[Boatanchors] Received my new radio-room clocks today

Fri Oct 28 21:36:15 EDT 2016

Hi Phil et. al,

With all this discussion of clocks I thought I would share a shack clock project of my own...
A few years ago I picked up an analog clock manufactured by Symmetricom on ebay for about $50. This is an analog face clock that uses network time protocol (NTP) by connecting to your network. It also convenient in that it uses power over Ethernet so that with only one Ethernet cable it can both receive power and communicate with the network.  Set it up for your timezone and the DST/ST dates and times (which is defaulted properly for the US dates) and that's it. It does the rest.

http://www.w2hx.com/x/Symmetricom/NewClock/ND-CLK.JPG

This clock provides a) very accurate time (including accurate second hand sweeping) b) automatic recovery to current time when power is interrupted c) no batteries to replace and d) automatic falling back and springing forward for daylight saving/standard time, and general coolness.

Well, I've been enjoying the clock, but my issue with the clock is that it is rather modern and I prefer something more antique looking.  

On ebay, I picked up an old "self-winding clock" that was clearly mechanically non-functional, but very attractive. I decided to attempt to take the works out of the NTP clock and integrate them into this very nice self-winding clock:

http://www.w2hx.com/x/Symmetricom/NewClock/1.JPG
http://www.w2hx.com/x/Symmetricom/NewClock/3.JPG
http://www.w2hx.com/x/Symmetricom/NewClock/5.JPG
http://www.w2hx.com/x/Symmetricom/NewClock/7.JPG
http://www.w2hx.com/x/Symmetricom/NewClock/8.JPG

First step was to open up the NTP clock, remove the guts, remove the face, remove the hands, etc.
Then, I took the motor works out, disconnected from the electronics, and mounted them on the same board that was used for the original clock motor:
http://www.w2hx.com/x/Symmetricom/NewClock/IMG_20140925_184956_779.jpg

Next was to attempt to mount the circuit board. The original clock had the board/motor oriented in this way:
http://www.w2hx.com/x/Symmetricom/NewClock/IMG_20140925_185035_743.jpg
but I couldn't use that orientation because there would be no way to affix the circuit board. So I rotated the electronics 90 degrees:
http://www.w2hx.com/x/Symmetricom/NewClock/IMG_20140925_210016_748.jpg

Once that was all affixed to the wood board, I replaced the cover (just to keep any RF out):
http://www.w2hx.com/x/Symmetricom/NewClock/IMG_20140925_210102_223.jpg

Finally I reattached the hands and remounted the wood board onto the face of the clock:
http://www.w2hx.com/x/Symmetricom/NewClock/IMG_20140925_214423_802.jpg

My one complaint here was that the hands were still very modern from the symmetricom clock. I would have preferred to use the original hands of the clock, but the holes in the hands were too large to work on the new mechanism. Perhaps, if I get bored, I might try to close up the holes in the original hands and try to make them work. So here it is working 100%!
http://www.w2hx.com/x/Symmetricom/NewClock/finished-clock.jpg

The last thing to do is to synchronize the hands with the time. This is very easy to do, and this clock is very smart. It knows the precise time, including seconds because it is connected to the network. Once you go into the "sync" function, the hands stop moving. While the hands have stopped, the clock internally continues to tick ahead with time. You simply enter in the time that you see (including seconds) and it will figure out how much error there was between what the clock really says and what it thought it said when it stopped. Once it figures out the offset, it will compensate for this, jump ahead to the current time and you're done! So even though I rotated the clock 90 degrees, using the sync function I easily change 12:00 to 3PM and all was finished.

I have since replaced the modern hands with the original hands (using the new red second sweep as the original self winding clock did not have a sweep hand. Here is the final result.
http://w2hx.com/x/Symmetricom/NewClock/finished-old-hands.jpg

It's really fun to listen to WWV and see the sweep hand cross 12 at the exact correct time. I think NTP can be accurate to about 100ms.  What I really love is whenever I lose power and the power comes back, the clock fast forwards to the correct time. And in the fall and spring, it automatically fast forwards or rewinds as appropriate at the correct time.  Love it!

Hope this was interesting to you
73 Eugene W2HX

-----Original Message-----
From: Boatanchors [mailto:boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Phil
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2016 7:12 PM
To: Boatanchors
Subject: [Boatanchors] Received my new radio-room clocks today

Today the two quartz analog clocks I ordered from Amazon arrived safe and sound.  It didn't take me long to put fresh batterie in them.  The supplied batteries look like the typical cheap Chinese Zinc Carbon ones, I don't trust them not to leak.

Then I set them up to WWV (10MHz), one on local time and one on Zulu
(GMT) time. That went quicker than finding two suitable wood screws, locating the studs in the wall, measuring and mounting them side by side.  They look very nice hanging on the radio-room wall, above my head to the left.  NOW, hopefully they'll keep good time!!  If they don't, well Amazon has a 30 day hassle free (I hope) return policy, I'm keeping the boxes etc just in case.

One thing for sure, even "Mr Magoo" (anybody remember him) should be able to see those nice large black numbers on the white 12" clock faces

I won't do anything to them until I'm absolutely certain they'll keep time, then I'll use my label maker and make labels that say "Local" and "GMT (England)" and put the labels right in the middle like we did in the military.

NOTE:  I sure miss those military clocks we had in our Comm centers.  
They were a normal "analog" clock, but with a remote battery (large dry cell if I recall correctly) and a pushbutton.  You'd listen to WWV, and press the button exactly on the hour and it'd 'zero' the second and minute hands.  Never seen anything like them in the civvy world, and I don't fully trust the so called "Atomic" clocks any longer. . .

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GK53GGS/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

--
73 de Phil, KO6BB.
Specializing in DXing NDBs (Longwave Beacons).

Location:  "The Beaconeer's Lair".
Merced, Central California, 37,18,37N  120,30,6W CM97rh KO6BB/B beacon, ~20W to a Ringo Vertical 24/7 on 28.290 MHz.
http://www.qsl.net/ko6bb/

HF/LF RADIOS:
HOMEBREW: 7 Tube+Rect 1v3 Regenerative RX for LF (built 2015)
Icom:     R-75, Cascaded 250/125Hz CW-Filt, Panadapter. (~2009)
Icom:     IC-7200 Xceiver, DSP IF & filters (~2015).
Kenwood:  TS-450SAT Xceiver, cascaded 250/125Hz Inrad filters.
SDR:      Softrock Ensemble II LF (built from a kit 2015).

ACC:   HOMEBREW  LF-MF Pre-Amp, MFJ-993B HF Auto-Tuner.
        HOMEBREW  4 Port Antenna Multicoupler, Feeds 4 RX's.
AF Filters:  Timewave  DSP-599zx & HOMEBREW  8 Hz Filter.

ANTENNAS: 88 foot Long Ladder-line fed dipole, 35 feet AGL for MW/SW.
           Active Mini-Whip, 36 Feet AGL for LF/MW/SW.
           37 foot "Low Noise Vertical", 11 feet AGL for LF/MW/SW.
           Cushcraft AR-10 Ringo at 14 feet AGL for 10M beacon.

______________________________________________________________
Boatanchors mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/boatanchors
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:Boatanchors at mailman.qth.net

List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF
** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html