IM getting my materials ready to print this!!! I have printed about 15 of your clocks so far. Absolutely amazing. My first clock I built (the easy build clock) has been running without stopped for 4 months now..
There are a few things I want to polish before releasing the design, but it is getting close. At my typical work speed and gaps for the holidays, it is a month or two away. It's good to hear that your easy build clock is still running. This clock uses a similar parts list plus the movement. I ordered several movements from eBay. They will be the first ones that come up when searching for "Pendulum Drive Unit". All of them came from China in about a month. They are all identical and stamped "Jinhong 5668". The other characteristic is that they have a coiled wire for the negative battery terminal. I ordered a different style from Amazon with a flat blade for the battery terminal. It has different electronics that would not work, so get the cheaper ones from eBay. They should arrive in time for the stl to be released.
I wanted to reach out to thank you for sharing your clock design. I recently 3D printed it, and it inspired me to create some changes . While testing the clock, I noticed that the pawls would sometimes pick up two teeth on the ratchet wheel, causing the clock to gain time. I did experimented with your assortment of pawls and could not resolve the problem. To address this issue, I modified the ratchet pawls assembly to prevent it from picking up two teeth on the wheel. I would be happy to share my modified design with you and collaborate to improve the clock's performance if you're interested. The modification allows the pawl to only pickup one tooth regardless of the amputate of the pendulum's swing. I is a very simple change and does not require any modification to the basic clock. I built two of these clocks and made the modification to both. They are working flawless. Leon
Challenge accepted. Simple estimates are 1 year of operation for the original pendulum driver swinging freely using one AA battery. It should last 6 months on two AA batteries, since the current would be doubled. C batteries have around 3X the capacity as an AA, so 18 months seems feasible. Maybe it is cheating to use larger batteries. 😀
I measured the current and calculate that over 400 days may be possible using AA batteries. The current is around 2mA for 50ms on every 500ms when the pendulum passes, so a 10% duty cycle with an average current of around 0.2mA. If an alkaline AA battery has a 2400mAH capacity, then the clock should run for 12000 hours or 500 days.
Steve, Just purchased the plans and ordered the pendulum movements. Still putting the finishing touches on my batch of silent desk clocks. Hope you have other plans in the works
Thanks. There are always a few clocks in progress. The completion rate seems to be about one finished design every 6 months. I may focus on some complex designs that could take even longer.
@@stevesclocks I'm pleased that you are doing electric powered clocks. While the mechanical ones are interesting, they are less appreciated as gifts, and I give away most of what I print. A number of you-tubers are going to be getting these
Steve, I really like this design, will you have an updated video? I'm having problems with the pawls, I can't seem to find the correct balance for the active pawl to get a single click and no doubles.
My clock seems to be the most stable when using the ratcheting static pawl. This seems to eliminate the missing ticks. The active pawl needs to be moved higher if you have double ticks. I will try to show it in a video, but it may be a while before I can post it.
@@woodwaker1 You must have a really large pendulum amplitude. The shorter active pawl clips can be used to position the active pawl closer to the pivot point. This should reduce the push on the ratchet so that it should not double tick unless the ratchet momentum carries it past the natural movement. A heavier static pawl might add enough friction to slow down the ratchet. Trim off part of the static pawl counter-weight or use the ratcheting static pawl.
@@stevesclocks Thanks for all of the tips. I Think I have a solution. I am using the small passive pawl and the longest active mounted at the top. I cut off about half of the active pawl counter weight to make the active part heavier. It was skipping a tooth - bouncing over. Now it seems to be working very well, 8 hours and within a minute. This is a great design and fun to build
Clock has been running 24 hours and is keeping correct time it took a lot of time to get it correct and a lot of Jack Daniels my family is very impressed as am I, two clocks down the 32-day clock set up for 8 days and the electromagnetic clock, now on to the Coup Perdu clock.
I am happy to hear that you have the clock working. The Coup Perdu should be a lot easier to get working, especially if you build it with the deadbeat escapement.
Huh i already have exactly this kind of pendulum drive module; It was in an exceptionally ugly clock that someone threw away, and i picked it up, it was full of silver-painted and blue plastic parts and a bunch of wooden dowels, unprocessed with splinters sticking out, stapled together, it certainly wasn't DIY, it was definitely mass manufactured, just with any lack of care for style or quality. Surprisingly, the movement in the clock was actually pretty good, it has DCF radio sync and is exceptionally quiet, it has to be worth a good chunk on its own; and someone in the family is actually using the clock part of the clock right now, just with offending styling and other pieces removed. This pendulum drive unit also reminds me of a number of 1€-store toys, that bob their head or their body or those maneki-neko cats that wave your arm at you that you see in Asian stores and restaurants.
Interesting. I will have to open up one of the head bobbing toys to see what is inside them. They have to be really low power to operate with such a tiny solar cell. I suspect that they use a simple timer circuit set close to the natural beat of the moving element. This clock sets the time based on the pendulum length. The magnet passing over the coil is detected and amplified to push the pendulum with additional energy. There is no radio sync.
@@stevesclocks There isn't much to be seen inside there because the semiconductors are gloptopped on units made today (the nekos made 20 years ago were still discrete circuitry i suppose) but you'll find an electrolytic capacitor and a coil very similar to this one, and a permanent magnet embedded into the moving part.
@@SianaGearz Maybe the 20 year old circuits have morphed into the pendulum drive modules of today. The circuitry only uses a few discrete components. I should trace out the schematic. The coil is probably the most expensive part. The gloptopped units would have to use simple timers to build a unit that can sell at the dollar store.
I have the clock clicking normal, the pendulum is clicking at 62 clicks per minute I am using the large active pawl clip with the long pawl. The pendulum bob is as low as it will go the bob is full of pennies, I was wondering if I should make the bob heavier.
The design is portable to wood gears with a few modifications. The gear profiles and other features in the MyMiniFactory design are optimized for 3D printing, and would need different optimizations to work in wood. I have built one and hope to release the design after I catch up on a few other projects.
@@stevesclocks hi, Steve. Thanks for your reply. I will buy this one and try to modificate the parts for laser cut. (But I am not sure about the weight difference between plastic gears and wooden gears.) I still want to try. If I can't achieve than wait for your wood design :)) (this is great news ) 😊✋
@@SuperPicasso05 The weight of the gears is almost insignificant in this clock. The motor is one gear away from the second hand. All other gears rotate slower, so each downstream gear uses less and less power.
Steve I was wrong on the clock going two or four ticks, watching it this morning for about 15 minutes it was clicking normal than all of a sudden it would click up to four times maybe three or four times in a row then it would settle down and ran okay for 30 minutes and then here we go again.
Steven, I have it all together and all the gears work great, after 2 attempts at getting working electronics I finally got a piece that works in its original housing, but then i put it in the clock, it barely moves it, it will slightly stutter so I know its doing something but doesn't move my pendulum, is there something I am missing?
Try Isolating the problem to the smallest possible test cases. Remove the ratchet and test that the pendulum swings for several minutes without power. Add the batteries and the pendulum should swing with a large amplitude. Then check for friction in the ratchet. Very little energy gets added with each pendulum swing so a tiny bit of ratchet friction can stall the pendulum. Check that the ratchet, minute hand, and hour hand stack is not pinching in the frame. The ratchet needs to be able to spin with minimal resistance.
@@stevesclocks I have one more question, I just realized my pendulum has a different 2 letter suffix then the one you show, what exactly do those mean?
@@sange777 It's might be a feature of MyMiniFactory's database management. If I make an update, MMF will add a suffix even if the old obsolete part is deleted before the new part is uploaded. It should be OK.
@@stevesclocks No I ment on the ebay part, you listed Quartz Pendulum Drive Unit Module General Movements Clock Repair Accessories CA , I purchased Quartz Pendulum Drive Unit Module General Movements Clock Repair Accessories BD. IS there a difference in the CA vs BD? Also sorry for the questions and thanks for the quick replies
@@sange777 I have no idea what those last 2 digits mean. It could be a code for the seller to find parts in their warehouse. It should be the correct one if you can see a coiled battery clip. The one with a flat battery clip will probably not work. It is a coin toss if they do not show the battery clip.
I have printed the clock and it turned out awesome the only problem is it is too fast I have lowered the pendulum bob all the way to the bottom in 12 hours it is gains 15 minutes
Is it double ticking? Two double ticks per minute would add up to a lot of extra time. The pawls would need to be raised higher to fix this issue. Another possibility is the bob being too light so the effective length is much shorter than expected. Calculations say the bob should be lowered 0.4" (1.1cm) to slow the clock down 30 minute per day. A hollow bob would need even more adjustment because of the weight of the pendulum arm.
This video is not representative of the clock files I purchased the active pawls and static pawls are not the same, is there a video of the clock I bought.
There are multiple static and active pawls in the STL files. Each clock will have different pendulum amplitudes that will need different pawl lengths and positions. The configuration shown in the video for my clock is not always going to be the best for your clock. I have found this clock to be a bit sensitive to position and it does take some experimentation to find something that works reasonably well. Good luck.
sigh. they didnt have transistors when my grandfather built his... or rare earths... not sure AA was even a thing, mum says something about big dry cells, so i assume those large carbon zincs for glow engines... just a solenoid and a chunk of steel on the pendulum, and a contactor up top. not the best as it appears to switch for the entire duration of one swing... blowing the dust off, restoring it... about time i saw it work myself.. still refuse to use this silly modern crap. i hate solid state electronics. personal grudge against magic smoke :) a little toggle/ inverted Y plate that over centers left and right activated by the pendulum, two pins that engage with a switch mounted to the pendulum so its pulsed just as it approaches solenoids, then overcenters and switches off ready for the return stroke... didnt have diodes back then either! and as neons seem rather time-period suitable... its getting a backlit display using the backspike from the solenoids :) what else is weird about this clock? uses a crown wheel for the ratchet/escape mechanism. teeth at right angles. and then a worm gear reduction...
It keeps great time when the pawls are adjusted properly. 1-2 minutes per week would be normal in this case. The risk is if the pawls are off, then it can either skip a tick or double tick and the time can be off by maybe 15 minutes per day. None of my other clocks have this risk. For example, the Coup Perdu with the deadbeat escapement option is a similar size and will always be 1-2 minutes per week.
This has gotto be the coolest channel I randomly ran into on RUclips
I like the simplicity of this electrical driven mechanical clock
The knob to adjust the time is a nice addition
Nicely done!
IM getting my materials ready to print this!!!
I have printed about 15 of your clocks so far. Absolutely amazing.
My first clock I built (the easy build clock) has been running without stopped for 4 months now..
There are a few things I want to polish before releasing the design, but it is getting close. At my typical work speed and gaps for the holidays, it is a month or two away.
It's good to hear that your easy build clock is still running. This clock uses a similar parts list plus the movement. I ordered several movements from eBay. They will be the first ones that come up when searching for "Pendulum Drive Unit". All of them came from China in about a month. They are all identical and stamped "Jinhong 5668". The other characteristic is that they have a coiled wire for the negative battery terminal. I ordered a different style from Amazon with a flat blade for the battery terminal. It has different electronics that would not work, so get the cheaper ones from eBay. They should arrive in time for the stl to be released.
Hi,
What about the accuracy of your clock in 4 months? is there any time deviation?
I wanted to reach out to thank you for sharing your clock design. I recently 3D printed it, and it inspired me to create some changes . While testing the clock, I noticed that the pawls would sometimes pick up two teeth on the ratchet wheel, causing the clock to gain time. I did experimented with your assortment of pawls and could not resolve the problem. To address this issue, I modified the ratchet pawls assembly to prevent it from picking up two teeth on the wheel. I would be happy to share my modified design with you and collaborate to improve the clock's performance if you're interested. The modification allows the pawl to only pickup one tooth regardless of the amputate of the pendulum's swing. I is a very simple change and does not require any modification to the basic clock.
I built two of these clocks and made the modification to both. They are working flawless. Leon
Can't wait to download it 😍😍
Just bought the plans for this and will go nicely with the other silent clock (Plans) I bought from you which is working well // Keep up the good work
I am waiting it to be uploaded. Thank you Steve, awesome design!
I think I will be saving up and getting this. This just seems like such a cool little clock.
steve you have the potential to make a 3d printed mechanical clock that runs for 400 days. i believe in you
Challenge accepted. Simple estimates are 1 year of operation for the original pendulum driver swinging freely using one AA battery. It should last 6 months on two AA batteries, since the current would be doubled. C batteries have around 3X the capacity as an AA, so 18 months seems feasible. Maybe it is cheating to use larger batteries. 😀
I measured the current and calculate that over 400 days may be possible using AA batteries.
The current is around 2mA for 50ms on every 500ms when the pendulum passes, so a 10% duty cycle with an average current of around 0.2mA. If an alkaline AA battery has a 2400mAH capacity, then the clock should run for 12000 hours or 500 days.
Steve, Just purchased the plans and ordered the pendulum movements. Still putting the finishing touches on my batch of silent desk clocks. Hope you have other plans in the works
Thanks. There are always a few clocks in progress. The completion rate seems to be about one finished design every 6 months. I may focus on some complex designs that could take even longer.
@@stevesclocks I'm pleased that you are doing electric powered clocks. While the mechanical ones are interesting, they are less appreciated as gifts, and I give away most of what I print. A number of you-tubers are going to be getting these
Steve, I really like this design, will you have an updated video? I'm having problems with the pawls, I can't seem to find the correct balance for the active pawl to get a single click and no doubles.
My clock seems to be the most stable when using the ratcheting static pawl. This seems to eliminate the missing ticks. The active pawl needs to be moved higher if you have double ticks.
I will try to show it in a video, but it may be a while before I can post it.
@@stevesclocks Thanks for the tips. I'm using the longest active pawl at the highest position and still getting double ticks.
@@woodwaker1 You must have a really large pendulum amplitude. The shorter active pawl clips can be used to position the active pawl closer to the pivot point. This should reduce the push on the ratchet so that it should not double tick unless the ratchet momentum carries it past the natural movement.
A heavier static pawl might add enough friction to slow down the ratchet. Trim off part of the static pawl counter-weight or use the ratcheting static pawl.
@@stevesclocks Thanks for all of the tips. I Think I have a solution. I am using the small passive pawl and the longest active mounted at the top. I cut off about half of the active pawl counter weight to make the active part heavier. It was skipping a tooth - bouncing over. Now it seems to be working very well, 8 hours and within a minute. This is a great design and fun to build
Love it ❤
Good job!
Clock has been running 24 hours and is keeping correct time it took a lot of time to get it correct and a lot of Jack Daniels my family is very impressed as am I, two clocks down the 32-day clock set up for 8 days and the electromagnetic clock, now on to the Coup Perdu clock.
I am happy to hear that you have the clock working. The Coup Perdu should be a lot easier to get working, especially if you build it with the deadbeat escapement.
good job!!
Huh i already have exactly this kind of pendulum drive module; It was in an exceptionally ugly clock that someone threw away, and i picked it up, it was full of silver-painted and blue plastic parts and a bunch of wooden dowels, unprocessed with splinters sticking out, stapled together, it certainly wasn't DIY, it was definitely mass manufactured, just with any lack of care for style or quality. Surprisingly, the movement in the clock was actually pretty good, it has DCF radio sync and is exceptionally quiet, it has to be worth a good chunk on its own; and someone in the family is actually using the clock part of the clock right now, just with offending styling and other pieces removed.
This pendulum drive unit also reminds me of a number of 1€-store toys, that bob their head or their body or those maneki-neko cats that wave your arm at you that you see in Asian stores and restaurants.
Interesting. I will have to open up one of the head bobbing toys to see what is inside them. They have to be really low power to operate with such a tiny solar cell. I suspect that they use a simple timer circuit set close to the natural beat of the moving element.
This clock sets the time based on the pendulum length. The magnet passing over the coil is detected and amplified to push the pendulum with additional energy. There is no radio sync.
@@stevesclocks There isn't much to be seen inside there because the semiconductors are gloptopped on units made today (the nekos made 20 years ago were still discrete circuitry i suppose) but you'll find an electrolytic capacitor and a coil very similar to this one, and a permanent magnet embedded into the moving part.
@@SianaGearz Maybe the 20 year old circuits have morphed into the pendulum drive modules of today. The circuitry only uses a few discrete components. I should trace out the schematic. The coil is probably the most expensive part. The gloptopped units would have to use simple timers to build a unit that can sell at the dollar store.
Very nice!
Hi how do I get the cutting plans, congratulations on the work
It will take a few weeks for the plans to be published. The first set will be for a 3D printed clock. A wooden geared version might come a bit later.
I have the clock clicking normal, the pendulum is clicking at 62 clicks per minute I am using the large active pawl clip with the long pawl. The pendulum bob is as low as it will go the bob is full of pennies, I was wondering if I should make the bob heavier.
It is worth a try. This clock ended up being the fiddliest of all my designs. It always seems to need something adjusted.
Hi again
I want to buy and make one.
But I dont like 3d printed plastics, in general. I want to use wood. İs it possible?
The design is portable to wood gears with a few modifications. The gear profiles and other features in the MyMiniFactory design are optimized for 3D printing, and would need different optimizations to work in wood. I have built one and hope to release the design after I catch up on a few other projects.
@@stevesclocks hi, Steve. Thanks for your reply. I will buy this one and try to modificate the parts for laser cut. (But I am not sure about the weight difference between plastic gears and wooden gears.) I still want to try.
If I can't achieve than wait for your wood design :)) (this is great news ) 😊✋
@@SuperPicasso05 The weight of the gears is almost insignificant in this clock. The motor is one gear away from the second hand. All other gears rotate slower, so each downstream gear uses less and less power.
I am 3d printing in wood filament which has 30% wood in the filament looks awesome.
Steve I was wrong on the clock going two or four ticks, watching it this morning for about 15 minutes it was clicking normal than all of a sudden it would click up to four times maybe three or four times in a row then it would settle down and ran okay for 30 minutes and then here we go again.
Steven, I have it all together and all the gears work great, after 2 attempts at getting working electronics I finally got a piece that works in its original housing, but then i put it in the clock, it barely moves it, it will slightly stutter so I know its doing something but doesn't move my pendulum, is there something I am missing?
Try Isolating the problem to the smallest possible test cases. Remove the ratchet and test that the pendulum swings for several minutes without power. Add the batteries and the pendulum should swing with a large amplitude.
Then check for friction in the ratchet. Very little energy gets added with each pendulum swing so a tiny bit of ratchet friction can stall the pendulum. Check that the ratchet, minute hand, and hour hand stack is not pinching in the frame. The ratchet needs to be able to spin with minimal resistance.
@@stevesclocks I have one more question, I just realized my pendulum has a different 2 letter suffix then the one you show, what exactly do those mean?
@@sange777 It's might be a feature of MyMiniFactory's database management. If I make an update, MMF will add a suffix even if the old obsolete part is deleted before the new part is uploaded. It should be OK.
@@stevesclocks No I ment on the ebay part, you listed Quartz Pendulum Drive Unit Module General Movements Clock Repair Accessories CA , I purchased Quartz Pendulum Drive Unit Module General Movements Clock Repair Accessories BD.
IS there a difference in the CA vs BD? Also sorry for the questions and thanks for the quick replies
@@sange777 I have no idea what those last 2 digits mean. It could be a code for the seller to find parts in their warehouse.
It should be the correct one if you can see a coiled battery clip. The one with a flat battery clip will probably not work. It is a coin toss if they do not show the battery clip.
I have printed the clock and it turned out awesome the only problem is it is too fast I have lowered the pendulum bob all the way to the bottom in 12 hours it is gains 15 minutes
Is it double ticking? Two double ticks per minute would add up to a lot of extra time. The pawls would need to be raised higher to fix this issue.
Another possibility is the bob being too light so the effective length is much shorter than expected. Calculations say the bob should be lowered 0.4" (1.1cm) to slow the clock down 30 minute per day. A hollow bob would need even more adjustment because of the weight of the pendulum arm.
This video is not representative of the clock files I purchased the active pawls and static pawls are not the same, is there a video of the clock I bought.
There are multiple static and active pawls in the STL files. Each clock will have different pendulum amplitudes that will need different pawl lengths and positions. The configuration shown in the video for my clock is not always going to be the best for your clock. I have found this clock to be a bit sensitive to position and it does take some experimentation to find something that works reasonably well. Good luck.
Amazing👏👏👏
🔥💕😍👌👍
sigh.
they didnt have transistors when my grandfather built his... or rare earths... not sure AA was even a thing, mum says something about big dry cells, so i assume those large carbon zincs for glow engines...
just a solenoid and a chunk of steel on the pendulum, and a contactor up top. not the best as it appears to switch for the entire duration of one swing...
blowing the dust off, restoring it... about time i saw it work myself..
still refuse to use this silly modern crap. i hate solid state electronics. personal grudge against magic smoke :)
a little toggle/ inverted Y plate that over centers left and right activated by the pendulum, two pins that engage with a switch mounted to the pendulum so its pulsed just as it approaches solenoids, then overcenters and switches off ready for the return stroke...
didnt have diodes back then either!
and as neons seem rather time-period suitable... its getting a backlit display using the backspike from the solenoids :)
what else is weird about this clock? uses a crown wheel for the ratchet/escape mechanism. teeth at right angles. and then a worm gear reduction...
Hi, how well does this clock keep time?
It keeps great time when the pawls are adjusted properly. 1-2 minutes per week would be normal in this case. The risk is if the pawls are off, then it can either skip a tick or double tick and the time can be off by maybe 15 minutes per day. None of my other clocks have this risk. For example, the Coup Perdu with the deadbeat escapement option is a similar size and will always be 1-2 minutes per week.