Mark Frank | Astro-skeleton, Seconds hand acting erratically @MarkFrankclocks | Uploaded 2 years ago | Updated May 12 2024
This video shows a significant problem we encountered during the debugging process which was begun in February. It is apparent that the seconds hand is acting erratically. As designed, it should move ahead consistently every two seconds; in line with the two second period pendulums. In this video we observe several seconds skipped, hiccups and even the hand moving backwards.
Look carefully at the escapement wheels to the right, they are not acting erratically. In fact the clock will still keep good time, it is only the second hand that is suffering the feedback.
The reason it did not appear until now is that the machine has now undergone final finishing and everything is now running with the minimum of friction. It turns out that some of the mechanisms we had to install to deal with the moving mass of the large remontoire, began to show through feedback to the seconds hand. The solution is NOT to reintroduce friction, but to design a solution for the problem since those systems are still needed. That solution and a more detailed explanation of the problem can be found here: http://www.my-time-machines.net/astro_04-21.htm .
This video shows a significant problem we encountered during the debugging process which was begun in February. It is apparent that the seconds hand is acting erratically. As designed, it should move ahead consistently every two seconds; in line with the two second period pendulums. In this video we observe several seconds skipped, hiccups and even the hand moving backwards.
Look carefully at the escapement wheels to the right, they are not acting erratically. In fact the clock will still keep good time, it is only the second hand that is suffering the feedback.
The reason it did not appear until now is that the machine has now undergone final finishing and everything is now running with the minimum of friction. It turns out that some of the mechanisms we had to install to deal with the moving mass of the large remontoire, began to show through feedback to the seconds hand. The solution is NOT to reintroduce friction, but to design a solution for the problem since those systems are still needed. That solution and a more detailed explanation of the problem can be found here: http://www.my-time-machines.net/astro_04-21.htm .