Gina

Every half hour seems logical. Three thoughts :- Maybe I could use a similar arrangement to the strike mechanism. A wheel that turns less than a revolution when the clock strikes 12 could be would back up until it's back to "square one". No.2 seems simpler. It would want gearing of something over 12:1 as the striking shaft rotates 12 times for 12 o'clock. OTOH for every 12 hours :- A knot in the cord that engages a lever when the weight is at the top to stop the winding. The winding could be started by a cam on the hour shaft.

One possibility I have in mind is to use cord rather than chain unwinding from a drum (a common system in longcase clocks) with some mechanism for re-winding the drum between striking periods. Usually this would be manual but I want to design an automatic system. (I don't want to wind up the strike anymore than I want to wind up the main timepiece.) The way manual winding works is to have a ratchet system between the drum and the strike mechanism. The motorised winding could drive the drum with another ratchet. This ratchet would only engage when winding (otherwise it would stop the drum driving the strike mechanism). I'm thinking the motor winding would take place either every half hour or when the weight had dropped a certain amount. I'll continuing posting my ideas as the come into my head 😀

This model of the clock assembly shows the strike mechanism as far as I've got with the design plus the AW for the timepiece. The large wheel on the left with blue cam turns once per ring of the gong/bell so a cam on the axle of this will operate a clapper lever. I was planing to drive the large wheel with step down gearing from a sprocket carrying chain and weight similarly to the timepiece but I wondering whether some lateral thinking can come up with something simpler.

That print turned out to be perfect for the job and will be the final print. I've been printing more of the gears with good results. I now feel like a break from printing and looking at the design of the strike mechanism. The main parts are done but there remains an auto-winding system. With the main clock auto-winding gears taking up more than half the free space, the AW system for the strike needs something smaller. There is also the problem that the drive varies by 12 to 1 over the 12 hours unlike the timepiece which is constant.

Fixed my printer - real bed surface temperature (as read by IR thermometer) was between 30°C and 60°C lower than the thermistor indicated!! I've ordered a new heater pad and meanwhile increased bed temperature.

Not yet though but I will give it a rest until the weather looks more promising. I think the chances of getting a period of high atmospheric pressure, with frost and clear skies, sometime in the next 6 months are fairly good.

Possibly but not as much fun.

Wanna buy a ready made ROR observatory??? I might give up astro!!!!

Have a nice swim Dave 🤣

As I recall, I didn't find any OIII or SII in Simeis 147 when I imaged it several years ago.

After a problem with the bed heater, I now have my 3D printer working again and printing the 64t gear. OK so it's not blue. 😄

Yes, Roman numerals definitely need a serif font. We in the UK used to use 1,000,000,000,000 (10^12) as a billion but the US 1,000,000,000 (10^9) was adopted to bring us into line with the USA and help avoid confusion, I gather. Whether the confusion was really reduced is questionable IMO.

The thermistor is part of the heater pad. Anyway, the bed surface temperature is very uneven so I think the heater is on it's way out so I've ordered a good quality (Keenovo) heater pad for about £56 due to arrive on a slow boat from China sometime next month. Meanwhile, I've increased the bed temperature to a nominal 140°C. Bed is reading around 90°C to 100°C in the area in which I'm printing. Print seem to be going alright with the increased bed temperature.

A check with an IR thermometer has shown that the bed surface temperature varies quite a lot over the area. Also, the thermistor is reading over 20°C higher than the bed surface. With the thermistor reading 120°C the bed reads from around 80°C to 102°C. Maybe a new heater and borosilicate glass plate are indicated. It's a mains voltage heater and not cheap! OTOH this could be why the filament id not sticking to the bed.

This printer has been working well until just recently when I've been having problems with bed adhesion. I need to take and post an up-to-date picture as I have added parts cooling, filament feed and support for the umbilical cable bungle plus some tidying up. I've just given the bed a service. Cleaned the glass, taken the bed unit apart and checked the brackets etc. Then I adjusted the Z drives to get the bed as level as possible as I believe the auto-levelling works better if the bed is reasonably level to start with. I adjusted the LH drive by a few tenths of a mm to give the best levelling as indicated by the results of the Mesh Grid Compensation. The borosilicate glass plate is not flat but I've reduced the maximum error. Here are the Automatic Calibration Results top view.

Love it!!

I thought a 7 with a stroke was common to most of the Continant. In some fonts a 1 is identical to a capital I - this can be confusing!

Of course, when you're used to a full stop.

Thank you. Yes, I expect I'll find the problem in due course! No doubt something quite simple!

Much better than I'm getting ATM with my printer. Seems I have serious finger trouble or more like brain trouble in getting my settings right! Can't blame the filament - it's a new reel freshly opened and top quality.

Nice print

Nice print.

A new improved version of my "GinaRep Mini" 3D Printer. The first version used cord for the drives whereas this one will use the standard timing belt for X and Y and trapezoidal screw drive for Z. I also expect to use a stout wooden case of 18mm plywood like my Concorde printer, for maximum rigidity. This is to be a specially accurate 3D printer with option of nozzles as small as 0.2mm. Print bed will be 200mm x 200mm with around 200mm printing height. Essentially this is to be a reduced size, higher resolution, version of my Concorde printer.

Definitely!

That's an odd looking cow!! 5 teets??!! 🤣