Hey all. I am really a complete beginner to Arduino. Have built some of the basic projects but now have an actual application I want to try and put an arduino to.
I have an old mantle clock which now has a quartz mechanism. I still have the old chime bar though and would love to get the clock to physically strike the chime every hour like it used to.
Have seen a project which uses a PC clock to strike a bell, which seems promising. Ideally though I want this to use a RTC to determine when to strike and then strike the correct number of times. Any suggestions for projects I could riff off??? Don’t even really know what’s out there, other than it feels like an old style doorbell mechanism would do the job.
You need to decide on a few things before you start your project.
Example
If you use a solenoid it requires a fare amount of current to operate.
Not good if this will be battery powered.
If you play a Midi file to a speaker current is much less.
Do you also have the old striker? What material is it made of? If you don’t have it, can you try different metals to discover what makes the best sound?
Thanks. I am near a socket so could easily run a USB cable to the clock if that’s an option. Not ideal but seems better than constant battery replacement and the clock is never really moved.
Then there is no way to get an original sound without using the cloth covered brass hammer. YOU need to design an mechanism to use that hammer and get it to move and strike the sounder coil. A solenoid might be one way. Others might be a motor and cam to move the striker. Or a motor and a crank. Or….
Thanks. That looks like it might work. Could use the servo to lift and drop the striker. Would just need a programme to pull the time and then rotate the servo the same number of times as hours.
A so called continuous (360°) servo can rotate, CW AND CCW.
As mentioned, these would need a micro switch to indicate a revolution has completed.
If you want to chime 6 times, you start the this kind of servo rotating, count the number of micro switch operations, when you get 6, you disconnect the servo.
YouTube has videos showing how to convert a regular servo to a continuous servo.
Ah ok. Good to know. Depends if I can get the servo to lift the hammer slowly and then “drop” it. In my head it was a 360 cam but that has its own issues.
You need to try the hammer operation by hand! Just dropping it will dampen any sound being created! You need to “STRIKE” the chime! Means hit it and retract the hammer immediately and hold it away from the chime.
So the current system holds the hammer about 1/4 inch from the chime. It is lifted and dropped by a cam. The hammer then drops past the point it sits, strikes and returns to the resting position, or is lifted again. Basically it uses the hammer arm like a spring I think. But if I am not able to lift the hammer as high I could emulate this with a small spring to hold the hammer off the chime. The spring would stretch on the drop and then be pulled back. Alternatively I could try some sort of piston type arrangement to “punch” the chime. Again though, pulling it back quickly will be the challenge.
I have an UNO at the moment from a beginner kit I got bought but it is currently a shutter speed tester for my cameras and only connects via USB B or an old style plug adapter. This one is USB C and has WiFi so am thinking it would be better for time pulling??
Yes , even an ESP32 is overkill since you will only use 1 Pin to strike the hammer.
I don't have a UNO R4 so can't say what is available in the Examples.
But since you already have the UNO WiFi R4 , play with it.
