Re: Clock Project

On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 16:25:33 -0800, North Coast Igor top-posted:

Right, Ed. Time value is incremented by the escapement period time value.
(This is true of every mechanical clock, when you think about it.)

I didn't provide detail on the "escapement mechanism" b/c it's not
important regarding the portion I need help with. The Increment will be
many seconds and you understood perfectly. The "ecapement mechanism"
operates over a repeatable-enough period of time and THAT time period will
be the "increment".

My own thought since I described the problem is that instead of counters,
gates and DIP switches, a small microprocessor chip would be the easy way
to program the increment function (especially regarding
re-programmability). --probably cheaper, too.


First, you're supposed to bottom-post, to follow the natural flow of the
thread.

Given that, google "compound pendulum" - you'll find some really
impressive-looking designs for pendulums (pendula?) of practically
unlimited period, probably even adjustable ones.

Good Luck!
Rich



North Coast Igor - Marc
ehsjr wrote:
North Coast Igor wrote:
Thanks for the reply, Anthony.

You understood okay, but I was thinking of a complex escapement
mechanism that is amusing (?) to watch and has a period of many
seconds. Accuracy is not a goal here; the goal is more: "you can keep
time with THAT ?"

The latched increment input into a clock driver is the part for which
I'm seeking help.

Thanks again.

Marc

I'm lost on your description, too.
Do you want to _add_ the incremental value to the previously stored
value each interval?

Ed




Anthony Fremont wrote:

igorshump@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

Would like to build a digital clock with a long-duration mechanical
escapement ("artistic" part).

I found Bill Bowen's site

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Bill_Bowden/

and could probably decipher something here, but thought I'd try for
some advice/ shortcut.

I envision empirically determining the periodicity of my "escapement
mechanism" and inputting that time period into my clock via dip
switches.

I had to read this a couple of times before I got it (I think). If I
understand you, you want to use a pendulum of arbitrary length (and
arbitrary period) and then have this advance the clock mechanism the
correct amount for each swing. For example, say you used a 1 meter
long pendulum with a period of 2 seconds. You would want to advance
the the clock 2 seconds each cycle. Correct?


This number (not much resolution needed due to mechanical vagaries of
long-period escapement) would then be latched into the clock
electronics to provide the clock increment.

Not sure what you mean here, there is nothing vague about the motion
of a pendulum.


One could call this a "variable increment clock", I guess.

Could someone point me to a circuit that comes close to this?

Bryan Mumford has something like this going, but he uses a pendulum to
generate the pulses to an electrical drive system for the hands. He
keeps the pendulum going with magnetic impulses. The impulses are
triggered by the pendulum itself, so that the pendulum is the thing
actually keeping time.
http://www.bmumford.com/clocks/em2/index.html




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