DIY Moon Phase Dial

[Gina]

Motor collar fitted into gear and attached to motor shaft.

[Gina]

Have the clock running in fast forward mode under test.  So far so good - clock is running well and all gears have good clearance between teeth of one gear and the meshing one.  Motor is running warm rather than hot with CPU heatsink.  With the wooden "sounding board" it's quite noisy when running fast as expected but the gears don't make a noise running normally - there's just a regular burst of sound from the motor.  I might line the back with foam to deaden it.  The moon drive is working perfectly.

[Stu]

Excellent stuff Gina, you must be chuffed with that?

[Gina]

Thank you - yes, I think I may have cracked it at last

[Gina]

"Running in" the new gears and I think it's quietened down quite a bit   I didn't do anything to the new motor gear after removing it from the perf board other than to make a hole for the motor shaft clamping screw ie. no filing off of blobs etc. so I expect the blobs are wearing off.  I'll inspect it closely later.  If anyone is wondering why I haven't put the hands back, it's because the minute hand has gone "walkabout" and is in hiding!  If it doesn't show up soon I'll print another.

[Gina]

I decided to reprint the minute hand.  For one thing it wanted a bigger pointer end to take the magnet properly - gluing it on was not very successful.  And the original is still missing.

[Gina]

Hands fitted and testing Hall sensing.  A wire had come off the circuit board stopping the hour sensor from working.  Wire soldered back on and hour sensor now working but the minute isn't.  I might have got the magnet a bit too low so I'll redesign the minute hand and reprint.

[Gina]

All working fine now   Clock is just 5s slow which can be corrected in the sketch and is due to the exact position of the minute hand when the Hall sensor detects its magnet.  The buzz from the stepper motor is a bit louder than I would like so I might look into quietening it down.  In the meantime I'll install it on the wall and see how it goes.  And I'll take a photo or two.

[Gina]

OK - changed the offset from 10s to 15s and the clock is correct to the second

[Gina]

A couple of photos of the clock on the wall.  Second one shows the radio digital controlled clock too - the latter is always a couple of seconds fast for some strange reason.

[saac]

Gina, congratulations on  the print quality of the gears and the fitments of the bearings, they look so much better.  Do you suspect that part of the problem you were having with maintaining accurate time was related to the previous quality and tolerances on the gears?  Overall this is one of the coolest looking DIY projects I have seen - you'll need to select a prominent place to show it off, it will be a real conversation piece.

 

Jim

[Gina]

Thanks Jim   The accurate time problem was due to using an inappropriate geared stepper motor.  Had the gearbox really been 64:1 as advertised it would have been fine but that was only an approximation and the actual ratio is/was a very strange number!  The poor quality gears and trying to get too high a ratio in a single pair caused a total stoppage rather than inaccuracies.

It is certainly in a prominant place and will be the main timepiece in my living room though it won't be the biggest.  The latter will be my long case clock with a clock face of 18" x 24" (450mm x 600mm approx.).  Like the usual long case clock this will have a pendulum and be weight driven.  It will also have a perpetual calendar correct until the end of the century.  But it won't have a seconds dial - at least not to start with.

I'm not sure the white hour wheel looks right amongst all the yellow gears and I'm not sure about the bare wood back panel from a colour point of view.  Overall I think the clock looks a bit cluttered too.

[Stub Mandrel]

Rapid progress now. Starting to think the plain wood looks better than a card backing.

[Gina]

Nighttime view.

[Gina]

The noise from the motor definitely needs sorting out.  I think the solution will be to mount the motor on sponge rubber so that the vibration isn't transmitted to the case.

[Stub Mandrel]

Yes looks good - definitely keep the bare wood!

[Gina]

The clock is still accurate to the second after just over three days.  I plan to leave it where it is until either I get the pendulum clock working or I get fed up with the noise from the motor.

[saac]

Gina don't know if it helps but when I added stepper motors to my old mount I placed a small sheet of rubber cut from an old bicycle inner tube to act as isolation.  It worked a treat and killed the noise/vibration.  The inner tube material was thin enough so as not to interfere with the spacing of the motor brackets etc.

Jim

[Gina]

Thanks Jim   I have offcuts of rubber roofing from my observatory roof.

[Gina]

Had a friend here this afternoon and my moon clock was much admired

[Gina]

I think I might make a moon phase clock for my observatory warm room but a simpler one than this.

[saac]

3 hours ago, Gina said:

Had a friend here this afternoon and my moon clock was much admired

And understandably so, it really is a delightful and clever thing you have crafted Gina.  I know your'e still thinking about whether to put the card back in and it is such a personal taste thing but here's my though.  I can't help but think a nice blue card to represent the sky with a few of your favourite constellations subtly printed on, almost like a watermark so as not to be too overwhelming.  As I said a very personal taste thing, but as it stands now I would be really proud of it. Inspirational

 

Jim   

[Gina]

Thank you very much Jim

[Pan Euro]

The clock looks very nice Gina, you should be very proud of your accomplishment.

Ed

[Gina]

Thanks Ed