I saw this clock that was a 72 link bicycle chain (each segment equals 10min) while I was searching looking for a new project and thought after seeing it (and its insane price tag) I'd give it a go...
My only real experience with the Arduino is doing a few basic led projects (cube, light bar and the like) Ive done a bit of research and found info on using an existing analog clock mechanism and controlling it via the Arduino but it has the ticking motion which I was not looking for, to wrap up my long winded question is there any way to get a smooth movement with out trial and error on getting the speed correct on the motor?
Any help would be very much appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
Well first off you can make that clock without an arduino, you just need to get a geared motor with a low speed and work out what cog size you need on it for the length of chain you want to use.
Alternately you could use a stepping motor driven from an arduino so you can drive it at any speed you want. You get 200 pulses per revolution so the movement is reasonably smooth. If that is not good enough for you you can get a micro stepping drive that will give you 16 micro steps per step giving you 3200 steps per revolution.
Start looking at stepping motors here:-
