[time-nuts] Re: Crazy Clock

[Greg Maxwell]

I have a GPS 'synced' analog clock.  I'm using an old synchronous
motor clock and driving it with 90vac generated by an old synthesizer
clocked off my house 10MHz feeding a bipolar amplifier.  I think this
is essentially the same setup as TVB mentions at
http://leapsecond.com/pages/atomic-nixie/

Here's the clock in my home office:

https://nt4tn.net/clock/clock.jpg

Here is the equipment on the other side of the wall supporting it.

https://nt4tn.net/clock/equipment.jpg

Of course, it only sets the frequency frequency not time... but you
can just set the time of the clock via mk1 eyeball to whatever
precision you like and once its set it keeps time.

I've also had fun running the clock on mars time when the rovers were
the current thing and (more often) sidereal time for astronomy.

I'm not sure I'd recommend this approach in that it draws a lot of
power and ties up otherwise more flexible equipment (and noisy).  I
put it into place expecting to replace it with some dedicated 'fake
mains'  (like... running a wall wart transformer in reverse from a
dedicated little synthesizer and an audio amplifier) but have never
gotten around to it.  The power usage is an actual issue too since it
gets in the way of providing long lasting backup power.

One great thing about using synchronous motor clocks and a fake mains
is that you could easily support a bunch of clock this way and there
are many interesting synchronous motor clocks that exist.


On Thu, Dec 15, 2022 at 5:10 AM Bob Camp via time-nuts
<time-nuts at lists.febo.com> wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> I realize that this is a bit of an odd project, but this is Time Nuts …..
>
> I want a analog wall clock that reads out GPS time. As far as I can tell, nobody
> is crazy enough to make one and sell it in the open market. If indeed there is
> one out there, that would be great. This does not have to be a project.
>
> If it is a project, I’m lazy, I don’t want to set the thing and then count on it never
> missing a beat. I want a movement that has some form of feedback. The
> WWVB clocks have a movement like this. I could tear one apart and try to
> reverse engineer the guts. That sounds like. a project inside a project.
>
> Does anybody sell feedback movements like this in the hobby market? If so has
> anybody used one and can vouch for it working for more than a few months?
>
> Indeed, doing it with a display of some sort would be easier in some respects.
> For now at least, I’m looking for a mechanical gizmo with hands that move.
> If it reads out 12 hour time that’s ok. 24 hour time would be super cool, but
> it’s not vital.
>
> Anybody know of a source?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Bob
>
> _______________________________________________
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at lists.febo.com
> To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave at lists.febo.com