I'd love to see you rig up a simple pendulum and get this working, then hang a scope off the coil to see the waveform :D Then disconnect that damping capacitor and see the effect it has
I just picked up a 70's Smith's carriage clock that uses this sort of circuit. In that case it isn't a pendulum but a spinning magnet attached to a balance wheel and escapement. I usually prefer fully mechanical clocks, although I do like the accuracy of quartz I try to avoid having too many quartz about the house. This clock I just got surprised me as it wasn't fully mechanical and certainly not quartz. It also has a lovely tick tock sound too.
Clive packing to go on a work trip looks like he is moving by the time he puts all the cameras and everything in there, lmao. Thanks for the video Clive
Used to be a company (Kundo) made clock in the 60s with this type of mechanism, although with germanium transistors, OC71 or similar. Must have looked like magic at the time.
Super interesting. It is almost like a tuned pwm or tuned mono stable device where the pulse turns on to suit the swing. Very effective & clever! Thank you for sharing!
Greetings Clive! Hope you are well. Yes I have been there too,, A swinging desk ornament of a couple swinging on a swing, there were loads of these knocking about Inthe 80's,, My swing originally had a Similar circuit as you described,, mine was not working,, I further screwed it up trying to get it working,, in the end I used an op amp and home made coil, I even replaced the 2xAA cells with a more convenient lipo cell & usb C charging port lasts about a month until it needs charging, strangely rewarding making the whole thing work after all these years,, You in part inspired the rebuild after I watched your (what could be done with lipo cells from vapes that had been thrown on street,, Thanks dude
What a coincidence, I was at BHI clock museum near Newark yesterday. Apart from The Speaking Clock and Greenwich Mean Time kit I loved the old Master Clock systems from a pendulum master like Pulsinetic and Gents of Lecester I maintained in big factories around Liverpool 50+ yrs ago
I have a Synchronome and a Gents Master clock. The Synchronome is ticking away and clicking away every 30 seconds on the wall behind me in our kitchen. The Gents was the Master clock in a Carpet Factory, 1949 vintage. The Synchronome is from 1914. I've no information about where it was installed. You must have had an interesting job.
@@alastairchestnutt6416 Part of an interesting career. Bonus of the time I worked on clocks was a weekend of overtime for changing BST. I got two hours for each site including travelling as I had to stop for an hour then restart. Of course I stopped one, went to next and stopped that and so on then returned to first to restart. Only risk was if security delayed me getting in at one site and I missed the hour so it took forever to catch up but I usually got 8 hours time +half Saturday double time Sunday for just over two hours work each day. The simple ones we could wind forward in spring but the electronic ones could go double speed and took an hour to add an hour so same trick.
This looks like a version of the classic Hartley oscillator. The centre tapped coil and 100nf capacitor form a resonant circuit. The larger capacitor and resistor are biasing. It would be interesting to see if the circuit resonates without a pendulum, and at what frequency. If we know the wire thickness, we could estimate the length of wire, number of turns, the inductance then estimate a resonant frequency for the tank circuit.
Years ago ( 1970s) there was a animated advertisement display at a Woolworth's store. It had one transistor, one resistor, one capacitor, and the coil. The swing arm had a magnet on it. It would run for months in a old school zinc carbon " D" size battery.
This circuit is similar to the joule thief or the blocking oscillator. As you suggest, the capacitor between base and collector must stop the circuit oscillating at a much higher frequency. The circuit likely operates on the edgy of stability. I have seen examples where the circuit has been used to phase lock a pendulum to a more accurate time signal, either a crystal or a radio time signal. I assume such circuits put a small bias on the pendulum so that it runs slightly slow, or maybe fast I can't really decide which, it must depend on the mode of operation. The circuit just pulls the oscillation into phase with the master time signal. In the example I was shown, the pendulum had an aluminium plate added to the end. This passed through a slot between two coils. When the coils were energised, the pendulum was slowed by induced eddy currents.
If the resistor's purpose really is to keep the transistor slightly biased on, I think the electrolytic capacitor's leakage current should be enough for that. Though I doubt such weak biasing is necessary at all in this application. Seems to me like the 1M resistor would be better used across BE to minimize Ice between pulses.
@@olsmokey I doubt base bias current is necessary at all in this application. As I wrote earlier, it would make more sense to me to use the resistor to pull the base low instead. The only reason to bias the transistor would be for faster turn-on speed vs completely off, though you'd need an exceptionally slow transistor for that to be an issue with a ~5ms pulse at ~1Hz.
@@eDoc2020 The AC coupling capacitor between Vbat, the base drive coil and the base is already charged to Vbat-Vbe in the static regime, which takes care of the 0.6V base voltage: Vb = Vbat + Vcoil - Vcap = Vbat + Vcoil - (Vbat - Vbe) = Vcoil + 0.6V. The only thing the coil needs to do is provide the base drive current.
@@teardowndan5364 But without the resistor the capacitor wouldn't be charged to the proper level. It would fire once and then the capacitor wouldn't let any more current into the base.
I keep hearing coil saturation in different videos, my experience with a current probe and hall sensor shows this not to be the case. Thanks for sharing. Also, i was a little surprised the coil is center tapped, most cases I have seen, the base side coil has many more turns (like the top secret spinning top), it does not have to be, but seems more tuned for efficiency.
In principle it might be neat to look at Bulova's "Accutron" watches, first sold in October 1960, They used use a 360 Hz tuning fork and transistor energised instead of a balance wheel as the timekeeping element, It was guaranteed to be accurate to a minute a month. Broken ones seem to go for as little as 15 quid.
rev counters are like 10 quid including stickers. experienced operators however, run the machine for 5 seconds and count the winds after. divide by 5 is winds per second. divide by 10 is per half second. thats usually about enough for human level hand/foot control accuracy. easy enough to trim a few winds off of the end result. :) you're welcome.
Homofaciens built a nice coil winding machine out of a 3d printer .. (which printed the bobbins first and then wound the wire on it.) .. but sewing machine is genius ! 👍
@@KNfLrPnHis pronunciation is almost like "fard" (even "fart" in some videos), whereas I think of the pronunciation as being more annunciated, like "far-ad".
The 100nF cap would damp if it was in parallel with the coil. As it is in series with the coil and the base of the transistor, it will actually decrease the rise time on the transistor switch (i.e. it will increase the frequency)
Great to see a youtube presenter considering where all those popups are going to appear at the end of the video, all too often those little windows pop up, obscurring important/intersting details on the main video!!
That's almost exactly the same circuit used in the battery operated Kit-Cat Klocks. It differs only in the placement of the 1M resistor and it uses a 22uF capacitor and runs off of 3V instead of 1.5V.
I'm guessing it'd be in something like those Felix the Cat clocks that were popular oh so many years ago, where the tail swung as the pendulum, and the eyes looked side to side too... :P
Hi Clive, maybe a dumb qestion, but anyway..... would it be useful in something called Swinging Sticks Sculpture? I am under some temptation to try to build it, so it would behelpful... Thanks, Stef
Yes, I've learned over the years the simple designs are the best. One or two transistors and a few components other than a tiny crystal driven timer chip. In fact, I used this same principal years ago to accelerate a round magnet to over 150,000 RPMs
The 100 nF capacitor is possibly fitted to pass a very brief pulse ( which the 1 M Ω cannot do ! ) ... in some circuits this is called a " speed up capacitor " ... ( ? ) ...... DAVE™ 🛑
As far as I know the pendulum side of things is purely for decoration. If you look next to the other, bigger, coil there's a crystal which will be providing the timing. That, along with the coil and (presumably) a blob, is the actual clock mechanism.
Hey Clive, what’s the right hand coil for with what appears to be a 32,768Hz crystal underneath it? Can this thing alter the timing of a swinging pendulum… oh no, I’ve just figured it out. It’s completely separate. There’s a quartz circuit for time keeping and the pendulum is just for show. Oh hell no, how hideous 🤦♂️
Hey Big Clive, I'm like a transistor ... although as I get older, it takes MORE than a little "bias" to my "base" to turn me on! ... And the "output" from my "emitter" isn't what it used to be! 😂
I think not, these are made for decorative purposes. You'd need to ramp up the power significantly to actually drive an actual clockwork. And when doing so you can go wild with an IR reflex sensor, a beefier electromagnet and transistor to go along with it.
No. The pendelum in a mechanical clock is there to do the timing. Each swing will let a gear turn one tooth for each swing (called the escapement mechanism of a clock). The power that actually turns the gear comes from the weights/springs. It's technically possible to make a ratchetting mechanism that would use the power of the moving pendelum. But that would be an extensive redesign of the whole clock which would require quite a lot of expertise in designing clock movements.
The big mystery is how this is stable enough for a clock, since slightly more current causes a longer swing, slightly less current causes a shorter swing. The amount of current depends on the precision of a lot of analog components, battery voltage.
I believe this circuit is for clocks where the movement is a quartz fit-up and the pendulum is purely decorative. Besides, the period of a pendulum depends solely on its length and not on the amplitude of its swing. Galileo is generally credited with discovering that.
It wouldn't take much to make a National Standards Lab based "pacemaker" to add to a conventional pendulum clock to replace Galileo. Add a microcontroller and GSM network module to reach the NS time server over the phone network.
@@johnopalko5223 While generally true for small swing amplitudes, Galileo was wrong about the independence of amplitude vs period. Larger swings are slower than smaller swings. Of course, the limit would be +- 180 degrees. Once 180 degrees the pendulum would stop at the top. (assuming a ridged pendulum. This is why precision pendulum clocks have the cycloidal mechanism at the fulcrum to effectively shorten the pendulum length with larger swings and called "isochronous". See wikipedia, redrok AD0TJ
Hi, is there anyway one could modify this circuit to be used in some sort of solenoid motor or a reed switch motor controller type thing? maybe with a joule thief circuit as well involved? take care and have a great day!
Hi Clive, a quick question maybe you could help me with. In regard to DC circuits, is there a difference between using a solid conductor or using a multi stranded conductor ? This is in regard to model railway using up-to say 25v DC at about 6 Amps for points, Lights etc. Also DCC train controllers that output 16 Volt up-to 8 Amps. Pulse Width Modulation. Not quite DC nor AC but more like On/Off pulses of DC. Any help in this regard would be appreciated. Thanks for your time. Alan
The main advantage is flexibility. Using stranded cable puts a lot less strain on things it's attached to. But solid core has its uses too. I use both.
It seems there is a bit of confusion here, with the difference between the schematic and the PCB. The PCB came from a clock and I assume the 'crotch' between the legs of the PCB was where the AA cell holder was originally. Right? The 2SC1815 comes in four current gain ranges: O, Y, GR, and BL. Please tell us which gain range it is. Thanks, Clive.
found my grandfathers clock. made it... 1930 maybe? its so weird, an axial ratchet escape gear, a worm gear reduction... and a solenoid driven pendulum. some terrible switch on the pendulum, appears to switch it so it retards the upswing as much as assist the down... and 50% duty... lol. meh. planning on giving it a little overcentering toggle, operate a set of switching reeds so it turns on just as its getting to the solenoids, toggles over ready for the return swing as it simultaneously turns off, then repeats... and dump the back spike into some neons around the face. pretty :) maybe distributed for hours/mins. no solid state allowed! well, i wanna stay period correct. except for threads. its getting metrics where needed.
How come this circuit doesn't self-oscillate? Is it because of bias introduced by the 1M resistor? I'd like to see step by step solving of the initial state of this circuit.
The small capacitor probably stops the oscillations. It provides significant negative feedback which overcomes the positive feedback of what would otherwise be a blocking oscillator.
Clive, could circuit be used to made a earth rotation clock? Those ones that have tiny blocks in a circle that as the earth rotates one by one the pendulum finger knocks down?
Yes it can be used with a Foucalt pendulum, though normally you would need to make it a little bigger, simply because you need to apply a lot more force to the pendulum to overcome air resistance than the milliwatt or so of energy this one delivers per pulse. Normally they use a coil wound with fewer turns of thicker wire (20SWG) for the collector side, and wind the base side with 36SWG wire, and then run it off 12V instead, so you can get around 1A of current in the pulse to drive the coil.
@@assassinlexx1993 Normally those are around 10m high, or even more, so that they can react to the rotation of the earth and not have the tint force be overwhelmed by friction and wind.
Repulses it, as the kick occurs while the magnet is approaching, nearly over the centre, and then pushes it away from the coil, giving it a pulse. That is why you need a rigid mount for the magnet, otherwise it will simply flip it on it's side.
The Tennis Racket of Zeus (with design flaw). The mosquito zapping tennis racket sold at the Dollar or Pound Store would be a great item for you to disect. It is just up your alley. We bought one yesterday and it does zap the huge Canadian mosquitoes, dead! This looks like a tennis racket but has 3 layers of aluminum mesh sandwiched with 2 layers of plastic grid, and runs on 2 AA batteries. When you wave it at a mosquito and it enters the mesh ZAP!!! the mosquito is dead. The design flaw is as follows. When you push the red button, the red LED does go on as per the instructions. But when you release the button, the LED immediately goes out, leading one to believe that the racket is now safe. But it is definitely NOT safe. Pressing on the aluminum mesh with any force releases a whitish-blue spark straight into your finger. Youch!!! It does not really hurt and is kind of fun once you are used to it and expecting it. It is basically like rubbing your feet on the carpet and touching the doorknob, but on steroids. This could be a fun item for a Big Clive analysis and diagram. Cheers.
Very impressive how you zoomed out just the right amount where the end pop-ups fit precisely. 😎
I'd love to see you rig up a simple pendulum and get this working, then hang a scope off the coil to see the waveform :D
Then disconnect that damping capacitor and see the effect it has
I can't decide if this is a good circuit or not. I keep swinging back and forth on this.
Only time will tell.
What agitated you ?
I'm trying to resist saying it's good...but I'm biased
Perhaps a second opinion?
Maybe you need some feedback.
I just picked up a 70's Smith's carriage clock that uses this sort of circuit. In that case it isn't a pendulum but a spinning magnet attached to a balance wheel and escapement.
I usually prefer fully mechanical clocks, although I do like the accuracy of quartz I try to avoid having too many quartz about the house. This clock I just got surprised me as it wasn't fully mechanical and certainly not quartz. It also has a lovely tick tock sound too.
Clive packing to go on a work trip looks like he is moving by the time he puts all the cameras and everything in there, lmao. Thanks for the video Clive
I have a very slimline studio setup for travel.
@@bigclivedotcomprior planning and prep. Prevent piss poor performance 😅
@@bigclivedotcom Are you away from home? I thought for a second you just had a new desk or something.
@@olavl8827 Clive would never get a new desk; the old one has the scars of dealing with runaway circuits over the past few years!!
Used to be a company (Kundo) made clock in the 60s with this type of mechanism, although with germanium transistors, OC71 or similar. Must have looked like magic at the time.
Super interesting. It is almost like a tuned pwm or tuned mono stable device where the pulse turns on to suit the swing. Very effective & clever! Thank you for sharing!
Another instance where learn how something functions, that I have always wondered about. Thank you Big Clive.
Greetings Clive! Hope you are well. Yes I have been there too,,
A swinging desk ornament of a couple swinging on a swing, there were loads of these knocking about Inthe 80's,,
My swing originally had a
Similar circuit as you described,, mine was not working,, I further screwed it up trying to get it working,, in the end I used an op amp and home made coil, I even replaced the 2xAA cells with a more convenient lipo cell & usb C charging port lasts about a month until it needs charging, strangely rewarding making the whole thing work after all these years,, You in part inspired the rebuild after I watched your (what could be done with lipo cells from vapes that had been thrown on street,, Thanks dude
I also understand they are receiving my deep space signal in a neighbouring galaxy,,,lol
What a coincidence, I was at BHI clock museum near Newark yesterday. Apart from The Speaking Clock and Greenwich Mean Time kit I loved the old Master Clock systems from a pendulum master like Pulsinetic and Gents of Lecester I maintained in big factories around Liverpool 50+ yrs ago
I have a Synchronome and a Gents Master clock. The Synchronome is ticking away and clicking away every 30 seconds on the wall behind me in our kitchen. The Gents was the Master clock in a Carpet Factory, 1949 vintage. The Synchronome is from 1914. I've no information about where it was installed. You must have had an interesting job.
@@alastairchestnutt6416 Part of an interesting career. Bonus of the time I worked on clocks was a weekend of overtime for changing BST. I got two hours for each site including travelling as I had to stop for an hour then restart. Of course I stopped one, went to next and stopped that and so on then returned to first to restart. Only risk was if security delayed me getting in at one site and I missed the hour so it took forever to catch up but I usually got 8 hours time +half Saturday double time Sunday for just over two hours work each day. The simple ones we could wind forward in spring but the electronic ones could go double speed and took an hour to add an hour so same trick.
This looks like a version of the classic Hartley oscillator. The centre tapped coil and 100nf capacitor form a resonant circuit. The larger capacitor and resistor are biasing. It would be interesting to see if the circuit resonates without a pendulum, and at what frequency. If we know the wire thickness, we could estimate the length of wire, number of turns, the inductance then estimate a resonant frequency for the tank circuit.
Great 👍🏻 little video about clock 🕰️ starters
Years ago ( 1970s) there was a animated advertisement display at a Woolworth's store. It had one transistor, one resistor, one capacitor, and the coil. The swing arm had a magnet on it.
It would run for months in a old school zinc carbon " D" size battery.
Nice little circuit. The coil bobbin looks a lot like one designed for clock mechanisms.
This circuit is similar to the joule thief or the blocking oscillator. As you suggest, the capacitor between base and collector must stop the circuit oscillating at a much higher frequency. The circuit likely operates on the edgy of stability.
I have seen examples where the circuit has been used to phase lock a pendulum to a more accurate time signal, either a crystal or a radio time signal. I assume such circuits put a small bias on the pendulum so that it runs slightly slow, or maybe fast I can't really decide which, it must depend on the mode of operation. The circuit just pulls the oscillation into phase with the master time signal.
In the example I was shown, the pendulum had an aluminium plate added to the end. This passed through a slot between two coils. When the coils were energised, the pendulum was slowed by induced eddy currents.
Thanks a million OMHS Clive 👍🇮🇪🙏🏻
If the resistor's purpose really is to keep the transistor slightly biased on, I think the electrolytic capacitor's leakage current should be enough for that. Though I doubt such weak biasing is necessary at all in this application. Seems to me like the 1M resistor would be better used across BE to minimize Ice between pulses.
I don't think capacitive leakage would be consistent enough to rely upon.
@@olsmokey I doubt base bias current is necessary at all in this application. As I wrote earlier, it would make more sense to me to use the resistor to pull the base low instead.
The only reason to bias the transistor would be for faster turn-on speed vs completely off, though you'd need an exceptionally slow transistor for that to be an issue with a ~5ms pulse at ~1Hz.
@@teardowndan5364 I'm guessing the moving pendulum does not create the 0.6v needed to turn on the transistor without extra bias.
@@eDoc2020 The AC coupling capacitor between Vbat, the base drive coil and the base is already charged to Vbat-Vbe in the static regime, which takes care of the 0.6V base voltage: Vb = Vbat + Vcoil - Vcap = Vbat + Vcoil - (Vbat - Vbe) = Vcoil + 0.6V. The only thing the coil needs to do is provide the base drive current.
@@teardowndan5364 But without the resistor the capacitor wouldn't be charged to the proper level. It would fire once and then the capacitor wouldn't let any more current into the base.
Thank you Clive
Clive. Thanks for the normal but somewhere else video, it's made me realise that the world hasn't gone mad, it's only AvE that's lost it. 😆👍
Oh boy has he ever!
I keep hearing coil saturation in different videos, my experience with a current probe and hall sensor shows this not to be the case. Thanks for sharing.
Also, i was a little surprised the coil is center tapped, most cases I have seen, the base side coil has many more turns (like the top secret spinning top), it does not have to be, but seems more tuned for efficiency.
In principle it might be neat to look at Bulova's "Accutron" watches, first sold in October 1960, They used use a 360 Hz tuning fork and transistor energised instead of a balance wheel as the timekeeping element, It was guaranteed to be accurate to a minute a month. Broken ones seem to go for as little as 15 quid.
You are the Bob Ross of electrical circuits
Thanx again
I’ve learnt so much from you
Thank you
the sewing machin trick to build coils is awesome! (But aren't you supposed to count the loops?)
rev counters are like 10 quid including stickers. experienced operators however, run the machine for 5 seconds and count the winds after. divide by 5 is winds per second. divide by 10 is per half second. thats usually about enough for human level hand/foot control accuracy. easy enough to trim a few winds off of the end result. :) you're welcome.
Depends on the application. For a certain length/resistance of wire the coil can be weighed. Works well when matching coils.
Apart from the increase of diameter?@@Palmit_
Homofaciens built a nice coil winding machine out of a 3d printer .. (which printed the bobbins first and then wound the wire on it.) .. but sewing machine is genius ! 👍
Is it weird that I love how Clive pronounces "microfarad?"
yes, because that's how everyone should be pronouncing it.
ChEmICALs…
How else would it be pronounced?
@@KNfLrPnHis pronunciation is almost like "fard" (even "fart" in some videos), whereas I think of the pronunciation as being more annunciated, like "far-ad".
@@DavZell 🤷♂ I don't hear it @0:49 but maybe my brain is automatically adjusting the accent.
The 100nF cap would damp if it was in parallel with the coil. As it is in series with the coil and the base of the transistor, it will actually decrease the rise time on the transistor switch (i.e. it will increase the frequency)
Great to see a youtube presenter considering where all those popups are going to appear at the end of the video, all too often those little windows pop up, obscurring important/intersting details on the main video!!
Haha no way! I was just designing a (much!) larger driver for my hammock auto-swinging. Might take a little bit of an inspiration from this one!
Love to hear if you could produce such a driver. Toying with a similar idea.
very simple design
This is one of those where it would be gret to see this on a multi channel oscilloscope 🤔 one channel for each coil
I think that was called a 'blocking oscillator' 50 yrs ago, got its name from how a signal was blocked on a radio or something.
Very similar to joule thief 😊 your favourite Clive 😅
Mine too 😅😂❤
That's almost exactly the same circuit used in the battery operated Kit-Cat Klocks. It differs only in the placement of the 1M resistor and it uses a 22uF capacitor and runs off of 3V instead of 1.5V.
Solar powered bobble head toys use this. Kit-Cat clock has similar but was invented 90 years ago and AC powered, converted to battery in 80's.
Turn the coil through 90deg. Allow the magnet to pass through the coil. This fixes the torque problem twisting the pendulum rod.
Very similar to your joule thief circuit you designed Clive.
I'm guessing it'd be in something like those Felix the Cat clocks that were popular oh so many years ago, where the tail swung as the pendulum, and the eyes looked side to side too... :P
Brilliant!
Coming From you it's very interesting love watching your stuff. Schematic included
Less components less failure!
My 1985 panda always work perfectly after 28 years and survive at other 9 cars in family!!
1985 is a lot older than 28 years
Hi Clive, maybe a dumb qestion, but anyway..... would it be useful in something called Swinging Sticks Sculpture? I am under some temptation to try to build it, so it would behelpful... Thanks, Stef
Yes, I've learned over the years the simple designs are the best. One or two transistors and a few components other than a tiny crystal driven timer chip. In fact, I used this same principal years ago to accelerate a round magnet to over 150,000 RPMs
It explains why my clock stops before the pendulum does.
I’d love to see the blob chip version with an oscilloscope
I’ve wanted to retrofit my electric kit-kat klock, for decades!
Love your sssssschematics...
Wow missed this one from 5 months ago .Now how can you use this as a perpetual motion machine
The 100 nF capacitor is possibly fitted to pass a very brief pulse ( which the 1 M Ω cannot do ! ) ... in some circuits this is called a " speed up capacitor " ... ( ? ) ...... DAVE™ 🛑
What does the other coil on the other end of the board do?
As far as I know the pendulum side of things is purely for decoration.
If you look next to the other, bigger, coil there's a crystal which will be providing the timing. That, along with the coil and (presumably) a blob, is the actual clock mechanism.
It's the stepper motor coil for the clock movement.
Hey Clive, what’s the right hand coil for with what appears to be a 32,768Hz crystal underneath it? Can this thing alter the timing of a swinging pendulum… oh no, I’ve just figured it out. It’s completely separate. There’s a quartz circuit for time keeping and the pendulum is just for show. Oh hell no, how hideous 🤦♂️
It's for the clock movement.
@@bigclivedotcomSorry, although I’m an electronics engineer, I also have a love for well made mechanical clocks.
How does the 47uF capacitor discharge? It only let's the pulses though, as a high pass, but were is the resistor to drain it?
Sam from Look Mum No Computer had restarted and explained a few Master Clocks with pretty simple circuit
That's a cool circuit.
Nice and simple, just like me!
Fishing reels are good for winding larger coils. 😉
✌♥️🇬🇧
A very simple circuit that works well.
I’m wondering if it could be adapted to use that coil & circuit as a form of guitar pick-up ?
Hey Big Clive, I'm like a transistor ... although as I get older, it takes MORE than a little "bias" to my "base" to turn me on! ... And the "output" from my "emitter" isn't what it used to be! 😂
I've found in my certain age that a bit of emitter degeneracy helps
@@abitofabitofabit4404 The "output" from my "emitter" isn't what it used to be! 😂
multivibrator, i think the additional cap is taking place of the flipflop
Pendulum circuits? I kind of go back-and-forth on the topic...😉
Could you use this to turn a 7 day wind up clock into a continuous one?
I think not, these are made for decorative purposes. You'd need to ramp up the power significantly to actually drive an actual clockwork.
And when doing so you can go wild with an IR reflex sensor, a beefier electromagnet and transistor to go along with it.
No. The pendelum in a mechanical clock is there to do the timing. Each swing will let a gear turn one tooth for each swing (called the escapement mechanism of a clock). The power that actually turns the gear comes from the weights/springs.
It's technically possible to make a ratchetting mechanism that would use the power of the moving pendelum. But that would be an extensive redesign of the whole clock which would require quite a lot of expertise in designing clock movements.
Clive, Is this circuit similar to the ones in the Phony perpetual motion devices?
thanks for another interesting video my friend 😀
Get well soon
It's a joule theif in disguise 👍👍
Could you pair this with a joule thief for extended run time?
Why didn't you mention the crystal there? It should stabilise the whole thing.
Would be nice to see it working using an oscilloskop!?
Doesn't the electrolytic discharge through both coils to give an extra kick?
The big mystery is how this is stable enough for a clock, since slightly more current causes a longer swing, slightly less current causes a shorter swing. The amount of current depends on the precision of a lot of analog components, battery voltage.
I believe this circuit is for clocks where the movement is a quartz fit-up and the pendulum is purely decorative. Besides, the period of a pendulum depends solely on its length and not on the amplitude of its swing. Galileo is generally credited with discovering that.
It wouldn't take much to make a National Standards Lab based "pacemaker" to add to a conventional pendulum clock to replace Galileo. Add a microcontroller and GSM network module to reach the NS time server over the phone network.
@@johnopalko5223yes... That's what the other coil and the crystal, that Clive didn't really talk about, are for.
@@johnopalko5223 While generally true for small swing amplitudes, Galileo was wrong about the independence of amplitude vs period.
Larger swings are slower than smaller swings.
Of course, the limit would be +- 180 degrees. Once 180 degrees the pendulum would stop at the top. (assuming a ridged pendulum.
This is why precision pendulum clocks have the cycloidal mechanism at the fulcrum to effectively shorten the pendulum length with larger swings and called "isochronous". See wikipedia,
redrok AD0TJ
Any chance to see the ringing effect of such circuit's coil(s)?
Hi, is there anyway one could modify this circuit to be used in some sort of solenoid motor or a reed switch motor controller type thing? maybe with a joule thief circuit as well involved? take care and have a great day!
you shod make a video on making a clock with this
Hi Clive, a quick question maybe you could help me with. In regard to DC circuits, is there a difference between using a solid conductor or using a multi stranded conductor ?
This is in regard to model railway using up-to say 25v DC at about 6 Amps for points, Lights etc. Also DCC train controllers that output 16 Volt up-to 8 Amps. Pulse Width Modulation.
Not quite DC nor AC but more like On/Off pulses of DC.
Any help in this regard would be appreciated. Thanks for your time. Alan
The main advantage is flexibility. Using stranded cable puts a lot less strain on things it's attached to. But solid core has its uses too. I use both.
This video came out right on time, if you catch my drift ;)
...took me a couple of - seconds - to get that.
Awww. You are just winding us up, aren't ya?
@@CNCmachiningisfun you bet I am ;)
I might actually attempt this one. How important are the specs, especially of the coils? Also is it would similarly to the one in Jewel Thieves?
I don't think anything in this circuit are critical.
redrok AD0TJ
Isn't this also the basic premise behind a Joule Thief?
It seems there is a bit of confusion here, with the difference between the schematic and the PCB. The PCB came from a clock and I assume the 'crotch' between the legs of the PCB was where the AA cell holder was originally. Right?
The 2SC1815 comes in four current gain ranges: O, Y, GR, and BL. Please tell us which gain range it is. Thanks, Clive.
The battery is outwith the PCB. The transistor gain is GR.
@@bigclivedotcomAh, outwith. A peculiar Scottish word 😉
My apologies. I've not been paying attention lately. Will we all be meeting at the Calley this month? Or better still, somewhere less Brexity?
Sorry, the Caley meet was last Sunday.
found my grandfathers clock. made it... 1930 maybe?
its so weird, an axial ratchet escape gear, a worm gear reduction... and a solenoid driven pendulum.
some terrible switch on the pendulum, appears to switch it so it retards the upswing as much as assist the down... and 50% duty... lol.
meh. planning on giving it a little overcentering toggle, operate a set of switching reeds so it turns on just as its getting to the solenoids, toggles over ready for the return swing as it simultaneously turns off, then repeats... and dump the back spike into some neons around the face. pretty :) maybe distributed for hours/mins.
no solid state allowed! well, i wanna stay period correct.
except for threads. its getting metrics where needed.
How does the clock circuit interface with the pendulum circuit?
It doesn't. They are independent.
Not a great deal going on, they really have cut back as far as they can with the components. 2x👍
How come this circuit doesn't self-oscillate? Is it because of bias introduced by the 1M resistor? I'd like to see step by step solving of the initial state of this circuit.
The small capacitor probably stops the oscillations. It provides significant negative feedback which overcomes the positive feedback of what would otherwise be a blocking oscillator.
Classic blocking oscillator.
Can you teardown LED backlight tester. Thanks
The Pendulum is mightier than the Swordulum.
A Bulle clock from the thirty’s has a much simpler circuit purely mechanically.
Is there a off the shelf unit ?
You can buy complete pendulum movements online.
It's Genius..
How would the circuit need to be adapted for a string? Like for a powered Foucault pendulum.
It's tricky, as the magnet sometimes deflects to the side. Maybe the string attached to a long heavy shaft.
Clive, could circuit be used to made a earth rotation clock?
Those ones that have tiny blocks in a circle that as the earth rotates one by one the pendulum finger knocks down?
Yes it can be used with a Foucalt pendulum, though normally you would need to make it a little bigger, simply because you need to apply a lot more force to the pendulum to overcome air resistance than the milliwatt or so of energy this one delivers per pulse. Normally they use a coil wound with fewer turns of thicker wire (20SWG) for the collector side, and wind the base side with 36SWG wire, and then run it off 12V instead, so you can get around 1A of current in the pulse to drive the coil.
@@SeanBZA
Thanks man for your answer. I just thought you could make a micro one. Could sit on the desktop.
@@assassinlexx1993 Normally those are around 10m high, or even more, so that they can react to the rotation of the earth and not have the tint force be overwhelmed by friction and wind.
Does the magnetic pulse repel or attract the magnet on the pendulum?
Repulses it, as the kick occurs while the magnet is approaching, nearly over the centre, and then pushes it away from the coil, giving it a pulse. That is why you need a rigid mount for the magnet, otherwise it will simply flip it on it's side.
What was that?! Is there someone under the table, squeezing your transistors? 😉🤣😂😍🥰❤
You said you looked at another one, was that a video?
Recent pendulum video.
Would be nice to see the behaviour of this on an oscilloscope
Can you make a Joule Thief out of that?
what if i make the power source 3 volts insted of 1.5 volts, will the magnet get more powerfull ???
It may need other component values tweaked.
The Tennis Racket of Zeus (with design flaw).
The mosquito zapping tennis racket sold at the Dollar or Pound Store would be a great item for you to disect. It is just up your alley. We bought one yesterday and it does zap the huge Canadian mosquitoes, dead!
This looks like a tennis racket but has 3 layers of aluminum mesh sandwiched with 2 layers of plastic grid, and runs on 2 AA batteries. When you wave it at a mosquito and it enters the mesh ZAP!!! the mosquito is dead.
The design flaw is as follows. When you push the red button, the red LED does go on as per the instructions. But when you release the button, the LED immediately goes out, leading one to believe that the racket is now safe. But it is definitely NOT safe. Pressing on the aluminum mesh with any force releases a whitish-blue spark straight into your finger. Youch!!! It does not really hurt and is kind of fun once you are used to it and expecting it. It is basically like rubbing your feet on the carpet and touching the doorknob, but on steroids.
This could be a fun item for a Big Clive analysis and diagram.
Cheers.
would love to see a step by step video on how to make a simple pendulum circuit - HINT HINT ;)
I've a few other pendulum modules here to look at.
What about the other coil ¿