[time-nuts] Cesium Mechanical Chronometer

[Bob kb8tq]

Hi

There’s not a lot of “room” inside the typical Hamilton chronometer. Simply getting
an electronic drive gizmo inside (and wires out) would be a major task. Having it work
properly with the drive coming and going ….wow …. The detent setup is a very fiddly
bit in these devices. 

My *guess* is that a CSAC on a couple of batteries will run longer than the chronometer
(before it needs to be wound). If auto winding is part of the mix, that gets even more into the
… wow … region. 

Bob

> On Jan 30, 2020, at 10:49 AM, Tom Bales <tob.starhouse at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> And now for something completely different:  I am working on a quixotic
>> project to control a standard, detent-escapement marine chronometer (e.g.,
>> Hamilton 21) with a CSAC cesium atomic clock module.  Yes, I know this
>> makes no sense--but, then, we're timenuts.  I want the mechanical
>> chronometer to function normally if the CSAC signal, presumably a 1pps
>> pulse, is lost.  The CSAC will be GPS disciplined, so during normal
>> operation, with an operating GPS constellation, the time is referenced to
>> UTC via GPS; if GPS is lost, then the CSAC takes over and its 1pps signal
>> drives the chronometer; if all electronics are lost, the chronometer hangs
>> in as a mechanical chronometer.  Has anyone any experience with
>> electrically controlling (or disciplining) a marine chronometer?
>> 
>> 
> _______________________________________________
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at lists.febo.com
> To unsubscribe, go to http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com
> and follow the instructions there.