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Windup Warning

for my carriage clock
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[Hazel] and I were given a carriage clock as an engagement present which now sits on the mantelpiece. Those of you who've visited will have seen it I'm sure.

One of the most annoying things about this clock and others of it's ilk is the fact that it runs out of wind without warning. This of course means that when I do come to winding the thing up, I also have to spend additional time resetting the time.

So, I propose a small board of circuitry for windup clocks of all kinds that use the final power from the spring to chime the bell of the clock (or other similar alarm) to remind me to wind it up.

... or it'll be 3:47 forever in my house. Right, twice a day.

jonthegeologist, Jan 14 2005

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       I can't think of any way to determine when there's yet enough of the spring power left to ensure that the warning chime gets sounded.
bristolz, Jan 14 2005
  

       Even if the circuitry can't detect that the clock is about to stop, it could detect that the clock has (just) stopped. Then the circuitry could sound the alarm using some charge stored in a capacitor.(?) For that to work, the circuit would have to be able to drive the alarm gears. (since the spring is dead by then).
Then you wind it immediately.
robinism, Jan 15 2005
  

       I know this isn't the kind of clock you're talking about, but..   

       If you have a wind up clock where the "wind" is not a spring but a weight (i.e. a grandfather clock or a mechanical cuckoo clock) you could put possibly implement a DIY version of this by putting a piece of tape low on the window/on the wall at a point where the weight is ALMOST at the floor (not all the way unwound) so that if you notice that it's at or lower than the tape when you glance at the clock, you'll then wind it before it runs out altogether.   

       One possible way to have a notification with a spring- driven clock, maybe a red flag could be somehow designed to be pushed up when the hair spring is uncoiled beyond a certain point, but before being completely unwound?   

       Another (more complex) way would be to have 2 springs somehow wound by the same knob, and when the main spring runs out, the bell spring constantly rings the bell until it runs out, while using some of it's power to drive the clock?
Dickcheney6, Mar 19 2009
  


 

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