[HN Gopher] Crazy Clock
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Crazy Clock
Author : cbsks
Score : 145 points
Date : 2021-06-24 19:38 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.tindie.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.tindie.com)
| crackercrews wrote:
| > Early clock - keeps time anywhere between 0 and 10 minutes
| fast. For those who like to set their watch ahead to avoid being
| late. This clock keeps you from trying to "compensate," because
| you never know how early it is at the moment.
|
| I have been wanting this for years. Wish I could do it to my
| watch.
| Scene_Cast2 wrote:
| For a different take on clocks (ultra-high precision), there are
| studio clocks (with lots of synchronization machinery to make
| sure all all synchronized). One such example is the evertz 1275T
| memming wrote:
| The list of novelty clock modes are very funny! LoL
| spoonjim wrote:
| It's astonishing how the costs have come down in the maker
| electronics world. If you wanted a "clock with a custom tick
| pattern" twenty years ago you'd need to go and commission someone
| to build it for you. Today you can buy the board for $12.00
| nullc wrote:
| I have a clock that keeps mars time:
| https://files.catbox.moe/o99ods.jpg
|
| I synthesize a little martian electrical grid: HP5071a atomic
| clock --10MHz--> HP3325a --58.394657765 Hz--> HP6827a bipolar
| amplifier --~100vac--> clock.
|
| Plus side I can have as many sync motor mars clocks as I want and
| it's only using random gear I had laying around, downside is that
| it's not very energy efficient, perhaps about 150W. :P
| pbhjpbhj wrote:
| https://hackaday.io/project/5880-crazy-clock had better detail
| for me.
|
| I'm thinking "teacher mode" that goes fast for the first 45
| "mins" of the hour then slows incrementally so the last 5 "mins"
| takes 15 minutes to pass! Evil.
| annoyingnoob wrote:
| But can you sync the time with NTP?
| diimdeep wrote:
| I found this project a while back when I was searching for
| information on how to drive lavet stepper motor[1] inside these
| kind of clocks[2].
|
| My project is similar in a way that you have to manually drive
| this motor, idea is to convert existing 12-hour clock to 'week'
| 168-hour clock. Hour hand would make full rotation only each 168
| hours, showing current day of the week and approximate part of
| the day.
|
| Very cool project to tinker with electronics and gears, you have
| to figure out timing(30ms energize, 970ms rest, repeat in reverse
| polarity) and how to drive motor(use half-bridge circuit or motor
| driver)[3], you have to deal with inductive 'kick' flyback
| voltage spikes and protect IC from it[4], and figure out
| mechanical gears[5] (typical quartz mechanism[6])
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavet-type_stepping_motor
|
| [1.1]
| https://resonanceswavesandfields.blogspot.com/2011/03/unders...
|
| [1.2]
| https://resonanceswavesandfields.blogspot.com/2011/03/unders...
|
| [1.3] http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/tech/quartz.htm
|
| [1.4]
| https://www.tablix.org/~avian/blog/archives/2016/04/clockwor...
|
| [1.5]
| https://www.tablix.org/~avian/blog/archives/2016/03/clockwor...
|
| [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_clock
|
| [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-bridge
|
| [3.1] https://www.microtype.io/h-bridge-circuit-design/
|
| [3.2] http://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/step/circuits.html
|
| [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyback_diode
|
| [4.1] https://pdfserv.maximintegrated.com/en/an/AN6307.pdf
|
| [4.2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snubber
|
| [5] https://ciechanow.ski/gears/
|
| [6]
| https://geargenerator.com/#68.75,675,25,30,1,3,513926.199999...
| ed25519FUUU wrote:
| > _Whacky clock - ticks once a second, but on a random tenth-of-
| a-second, so it 's arhythmic._
|
| Some people just want to watch the world burn.
| megraf wrote:
| Would be nice to include an example of it in action :)
| cwt137 wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/user/nsayer/videos
| ZoF wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25THL-FM98g
| thih9 wrote:
| Could someone explain why is this project interesting?
|
| I'm not familiar with electronics or hardware programming.
| teraflop wrote:
| I think the main _technically_ interesting thing is that it
| adds custom functionality to cheap, mass-produced hardware. If
| you wanted to build a clock completely from scratch, it would
| be a significant amount of work to design something that works
| as well as a $10 wall clock from Walmart. If you just figure
| out the right way to interface with that hardware, you can do
| interesting stuff a lot more easily.
|
| It's a little bit reminiscent of how people figured out that
| you could use cheap USB TV tuners as software-defined radios,
| although obviously this project is a lot simpler than that.
| fossuser wrote:
| I think it's more about the whimsy and fun-ness of the hack
| while still keeping proper time.
|
| I love these kinds of playful projects - feels like the core of
| 'hacker spirit'.
| lucideer wrote:
| With zero knowledge of electronics or hardware, the product
| description seems to outline why it's interesting pretty
| clearly (and quickly; the lede is not buried).
|
| TL;DR:
|
| > Novelty clocks:
|
| >
|
| > Whacky clock - ticks once a second, but on a random tenth-of-
| a-second, so it's arhythmic.
|
| > Wavy clock - tick frequency is proportional to a sine wave.
| Sort of looks like it's "surging."
|
| > Lazy clock - picks a random interval and then ticks that
| number of seconds very quickly and then just stops.
|
| > Crazy clock - runs at three different speeds - slow, normal
| or fast. Much more subtle than it sounds.
|
| > Vetinari clock - runs slightly slow, but adds a periodic
| "stutter" tick to make up for it.
|
| > Warpy clock - runs 10% fast for 12 hours, then 10% slow for
| 12 hours. Makes the days just fly by.
|
| > Early clock - keeps time anywhere between 0 and 10 minutes
| fast. For those who like to set their watch ahead to avoid
| being late. This clock keeps you from trying to "compensate,"
| because you never know how early it is at the moment.
|
| > Tuney clock - ticks normally most of the time, but
| occasionally will tick out "songs," like shave-and-a-haircut,
| or SOS in morse...
| Cd00d wrote:
| I do wish there was more detail on the "more subtle" crazy
| clock. I'm having trouble imaging what it means.
|
| It may be obvious, but I missed it - do I buy one kit, but
| then I can load all these firmwares, or is the goal to have
| me buy one kit per novelty?
| bayindirh wrote:
| Clocks are amazing pieces of hardware. They're surprisingly
| simple, but deterministic, also very monotonous because of the
| work they do.
|
| An arhythmic clock which looks like broken, but keeping the
| time correct is interesting in many fronts. First, it looks
| broken, but it's not. Second, if the movement is a bit noisy,
| monotonous tick-rocks will become irregular, hence interesting
| for our brain.
|
| In other ways, it's delightfully non-conventional, but working
| as intended at the end. As a result of this, it's kinda
| _delicious_ as it 's interesting. That's a _good_ combination.
|
| Lastly, all of this is packaged as a de-facto standard
| wall/desk clock movement. Consider if you change your meeting
| room's big wall clock to this. Lazy, Whacky or Tuney would be
| fun. Very fun.
| pbhjpbhj wrote:
| Now I'm wondering if times I couldn't sleep because of a
| ticking clock were due to arrhythmia in the clock - low
| batteries, extreme temperatures, dirt, spider mite sitting on
| pinion - that somehow prevented my brain from filtering out
| the sound.
|
| Probably more likely a lack of sync in my brain (I have very
| little sense of rhythm).
| alias_neo wrote:
| Interesting point. I have a fairly loud ticking wall clock
| in my living room. When I have guests stay on the sofa I
| have to remove the battery, it drives them insane. I never
| notice it ticking at all, I just don't hear it, it's
| ticking right now because I'm thinking about it.
|
| What I would love is a clock with a consistent sound, mine
| makes a slightly different tick for some odd positions and
| that bugs me.
| entropie wrote:
| > it drives them insane
|
| Dinner room at my Moms home has like 6 different ticking
| clocks, some more than 100 years old. It absolutely kills
| me everytime.
| nickhalfasleep wrote:
| In an age of ubiquitous accurate time, an intentionally
| misbehaving clock points out the folly of watching a clock
| dylan604 wrote:
| Thinks back to days in high school just willing that minute
| hand to move
| huhtenberg wrote:
| In related news there's a watch called Stop2Go made by Mondaine
| based on a design licensed from Swiss Railways (SBB).
|
| The second hand runs slightly faster for the first 59 seconds,
| then freezes for one second and then ticks together with a minute
| hand.
|
| Looks like this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJwPOBoy3V8
|
| I was considering getting one, but apparently there are (were?)
| some production quality issues, so in the end decided against it.
| sonofhans wrote:
| Oh, I love that design. I didn't get one for the same reason
| you didn't -- it doesn't seem to be a high-quality watch. How
| ironic.
| crackercrews wrote:
| According to the video, it's 58 seconds on, 2 seconds off. Not
| a big difference, but in the video it makes the pause stand out
| even more.
| gorgoiler wrote:
| I have one. It is a pleasure to own and excellent quality, at
| least on the newest revisions (mine is 2019).
|
| The link to such a classic piece of industrial design is very
| pleasing. Confirmed rumour has it that entrance to a popular
| design museum in a prominent world city is free to anyone
| visibly wearing one.
|
| The movement is electronically adjustable to precisely align
| the second hand and minute hand positions to exactly the right
| spot.
|
| German railways use the same system as the Swiss ones, so be
| sure to wear it if you travel to the continent.
| aaron695 wrote:
| I'd say this is related to Amazon Prime sales with the Echo Wall
| Clock.
|
| I was going to buy one for the ability to fast forward time as a
| trick (which is just how it sets itself, no tricks) the Echo
| Clock is so close to electronic junk, while also so close to
| useful.
|
| But I did wonder if children would consider a clocks flow as
| immutable as older, pre cellphone generations.
|
| This is a cool project. And it'll be interesting to see how
| future generations see time.
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(page generated 2021-06-24 23:00 UTC)