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Timegraphing approach for an anniversary clock (400 day clock)?


Dmitry

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Hello Team,

got my hands on my first anniversary clock. Definitely not the last as I am impressed with the simplicity and efficiency of the mechanism. It is likely an acquired taste.

The question I have deals with the final tuning of the clock once it is in beat and running. Since it only goes through about 8 clicks a minute, fine-tuning it is time consuming. One will have to wait hours in order to determine the final adjustment.

Are there any other more effective approaches to show the loss/gain immidiately, similarly to a timegrapher? I am thinking of something like recording the audio file and then evaluating this file in order to determine current timing and therefore projected gain or loss. Anything like this out there?

Since I plan to put the lid on it and only wind it once a year, the timing needs to be near-perfect.

Thank you.

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15 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

Are there any other more effective approaches to show the loss/gain immidiately, similarly to a timegrapher? I am thinking of something like recording the audio file and then evaluating this file in order to determine current timing and therefore projected gain or loss. Anything like this out there?

justice for watches they have a whole bunch of their own timing devices here's a couple ideas to get you started

https://www.bmumford.com/mset/

https://minnesotawatches.com/timing-a-clock-with-the-timetrax-185/

https://adamsbrown.com/wordpress1/timetrax-timers/

 

 

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This is all good stuff. I was going to start a similar thread asking about timing and beat monitoring (But just for standard clocks) I wondered, in these modern times is there an app that works as well? and how do others monitor the beat and calculate if it's correct etc.

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15 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Hello Team,

got my hands on my first anniversary clock. Definitely not the last as I am impressed with the simplicity and efficiency of the mechanism. It is likely an acquired taste.

The question I have deals with the final tuning of the clock once it is in beat and running. Since it only goes through about 8 clicks a minute, fine-tuning it is time consuming. One will have to wait hours in order to determine the final adjustment.

Are there any other more effective approaches to show the loss/gain immidiately, similarly to a timegrapher? I am thinking of something like recording the audio file and then evaluating this file in order to determine current timing and therefore projected gain or loss. Anything like this out there?

Since I plan to put the lid on it and only wind it once a year, the timing needs to be near-perfect.

Thank you.

Be aware that 400 day clocks, are not the best time keepers.

An 8 day clock, that gains/loses 10 minutes a week, is corrected at each winding, and is considered a good time keeper.

400 day clock, gaining/losing 5 minutes a week, is very soon a "bad" time keeper.

For 400 day clocks, it is best to wind them up every quarter day (4 times a year) so's not to try and use the total range of the spring.  Bearing in mind the age of these clocks,the last spring driven ones were made in the 1960's/early 70's, and many are pre WW1.

 

Bod

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27 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

Don't know about these modern ones only to say they are expensive.

they're expensive if you purchase them new unless a course you using it all the time that would pay for itself in no time otherwise you pick them up off of eBay used.

You do have to be careful though the Microset they all look the same but come in different versions some of the versions can be upgraded their earliest one can not and unfortunately that is what I purchased

TimeTrax is been around for a long time that they have a whole bunch of different units with all sorts of different features.

then there's DIY found at the link below.

https://mesterhome.com/timer/

 

 

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10 hours ago, HectorLooi said:

Wow! Phd in electronics needed to build that!

if you've been following the DIY  watch timer discussion in a lot of ways this isn't bad because you do get a circuit board. But if you compare at the things like Microset then yes it does look pretty complicated. Somewhere should have a TimeTrax pic sure the problem with TimeTrax is I have too many machines the photograph and they evolved over time but I do have some Microset pictures so you can see how simple they look at versus the DIY featured above. Clock timers really aren't all that complicated you just need a pickup a processing circuitry and a microprocessor. in other words you are trying to measure amplitude which requires a little more circuitry you just want to receive the ticking sound or perhaps pick it up optically which is another popular method bypassed the picking up the ticking and risking picking up the ways in the room etc.

ct-ms1.JPG

ct-ms2.JPG

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This would be relatively easy using an Arduino.  For a pendulum clock, why not use a laser and photosensor to avoid problems with noise?  I will ponder.  This is something I have wanted to do for a long time, but it gets pushed back in the queue in lieu of other interesting projects.

A 400 day clock using a laser and photosensor...hmmm...an interesting problem in optics.  As with the timegrapher...the interesting part is the sensor.

Edited by LittleWatchShop
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I have serviced/ repaired many 400 day clocks and I have found them extremely accurate. However I have said this many times on this forum they have to be absolutely correct, no worn bushes, the suspension spring must be the correct strength with no kinks/ twists, in beat and perfectly clean with polished pivots. 

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20 minutes ago, clockboy said:

I have serviced/ repaired many 400 day clocks and I have found them extremely accurate. However I have said this many times on this forum they have to be absolutely correct, no worn bushes, the suspension spring must be the correct strength with no kinks/ twists, in beat and perfectly clean with polished pivots. 

I totally agree.

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3 hours ago, LittleWatchShop said:

This would be relatively easy using an Arduino.  For a pendulum clock, why not use a laser and photosensor to avoid problems with noise? 

other then the Arduino there are other clock/watch hardware-based timing machines that do have lasers photo sensors etc. I used didn't list them because I didn't know if they were still in business. But it really would be nice to have an open source Arduino -based timing machine that may be improved upon the stuff of the past. Because to be honest I find a lot of the clock timing machines kind of a pain to use.

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Whilst on the subject of using technology for regulation of clocks I use an amazing app “ClockMaster”.  I don’t know if it would work with a 400 day clock but it is really useful. I have a beat rate chart for French clocks but of others a calculation is required. However if signed up to the pro version you have access to a data base of beat rates. 
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez4e8BwuXzs

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