[HN Gopher] Elektrocas HH3 - the most accurate pendulum clock on...
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Elektrocas HH3 - the most accurate pendulum clock on the planet
Author : tverbeure
Score : 99 points
Date : 2024-12-31 06:12 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (dvaluch.web.cern.ch)
(TXT) w3m dump (dvaluch.web.cern.ch)
| jesperwe wrote:
| I passed the "Not like we would not have 150 tons of liquid
| Helium here" statement off as a joke until I got to the end and
| realized the author was NOT just another clock renovating
| hobbyist :-)
|
| Thanks for an enjoyable read!
| Aeolun wrote:
| He made mention of his position at CERN before that came along
| I think?
| saagarjha wrote:
| Really interesting that the clock appears to have detected an
| actual earthquake and corrected for it!
| MezzoDelCammin wrote:
| I think it's the first time I see a Czech/Slovak accented "c" on
| the front page of Hacker News. Well done!
| Squarex wrote:
| Well another time was back in 2019 [0] with an article about
| Karel Capek [1] :)
|
| [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2019-08-26
|
| [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20789755
| urcite_ty_kokos wrote:
| Also, did you notice Merkur?
| inglor_cz wrote:
| This was indeed somewhat startling, like meeting an old, well-
| known dog that just starts mewing at you.
|
| We are used to being the Leprechaun Folk of the West - present
| almost everywhere, but only rarely seen.
| MezzoDelCammin wrote:
| Especially if You're old enough to remember what ISO 8859-2
| was for. One of the standards that everyone knew existed, yet
| few actually cared enough to correctly implement in practice.
| I still have a label printer that knows accented characters
| exist, yet the implementation is "shrink the accented letter
| to fit the label height with the accent"
| inglor_cz wrote:
| "shrink the accented letter to fit the label height with
| the accent"
|
| Ah, memories of youth... not to mention KEYBCS2.
| schobi wrote:
| I'm glad they only thought about it, but did not implement SF6
| flooding of the chamber. No need to vent it to the atmosphere
| just for fun.
|
| But controlling the internal pressure? I would expect that only a
| small difference would be needed - far from exploding or
| imploding the clock! Maybe small enough to have a reservoir and
| control only inlet and outlet valves? This could be done purely
| without modifications of the mechanism.
| TheOtherHobbes wrote:
| The biggest danger of explosion/implosion is the change to/from
| summer time.
| dtgriscom wrote:
| The control force would be the product of the air density
| change and the pendulum bob volume. If he increased the
| pendulum bob volume with a light but fixed-size object (a foam-
| filled sphere?) he wouldn't need to adjust the density as much.
| progbits wrote:
| The contrast of the pendulum clock in a wooden cabinet and the
| sensor mounted on what appears to be Merkur (building toy from
| 1950s, still available today), with the fiber optic cables and
| maser is quite something :)
| timeon wrote:
| Ehm, I'm also using Merkur to extend my cabinets/shelves.
| avidiax wrote:
| This is in effect a really complicated way of getting an analog
| readout of his cesium fountain.
|
| The chain adjuster was interesting, though.
|
| Another very accurate pendulum clock (this one solar
| disciplined): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_of_the_Long_Now
| wbl wrote:
| Not really: look at the Alan curves. This is a disciplined PLL
| with a fairly slow loop. Most of the accuracy at short time
| scales is from the pendulum it's only the long term stability
| that the atomic clock impacts.
| cenamus wrote:
| Does anyone know anything about the czech/slovak "flip" clock on
| the top right of the ~fifth last picture?
|
| I'd love to have something like that for myself
| phreeza wrote:
| https://youtu.be/8Zd0clYzgj4?si=7T-NXAXfK0IxJ_kG
|
| Google lens identifies it without problems.
|
| Edit: auction link https://aukro.cz/top-stav-pragotron-
| preklapeci-hodiny-cpj-06...
| cenamus wrote:
| Thanks! But seeing that price, probably cheaper to build one
| myself
| timeon wrote:
| > the czech/slovak "flip" clock
|
| Seems to Czech. Slovak would use "Januar" instead of "Leden".
| cenamus wrote:
| Ahh right, only the czechs revived the pre-christians terms!
| metalman wrote:
| The plausible gravity compensation mechanism idea,got me but
| good. Which if implimented could achive the ideal of the clock
| remaining exactly as it left the factory, but with 1sec/158
| million year accuracy. For the convieneince of keeping the clock
| in your office, would require incorporating the building into the
| gravity compensation mechanism.Building codes might prove to be
| the biggest challenge.
| kristjank wrote:
| The chain-and-cup adjustment is so simple, yet so effective. Such
| an elegant solution
| withinboredom wrote:
| I'm just thinking of the discussion in the IT department:
|
| A: He wants what?
|
| B: A cable from the cesium to his office, for some ancient clock
| he got off ebay.
|
| A: These scientists man...
| bayindirh wrote:
| I work with some people at CERN on a project.
|
| What I got away is, the answer from IT would be "that's a cool
| project. Just ask your department head, and if they say OK,
| consider it done".
|
| CERN still operates with and fueled by curiosity, and that's a
| good thing.
| tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
| > Just ask your department head
|
| That'd already be a lot more bureaucracy than I'd have
| expected.
| bayindirh wrote:
| It's a lot of bureaucracy, yes, but considering the
| planning they do and the scale of the projects they
| undertake, it's understandable.
|
| They are massive in every aspect.
| zokier wrote:
| It seems bit odd to call it most accurate pendelum clock if the
| accuracy stems from being disciplined by atomic clock. To me the
| interesting question would be how far can you push the
| freestanding accuracy of a pendelum clock.
|
| That is not to say this isn't a neat project in it's own right,
| it is, but just picking on the terminology.
| stavros wrote:
| I agree, it's not a clock if it can't keep time on its own.
| It's a really cool project, but the clickbait title disappoints
| unnecessarily. "I made an NTP pendulum clock" would have been
| accurate and still extremely cool.
| jgalt212 wrote:
| better title
|
| Elektrocas HH3 - the most accurate atomically assisted pendulum
| clock on the planet (cern.ch)
| technothrasher wrote:
| Pendulum clocks in general need to be periodically rated
| (length of pendulum adjusted) due to variations in temperature
| and pressure in order to achieve maximum isochronous movement.
| All this guy has done is created an automatic rating system.
| Otherwise, it operates the same way as most any other pendulum
| clock. So I think the "most accurate pendulum clock"
| description is fair (assuming it is the most accurate).
|
| I've had ideas for a while for similarly adjusting a pendulum
| clock from an NTP server, though I was going to add an extra
| gear to the motion train that would adjust the hands slightly
| every twelve hours. But that seems more like "cheating" that
| this rating system.
| KaiserPro wrote:
| So if you want the most accurate pendulum clock, then you'll
| need the vacuum flask one:
| https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-79649 or
| its german counterpart:
| https://theregulatorclockcompany.com/riefler/
| stavros wrote:
| I wonder if it would have been easier to have a small
| electromagnet in the base to pull the pendulum down either before
| or after the lowest point, as necessary. Wouldn't that have been
| a much simpler solution?
| phreeza wrote:
| Mentioned in the article, this was considered too boring!
| stavros wrote:
| Ahh thanks, turns out I missed it because it was a small
| sentence right over the big equation that my eyes glazed over
| :P
| mrlonglong wrote:
| "Changing the 2, or p is difficult even for CERN". Brilliant!
| hsuduebc2 wrote:
| I understant it only partially but still loving it!
| blacksmith_tb wrote:
| There's something very satisfying about electromechanical clocks,
| I think it may be the combination of math-y/steampunk-y gear-
| driven timekeeping with actual accuracy. I have always thought
| once I Made It Big I'd get myself a Seiko Spring Drive watch[1] -
| hasn't happened yet...
|
| 1: https://www.seikowatches.com/us-
| en/customerservice/knowledge...
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