Gina

The forum software seems to have some weird ideas of the meaning of some words. One reason may be that it's US based and they often have different meanings for words from what we have in the UK. I'm afraid I get annoyed sometimes when I have the most appropriate word but the software rejects it!

Cattle are usually alright - they are very inquisitive and will come up to you stopping about a foot away. If you go towards them they back off. Just walk slowly and certainly don't run or they may run and if you fall they may not be able to stop. Even a bull can be alright on his own but same things apply. Main problem with cattle is their size/weight - don't get between them and a wall.

Very wise. Good luck with your convalescence.

My guess is that they just want it out of the way and don't want to pay the costs.

I've never found the need to degas a Christmas pud! 🤣

Do you have a mono image?

New assembly model.

Changed to mod 3 for the motor drive to the epicyclic gears and it fits nicely.

Here is a new model of the clock assembly. The modulus of the driving gears (green and blue) has been increased to 2.75 but I think 3 would be better. The epicyclic gears are mod 2.5. I'm showing the latest gears as solid until I am sure it's the final design, then I'll add spokes.

Latest design :- Motor gear with 25t driving the epicyclic system gear if 64t mod 2.5. Gear is 163mm OD. Epicyclic gears will be 49t fixed and 50t driving the 6t auto-winding sprocket with 8t pinion mounted on the 64t gear.

The above makes the biggest gear 160mm OD. This would make the drive gear more than mod 2.5. So now trying epicyclic ratio of 40. Overall ratio required = 128:1 If the epicyclic gear ratio were 40 the epicyclic drive gear could be 80t say. Motor gear ratio would be 80:25. Total ratio would be 40x80/25 = 128 [tick] Later... No joy with that. The 80t gear would be 200mm OD and that's too big.

With a 25t gear on the motor it should be possible to use a 50:1 reduction in the epicyclic gearing. Overall ratio required = 128:1 If the epicyclic gear ratio were 50 the epicyclic drive gear could be 64t say. Motor gear ratio would be 64:25. Total ratio would be 50x64/25 = 128 [tick] Now to see how big the epicyclic drive gear is with mod 2.5.

It would be nice if I could use the 25t gear on the motor that drives the pendulum to drive the auto-winding as well but a 4:1 ratio would mean a 100t gear to match which would be far too large. A 50t gear would give only 2:1 and need a 64t gear on the epicyclic drive. The upshot of this is that a tooth size of mod 3 is too big for an epicyclic gear system in the space available. It may be possible to juggle modulus with gear ratios to make this possible. Some of the gears in the clock already are mod 2.5 so this should be feasible for the auto-winding system.

With a 1024Hz square wave from the RTC, the reduction required is 128:1. The trouble with ratchet wheels is complication - needs ratchet wheel, fixed pawl and driven pawl plus a crank arrangement. Advantage is it gives a high reduction ratio bur there are other ways of getting a high reduction ratio viz. worm gear and epicyclic gearing. I don't think a worm gear lends itself to printed plastic. The epicyclic gear system as used in my Giant Wall Clock might be an alternative to ratchet wheel. A 64:1 ratio with 63t and 64 t gears would be rather too large with decent sized teeth but 32:1 should be doable with 31t & 32t gears and mod 3 size teeth. Dividing 128 by 32 gives 4, an easy gear ratio.

Using the 4096Hz square wave from the clock module wanted a step-down ratio of 512:1. The ratchet wheel has 64 teeth so that leaves 8:1 ratio. If I changed to 1024Hz the remaining step-down would only be 2:1. This would mean the pendulum drive gears would need to be a 25:16 step-up ratio. Not sure this would be a good idea, though admittedly the load is very light. There isn't a setting of 2048Hz though this could be simulated in the Arduino sketch.

Another plan...

I think I might put the auto-winding and pendulum pushing stepper motor below the clock face (hood) behind the body door. I don't think all the auto-winding mechanism needs to be in full view and I think it would make things a lot easier.

Back plate added to show space available.

Components of the striking mechanism hidden.

CAD assembly model.

Yes, me too.

Nice.

Yes, I like the colours too. Very nice image.

Lovely.