[time-nuts] Odd request

[Tom Van Baak (mobile)]

> Time-nuts
> 
> I appreciate the comments regarding horological obsession.  Mine started with a desire for an accurate master 
> oscillator for my ham shack (built and use a couple Shera GPSDO's) and has blossomed into a much broader interest 
> in time (Ex tempus, sapientia?)  
> 
> This has led me to a silly quest.  I'd like to use a traditional clock face and hands as an output device for a 
> 1PPS signal from my GPSDO.
> 
> I know this is a very broad question, but does anyone have advice on where I might start hacking (or making) a 
> mechanical clock face to accomplish this? Is there a simple clock design that I could start with to build my own? 
> Maybe replacing a pendulum or escapement with a solenoid?  Any examples to work from?
> 
> Mark

This is one reason the older model HP 5065A and 5061A
with Patek analog clocks are so desirable; they pre-date
LED, LCD, or VFD clock displays.

But one easy way to do it today is start with a $5 standard
quartz clock display. 1) Either run a precise synthesized
32 kHz signal into it (replacing the xtal), or drive the little
bipolar stepper yourself.

A 50 millisecond +1.5 VDC pulse is all you need; next
second give it a -1.5 VDC pulse, etc. This is a few lines
of code for a microcontroller. I've got pictures of this
somewhere on my web site, I think.

See also Bryan's cool stuff at:
http://www.bmumford.com/clocks/emindex.html

Some of us have driven traditional pendulum clocks with
GPS or atomic 1PPS. Another cute one is to take an
old Western Union, US Naval Observatory, SWCC
(Self-winding Clock Company) clocks and sync them
using a GPS-divided 1PPH (one pulse per hour) pulse.

See Mitchell's SWCC page at:
http://www.telechron.com/

Also, here's what "USNO time" meant in the 1930's...
http://www.leapsecond.com/history/usno.htm

/tvb