The Clock
February 1, 2015 12:36 PM Subscribe
Artist Gislain Benoit builds an incredible hand soldered clock. Ever curious what encompasses a digital watch? Now you can.
I wish there were videos! Really cool projects though. I like Tower a lot.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:06 PM on February 1, 2015
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:06 PM on February 1, 2015
I built one of those back in the 60s--a Heathkit that came with the parts you had to solder together on a perf board.
This one seems much more complex and has way more parts...dunno why.
posted by CrowGoat at 1:22 PM on February 1, 2015
This one seems much more complex and has way more parts...dunno why.
posted by CrowGoat at 1:22 PM on February 1, 2015
I built one of those back in the 60s--a Heathkit that came with the parts you had to solder together on a perf board.
If it was this one [pdf], it's because all the hard lifting was done by an integrated circuit.
posted by effbot at 1:49 PM on February 1, 2015 [3 favorites]
If it was this one [pdf], it's because all the hard lifting was done by an integrated circuit.
posted by effbot at 1:49 PM on February 1, 2015 [3 favorites]
See what's "inside" an IC chip.
Holy cow, that's a lot of diodes and transistors.
And the whole thing is connected part-to-part, no actual circuit board.
Pretty friggin' amazing. Thanks, KernalM.
posted by soundguy99 at 2:32 PM on February 1, 2015
Holy cow, that's a lot of diodes and transistors.
And the whole thing is connected part-to-part, no actual circuit board.
Pretty friggin' amazing. Thanks, KernalM.
posted by soundguy99 at 2:32 PM on February 1, 2015
That's crazy. The good kind of crazy. But crazy all the same.
Can you imagine what it'd be like to discover a cold solder joint right in the freaking middle of the thing? Probably why the joints are such huge blobs; even in the worst case scenario the solder will still conduct well enough to keep it working.
posted by ardgedee at 3:10 PM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
Can you imagine what it'd be like to discover a cold solder joint right in the freaking middle of the thing? Probably why the joints are such huge blobs; even in the worst case scenario the solder will still conduct well enough to keep it working.
posted by ardgedee at 3:10 PM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
A digital watch needs its own timing circuit; this one works off the 60-Hz cycle of US electricity. It's a spectacular piece of technological art, but I wonder whether he could have even made a battery-powered one.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:33 PM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:33 PM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
Joe in Australia, I'm not an electrical engineer, and only have a rough understanding of electronics, but couldn't he have used a crystal oscillator as a timebase source? Of course, he'd need to divide the frequency a bunch more than with AC power. Looking around on Wikipedia, the simplest circuit I can find that's easy to make with discrete components is a series of flip-flops that divide it by two, and with a 2.097152 mhz crystal, that's going to require 21 flip flops. I guess that's possibly by hand, but it'd take a lot of time and space to make.
I was about to wonder if a crystal would be too close to an IC, but it's really more an active component like the transistors and ICs.
posted by mccarty.tim at 9:18 PM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
I was about to wonder if a crystal would be too close to an IC, but it's really more an active component like the transistors and ICs.
posted by mccarty.tim at 9:18 PM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
In the not-too-distant past, electric wall clocks that derived their timing from the AC line were so common that power companies adjusted the frequency to ensure that they remained accurate. During rapid changes in load, the frequency changes slightly, throwing them all off. So, in the dead of night when load is much more consistent, they would run the generators a bit slower or faster than 60Hz to compensate for the unavoidable variances during the day.
They not only stopped doing that a couple of years ago, but also changed the standard such that it is now allowable to run a bit under (or over, but it's cheaper to generate slightly too little electricity than slightly too much) 60Hz all the time. Thus, old electric clocks and this clock will perpetually be running slow since the input frequency is 59.something Hz instead of the 60 it should be. Yet another example of our society's shifting priorities.
posted by wierdo at 11:49 PM on February 1, 2015 [5 favorites]
They not only stopped doing that a couple of years ago, but also changed the standard such that it is now allowable to run a bit under (or over, but it's cheaper to generate slightly too little electricity than slightly too much) 60Hz all the time. Thus, old electric clocks and this clock will perpetually be running slow since the input frequency is 59.something Hz instead of the 60 it should be. Yet another example of our society's shifting priorities.
posted by wierdo at 11:49 PM on February 1, 2015 [5 favorites]
Hmm -- I've been told by an elderly electrical engineer who claimed first hand (but old!) knowledge, that if the phase of the 60Hz from one power plant varies (and you can't change the frequency without changing the phase) then there is the risk that the voltages from the other plants on the grid won't add in phase with it. This can cause high voltage spikes in other places not designed for it, which is dangerous.
He was telling me this in the context of explaining why the power supply voltage actually makes a very good clock, implying that it necessarily would for safety reasons. (I think I had just told my story of being very surprised in 2001 when I brought my alarm clock and a voltage converter with me to England, only to realize that it was counting exactly 50 minutes for every hour... I hadn't realized any clocks ran off the power cycle before that!)
I suppose there might be phase-locked loops these days which can keep all the voltage sources on the grid at the same frequency, while allowing that frequency itself to drift slightly? But, I mean, "slightly" -- it's not hard to get frequencies stable to one part in a million (eg 1 Hz out of 1 MHz, and then you divide down -- that'd be 60 microhertz out of 60 Hz) Crystal oscillators like the ones in a wrist watch can do it...
posted by OnceUponATime at 3:17 AM on February 2, 2015
He was telling me this in the context of explaining why the power supply voltage actually makes a very good clock, implying that it necessarily would for safety reasons. (I think I had just told my story of being very surprised in 2001 when I brought my alarm clock and a voltage converter with me to England, only to realize that it was counting exactly 50 minutes for every hour... I hadn't realized any clocks ran off the power cycle before that!)
I suppose there might be phase-locked loops these days which can keep all the voltage sources on the grid at the same frequency, while allowing that frequency itself to drift slightly? But, I mean, "slightly" -- it's not hard to get frequencies stable to one part in a million (eg 1 Hz out of 1 MHz, and then you divide down -- that'd be 60 microhertz out of 60 Hz) Crystal oscillators like the ones in a wrist watch can do it...
posted by OnceUponATime at 3:17 AM on February 2, 2015
I would love a super high res picture of this! Very cool.
His other finished project is cool too: The Tower
posted by Theta States at 6:46 AM on February 2, 2015
His other finished project is cool too: The Tower
posted by Theta States at 6:46 AM on February 2, 2015
A few years ago I got an electronics kit to work into an art project. I discovered I loved soldering, but didn't really have 1) as much interest in learning electronics or 2) a need for the various finished widgets and devices. I would pay a decent amount for a kit like this.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:37 AM on February 2, 2015
posted by Room 641-A at 7:37 AM on February 2, 2015
Since glass covers the complete artwork, there was no way adjust the time using buttons which was simply solved by hovering an elegant handcrafted piece of magnet over specific locations over the glass frame. Electro- magnetic micro switches inside the frame responds to the magnet and adjust the time. The "Time adjusting magnet" has a chrome handle tip and its magnet side is covered with velvet.
This right here, this was the part that left me speechless. First: for the language describing the magnet, which made me roll my eyes a bit, and then for the process of using it, which quickly corrected my earlier cynicism.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 9:44 AM on February 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
This right here, this was the part that left me speechless. First: for the language describing the magnet, which made me roll my eyes a bit, and then for the process of using it, which quickly corrected my earlier cynicism.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 9:44 AM on February 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
I built one of those back in the 60s
The Heathkit lacked the circle of second LEDs, which make this clock so cool -- but where's the night-time photo of it in operation?
posted by Rash at 11:58 AM on February 2, 2015
The Heathkit lacked the circle of second LEDs, which make this clock so cool -- but where's the night-time photo of it in operation?
posted by Rash at 11:58 AM on February 2, 2015
They not only stopped doing that a couple of years ago, but also changed the standard such that it is now allowable to run a bit under (or over, but it's cheaper to generate slightly too little electricity than slightly too much) 60Hz all the time.
If that's the case, Wikipedia needs to be updated (a very quick googling only brought up discussions about running an experiment, and nerc.com's search engine isn't exactly great, so no idea if you're right or not.)
Also, via that article, a live map of frequency deviations.
posted by effbot at 2:58 PM on February 2, 2015
If that's the case, Wikipedia needs to be updated (a very quick googling only brought up discussions about running an experiment, and nerc.com's search engine isn't exactly great, so no idea if you're right or not.)
Also, via that article, a live map of frequency deviations.
posted by effbot at 2:58 PM on February 2, 2015
> [...] the simplest circuit I can find that's easy to make with discrete components
> is a series of flip-flops that divide it by two, and with a 2.097152 mhz crystal, that's
> going to require 21 flip flops.
The bog-standard way to do it is using a 32.768KHz crystal. Divide by 215 and you have 1PPS. (Example part quantity pricing and PDF data sheet.)
If you pull apart a dollar-store digital watch, chances are you'll find such a crystal. (The most common variant looks like a tiny metal can with two leads though SMD variants are growing more common.)
posted by sourcequench at 6:03 PM on February 2, 2015
> is a series of flip-flops that divide it by two, and with a 2.097152 mhz crystal, that's
> going to require 21 flip flops.
The bog-standard way to do it is using a 32.768KHz crystal. Divide by 215 and you have 1PPS. (Example part quantity pricing and PDF data sheet.)
If you pull apart a dollar-store digital watch, chances are you'll find such a crystal. (The most common variant looks like a tiny metal can with two leads though SMD variants are growing more common.)
posted by sourcequench at 6:03 PM on February 2, 2015
OnceUponATime, yes, generators have to be in sync across the grid or magic smoke will begin escaping, but the exact frequency doesn't matter, so long as it is within a few percent of nominal.
Thankfully for us end users, the generator will be fried long before crazy voltage spikes make it out to the wider network, which is why they phase lock the generator before connecting it to the grid. (A small variance in a single generator will just suddenly slam the rotor into the correct phase, hopefully not causing mechanical damage in the process, large differences between larger sets of generators cause the voltage spikes and smoke)
posted by wierdo at 9:30 PM on February 2, 2015
Thankfully for us end users, the generator will be fried long before crazy voltage spikes make it out to the wider network, which is why they phase lock the generator before connecting it to the grid. (A small variance in a single generator will just suddenly slam the rotor into the correct phase, hopefully not causing mechanical damage in the process, large differences between larger sets of generators cause the voltage spikes and smoke)
posted by wierdo at 9:30 PM on February 2, 2015
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oh, it says CLOCK.
posted by blue t-shirt at 12:53 PM on February 1, 2015 [3 favorites]