Hi Nick:
One of my Self Winding Clock Co. (WU) clocks was taken down yesterday for
painting.
When put up one of the Ken's Clock Synchronizers was installed and the hands moved to align with the heart shaped cam it
uses, but it never worked.
The problem was it used a 4.5 Volt signal which can develop the current needed to pull the sync electromagnet the time
constant is far too slow.
I'm going to add a high voltage circuit with series resistor to get the time constant down one or two orders of
magnitude. The key to this is a PCB I make that holds 5 each 9V batteries connected in series, so I'll use one, two or
more of them to get the time constant down.
http://www.prc68.com/P/45VS.html
Before I had the 45 Volt Stick I was considering getting the needed high voltage by charging a cap a minute or two
before the top of the hour and discharging it through a resistor. Here's a video showing that would work.
http://www.prc68.com/I/SWCC.shtml#Experiments_Feb_2014_
Mail_Attachment --
Have Fun,
Brooke Clarke
http://www.PRC68.com
http://www.end2partygovernment.com/2012Issues.html
http://www.prc68.com/I/DietNutrition.html
Nick Sayer via time-nuts wrote:
On Oct 14, 2015, at 4:42 AM, billriches <bill.ric...@verizon.net> wrote:
Not milisecond time distribution but time related!
In the early half of the 1900s Western Union was in the time business. They
would rent businesses such as banks, office buildings, etc clocks for a few
dollars a month. These were pendulum wall clocks that had 2 #6 dry cell
batteries inside that would wind them every hour or so. The clocks were
connected to the WU telegraph line and for a minute before and after the
top of the hour all traffic on the circuit would stop. Exactly at the top
of the hour they would push a pulse of 50 ? volts or so over the line and it
would reset the clock to the top of the hour.
The WU standard time service goes back further than the turn of the 20th
century. It started in 1870.
I’ve always wanted to get my hands on one of those clocks and come up with a
circuit to recreate the synchronization signal for it, probably with a
Raspberry Pi running ntpd and a big ol’ MOSFET. The problem is that at this
point, those clocks are quite expensive once they’re reconditioned.
My understanding (perhaps incorrect) was that the sync pulse was once daily
and, as you said, would cause the hands to “snap” to 12. The trailing edge of
the pulse was synchronized and would release the clock to operate normally.
That they had something as accurate and widespread as it was so early is
astonishing.
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