from the pc interfering with the clocks magnetic field. The same thing would probaly happen if u put it next to a playing speaker trust me nothing wrong with ur clock man

[charlieeasy]

I am having the same issue with my Chronos II when it is near an old Sony 4.5v transformer for for a radio. It was crazy making for a while and I thought I needed a new clock.

[archiemedes42]

My hypothesis: Apple was lazy again and didn't use cables where current flows both ways in the wires in the cable, so a magnetic field is created. I don't think there's any "interference." It's just Lenz's law...

[richiefrost]

as the contact point could as when you get it closer to the computer. could charge the metalic buttons on top of your chess clock. an equal charge to both switchs. hmm maybe :)

[richiefrost]

well there is a lot of stuff in our computer that could interfere with it. as all know. you put our cell phone near it the PC. the pc an the cell act up. Em field an other such components could cause....could.. could cause this. I never did hear many talk about this Em field an such subject of what you had encountered. :) kewl

[PBnFlash]

I have no experience with the chronos chess clock, or any chess clock for that matter. However it looks to me that the "buttons" on ether side are not buttons in the classical sense but rather detect electromagnetic disturbances in the metal plate on top, like a laptop touch pad. If this is the case, it seems likely that one of a few things may be happening.

1 The aluminum case of the laptop is grounded and is bleeding off the charge (I doubt it; just unplug the power cable to test)

[PBnFlash]

@PBnFlash

2 An AC transformer is inducing a small charge in the button and that's preventing it from registering. (try another transformer like a wall wart)

I'm almost certain that it is EM interference.

as an aside I've never pulled one of those macbooks apart before but in the earlier ones that is where the hard drive was and the speaker coil on the HDD arm might but messing with it.

[EYE2EYE3]

i think its the magnets that hold your laptop closed

[InfinitiM13]

Hmmm. I'm thinking that the computer speakers magnets are disrupting the metal pads. They are pulling the electrons close to the computer side of the metal pad, and therefore, they cannot move. So the circuit isn't completed, making it so that the clock doesn't switch.