JJY.js: Web Audio API based JJY transmitter

README.md

JJY.js: JJY time signal emulation/transmission library

Usage

1. Make sure that the watch/clock is configured to receive JJY 40 KHz signal (for most Casio Waveceptor/G-Shock watches, the easiest way is to enter the engineer menu by pressing Mode+Light+Receive and select J 40 reception mode, for all other watches you need to set the home city to Tokyo)
2. Make sure your device clock is in sync before running the emulator and the headphone volume is turned to the maximum.
3. From the page, run:

var jjy = JJY()
jjy.run()

The library automatically transcodes your local time into Japanese timezone regardless which timezone you're in.

To transmit a single timecode (Date object must be constructed in UTC) steadily: jjy.run(DateObject)

To change the waveform distortion parameter (for debug/wave experiment purposes), pass a numeric float value above 2 to JJY constructor (default is equal to 1/3 of current AudioContext sampling rate).

4. Start the reception and place the watch/clock close to device speaker or headphones.

Demo

A functional demo (with explanations of internal workings) of JJY.js is available at Fukushima web page. Press any key or click anywhere to start the transmission.

Upd. For the BLE-enabled Casio watch synchronization, see my RCVD project.

Upd 2. This project has finally been ported to Python 3.

jjy.js

/*
JJY.js: JJY time signal emulation/transmission library

Copyright (c) @plugnburn (831337.xyz) 2017
@license ISC
*/

function JJY(distorter) { //JJY constructor
  distorter = parseFloat(distorter)

  //create pre-filled constant array for efficient copying
  var codeProto = '200000000200000000020000000002000000000200000000020000000002'.split('').map(Number)

  function toBCD(val) {
    return val%10 + (((val/10)%10)<<4) + ((val/100)<<8)
  }

  function calcParity(val){
    var i = 0;
    while(val) {
      i ^= val & 1
      val >>>= 1
    }
    return i
  }

  function jjyTimecode(timeObj) { //generate a JJY timecode from any given Date object
    var ts = {
      min: toBCD(timeObj.getUTCMinutes()),
      hour: toBCD(timeObj.getUTCHours()),
      day: toBCD(Math.floor((timeObj - new Date(timeObj.getUTCFullYear(),0,0,0,0))/864e5)),
      year: toBCD(timeObj.getUTCFullYear() % 100),
      weekDay: timeObj.getUTCDay()
    }, timeCode = codeProto.slice();

    //populate minute
    timeCode[1] = (ts.min>>6)&1
    timeCode[2] = (ts.min>>5)&1
    timeCode[3] = (ts.min>>4)&1
    timeCode[5] = (ts.min>>3)&1
    timeCode[6] = (ts.min>>2)&1
    timeCode[7] = (ts.min>>1)&1
    timeCode[8] = ts.min&1
    //populate hour 
    timeCode[12] = (ts.hour>>5)&1
    timeCode[13] = (ts.hour>>4)&1
    timeCode[15] = (ts.hour>>3)&1
    timeCode[16] = (ts.hour>>2)&1
    timeCode[17] = (ts.hour>>1)&1
    timeCode[18] = ts.hour&1
    //populate day number
    timeCode[22] = (ts.day>>9)&1
    timeCode[23] = (ts.day>>8)&1
    timeCode[25] = (ts.day>>7)&1
    timeCode[26] = (ts.day>>6)&1
    timeCode[27] = (ts.day>>5)&1
    timeCode[28] = (ts.day>>4)&1
    timeCode[30] = (ts.day>>3)&1
    timeCode[31] = (ts.day>>2)&1
    timeCode[32] = (ts.day>>1)&1
    timeCode[33] = ts.day&1
    //populate parity bits
    timeCode[36] = calcParity(ts.hour)
    timeCode[37] = calcParity(ts.min)
    //populate year
    timeCode[41] = (ts.year>>7)&1
    timeCode[42] = (ts.year>>6)&1
    timeCode[43] = (ts.year>>5)&1
    timeCode[44] = (ts.year>>4)&1
    timeCode[45] = (ts.year>>3)&1
    timeCode[46] = (ts.year>>2)&1
    timeCode[47] = (ts.year>>1)&1
    timeCode[48] = ts.year&1
    //populate day of the week
    timeCode[50] = ts.weekDay>>2
    timeCode[51] = (ts.weekDay>>1)&1
    timeCode[52] = ts.weekDay&1
    return timeCode  
  }

  function getJJYTimeCode(timeObj) {
    var timeRep = timeObj || new Date(Date.now() + 324e5);
    return {
      bitCode: jjyTimecode(timeRep),
      cs: timeRep.getUTCSeconds()
    }
  }
  
  return {
    getTimeCode: getJJYTimeCode, //exposed for getting timecode information in non-browser environments
    run: function(tObj) { //browser-only function, requires Web Audio API support 
      var ctx = new (window.AudioContext || window.webkitAudioContext)(),
          sr = ctx.sampleRate,
          opFreq = 40000/3,
          rp = opFreq/sr, bufSet = [], pwm = [.8, .5, .2];
      if(isNaN(distorter) || distorter < 2)
        distorter = sr/3

      ctx.createBuffer = ctx.createBuffer || ctx.webkitCreateBuffer;
      ctx.createBufferSource = ctx.createBufferSource || ctx.webkitCreateBufferSource;
      performance.now = performance.now || performance.webkitNow || function(){return (new Date).getTime()}

      secondTick = (function(tm){
        var px = 0, py = 0, dx = 0;
        return function(cb){
          px = performance.now()
          setTimeout(function(){
            dx = (py = performance.now()) - px - tm
            px = py
            cb()
          }, tm - dx/2)
        }
      })(1000)

      // pre-populate the buffers
      for(var i=0;i<3;i++) {
        var sLen = sr*pwm[i];
        bufSet[i] = ctx.createBuffer(1, sLen, sr);
        var cData = bufSet[i].getChannelData(0);
        for(var k=0;k<sLen;k++)
          cData[k] = Math.floor(distorter*Math.sin(2 * Math.PI * k * rp))/distorter
      }
      // play back the timecode
      var renderMinute = function() {
        var sigInfo = getJJYTimeCode(tObj), currentIndex = sigInfo.cs,
            renderSecond = function() {
              secondTick(currentIndex<59 ? renderSecond : renderMinute)
              var bs = ctx.createBufferSource()
              bs.buffer = bufSet[sigInfo.bitCode[currentIndex]]
              bs.connect(ctx.destination)
              bs.start()
              currentIndex++
            }
        renderSecond()
      }
      renderMinute()
    }
  }
}

if(typeof module !== 'undefined' && module.exports && this.module !== module)
  module.exports = JJY()

I'm using a local copy of this script to broadcast a JJY signal from my desktop computer to an AirPort Express that sits on my WiFi network with a loop antenna connected to it. That works, and I can leave a watch in the loop antenna overnight and it will sync automatically. The one issue I'm having is that because of the transmission delay between the JJY emulation being generated on my desktop and the antenna receiving it, my watch syncs to a time 0.5 to 1.0 seconds behind the actual time. Can you please tell me what I would have to change in this script to add half a second or a whole second to the time it broadcasts? I don't want to have to learn enough JavaScript just to be able to make this one tiny change to one script. Thanks.

my watch syncs to a time 0.5 to 1.0 seconds behind the actual time. Can you please tell me what I would have to change in this script to add half a second or a whole second to the time it broadcasts? I don't want to have to learn enough JavaScript

But you should. Add the +500 or +1000 (in milliseconds, whatever you need) in the new Date(Date.now() + zoneDiff) constructor call, as in new Date(Date.now() + zoneDiff + 500).
Happy new year!

I came from the fukushima website. On the website it says

feel free to contact the author on GitHub.

I believe it would be more appropriate to replace the link with one to this gist, https://gist.github.com/plugnburn/52e8bc6e0367f6cc2dd9155a84ac7ced.

---

PS. Honestly I still don't get how the harmonics are maximized.

• The Japanese website linked from jjy.luxferre.top says some overdrive distortion is required to make the sine look a little more square, but since we have no instruction to maximize the volume I can't be sure that this sort of distortion happens. It also doesn't explain why square and triangle, which should contain more of that 3rd fundamental, doesn't work.
• I don't quite get why the distorter should default to a value that's a multiple of the sample rate either. A higher sample rate should make the system better at reproducing a sine, which... I think should mean a stronger (lower number) distorter should be used??

I came from the fukushima website. On the website it says

feel free to contact the author on GitHub.

I believe it would be more appropriate to replace the link with one to this gist, https://gist.github.com/plugnburn/52e8bc6e0367f6cc2dd9155a84ac7ced.

Hello, yes, that page is quite old, will be updated soon. Also, a Python port (with pyaudio or something) is being planned to use this algorithm on headless systems.

PS. Honestly I still don't get how the harmonics are maximized.

* The Japanese website linked from jjy.luxferre.top says some overdrive distortion is required to make the sine look a little more square, but since we have no instruction to maximize the volume I can't be sure that this sort of distortion happens. It also doesn't explain why square and triangle, which should contain more of that 3rd fundamental, doesn't work.

* I don't quite get why the distorter should default to a value that's a multiple of the sample rate either. A higher sample rate should make the system better at reproducing a sine, which... I think should mean a stronger (lower number) distorter should be used??

I'm not sure either, this came out as a result of experiments with some Casio watches: pure sine and pure square don't work as expected, the best performance is achieved somewhere in between. Feel free to experiment with other waveforms. But yes, it is assumed that the headphone volume is put to the max. I've updated this gist to reflect this requirement.