Anyone made wood gear clock with electric clock motor?

[Tmasters]

I'd love to make a fancy wooden-gears clock with exposed moving parts for show, but one that doesn't need winding and keeps accurate time by being driven by an accurate motor, preferably battery.  Standard clock movements likely don't have enough torque to drive a gear train.  I could use a stepper motor and an Arduino or Raspberry Pi, but that feels like overkill.  Ideally I'd like just a self-contained motor internally geared down to low RPM, but crystal controlled for stable RPM.  Does anyone have an idea?  Thanks!

[ArtF]

Hi:

  If you build it from wood, and drive it with a motor, to make it accurate youll need a microprocessor
of some sort in the end if you wish it to stay accurate.Wood has too much tendancy to shift size and dimension
so one would have to have some sort of sync measure in there. (Usually the sync for a wooden clock is its maker when winding.).
  You can approach accuracy with a cheap arduino that simply pulses a pendulum to keep it swinging
while at the same time counting the swings though. Trouble with wooden clocks exposed to show motion
is that not much motion occurs other than the pendulum unless you get fancy with moving trains in there
to mark events. Second hands are non typical for that reason in a wooden clock.

  Of course all thats up to how inventive you are, I have seen some very cool wooden clocks, but most
dont run long, a day is a good run for most hobby build wood ones. Masters get a few days, but time running
before winding is an indication of how good one is. (Im not that good, I rarely get more than a few hours
from a good looking one, which is why I build tickers occasionally as once I remove the need to tell
time the actions can be as varied as I like..

Art


   

[Tmasters]

Art - Thanks!  I figured I'd get that answer, but I'm always hopeful.  Now I have to work up the ambition to get into a stepper motor with computer control.

Tim

[ArtF]

Tim:

  All that having been said, a $1.00 ebay arduino uno with a 1$ ebay arduino stepper driver
will drive a clock fine, steppers are pretty cheap.. say $5.00 for a small one.

Art

[Amazon [Bot]]

there ya go... spending my money again. 

happy new year all
enjoying my AZ winter holiday
stay safe stay warm

[Tmasters]

It's not the money.  It's just that I'm a lot better with 3D printing and CNC milling than I am with Arduino control.  But I guess we're never too old to learn a new skill...

[ArtF]

Hi Tim:

  I think youll find controlling a stepper with an arduino isnt all that hard.
If you get confused as to how Im happy to help when people have questions
even on an arduino control type questions. Ive controlled a few steppers
in my time.
  Making a small arduino control a stepper has lots of examples and open
source on line. I made a marble/sand drawing video awhile back and I still
have code for making them move aorund here somewhere.

YaNvrNo:

>>happy new year all
>>enjoying my AZ winter holiday

    Now thats just rubbing it in as
I just finished parking the snowblower
and spreading salt.  ,

Happy 2019..
Art

[John T]

Most clocks that I design and build run at least 30 hours by design and half a dozen or more run a week on a winding.  Having said that they are as good barometers as they are time pieces - a change in the weather will upset them and often cause them to stop.  If I want to know exactly what time it is I look at my wrist.

[ArtF]

John:

  And thats a tribute to your workmanship, getting a week on a wooden clock
identifies you as a craftsman in my opinion.

Art

[steve323]

A small AC synchronous motor should have plenty of torque to run a clock.  There should be enough power to keep a few gears visibly spinning all the time.

Here is the first one that came up in my search:
https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Permane ... B077YHG1F8

The rate is set by the line frequency which is supposed to be really accurate.

Steve