So to day I received a book on making wooden clock "Making Wooden Gear Clocks" so I turned to a simple clock for a Christmas gift for my nice age 5 I think. Anyway so I found this clock I wanted to make for here Electromagnetic gear clock.
But here is the kicker they supply a pulse drive generator in kit form for $47.00 plus P&P so the best part of $65.00 let's not forget I paid £9.00 for the book in the first place and I have to buy a kit from the USA and make it my self for $65.00+.
well I'm sat thinking I have a ardunio or two sitting in the garage so why not make your own.
well How do I do this? Arduino was bought in hopes my son would take up making and coding stuff but he has moved to Pie and not living at home now
I would love to make a simple pulse generator
Here is a link to the generator I need to make Electronics – carveshop.com
and the clock
I don't see how it generates very accurate pulses. I think it relies on the pendulum to have the correct period, and just keeps it going with pulses from its electromagnet.
I think the Arduino would do at least a good a job as that circuit, by using its 16MHz oscillator. It would not be fantastically accurate, but maybe better than a mechanical pendulum alone, unless the pendulum was very carefully and painstakingly adjusted by an expert clockmaker.
With the addition of an RTC module such as one based on ds3231 chip, an Arduino could make one of these mechanical clocks very accurate indeed, I think.
Have a google of “ master clock” , these are mechanical pendulum clocks that use contacts on the pendulum to give it a kick from an electro magnet to keep it running . In their day these were the accurate reference used in factories , schools etc .
You could use an optical pickup to perform the same function of sensing the pendulum position .
The pendulum is the source of the time keeping , driving it outside of its natural frequency may give odd results ?
Yes I have to add the pendulum and make a coil and add a magnet to the bottom of the pendulum I have ordered a L293D Motor Drive Shield for Arduino UNO , motor drive expansion board as well.
That dinosaur is a waste of energy. All you need is a Logic Level MOSFET and a diode for driving the coil. And don't forget the Hall sensor to detect the magnet transition.
Agree, don't waste your time with the L293D. In fact all you need is the left hand part of the original circuit, which provides a start signal out and a pendulum drive input. The Arduino can easily accommodate both. D5, C1 and C3 could be used to power the Arduino.
