[GreenKeys] Off topic you say? Here's your off topic!

[Frank Carraro]

  -----Original Message-----
  From: gil at baudot.net [mailto:gil at baudot.net]
  Sent: Sunday, April 21, 2013 8:22 PM
  To: Frank Carraro; greenkeys at mailman.qth.net
  Subject: RE: [GreenKeys] Off topic you say? Here's your off topic!


  Hey Frank:


  Sheesh, that dear moderator doesn't know diddly-squat.  A collection of clocks going back beaucoup years ya say?  Beaucoup;  that's fun to say.


  Kinda interesting that you would mention synchronizing clocks, since I want to do the same thing.  I am in the middle of a design that has an ethernet port and a wireless transceiver.  The ethernet part is using microchip's tcpip stack with my code wrapped around it.  Besides connecting sockets for data I also want to be able to pull time and date from one of the many time services on the net.  In addition to keeping my own rtc updated, I want to broadcast a time/date update around the building, for clocks and such to use.  I plan to use a nice little fcc-certified 2.4GHz module, also from microchip, for the wireless section.  One possible-gotcha is that the fcc does not seem to want any "periodic" data sent on their precious license-free bands (eg: 315, 418, 433, 2.4G), so I plan to randomize the timing of the low-rep-rate update broadcasts.  I also want to have temperature and other stuff returned, in an equally random fashion.  An rf collision here and there won't matter, as another update will be coming.



  Now you want an hourly update, but then you also have cable available.  You could probably just get time from the nearest computer, with a little code and a usb-serial adapter and a little circuitry to drive your cables and clock solenoids.  Don't forget the freewheeling diode across the solenoid coil.


  gil




  gil smith
  greenkeys moderator
  gil at baudot.net[Frank Carraro]     

          Well it sounds like an ESE clock is what I need, but I don't have $1100 or so to lay out on this project.  So, a USB-serial device souns like a good start.  I stopped writing software when BASIC/Fortran went out of style, so I will consult one of the computer geeks around there.
      A couple of GREAT sites from several of you really help.   I think this project will get off the ground.  Wonderful when current technology can be used to make antiques run again!

  Frank 




    -------- Original Message --------
    Subject: [GreenKeys] Off topic you say? Here's your off topic!
    From: "Frank Carraro" <kf9nz at sbcglobal.net>
    Date: Sun, April 21, 2013 4:27 pm
    To: <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>

    Since our dear moderator enjoys them from time-to-time, here's one from a
    greenkeyer who's been here since before the internet and windoze. RE:
    WESTERN UNION TIME SERVICE and related stuff.
    I have contact with an entity (how's that for keeping it undercover) who
    has a collection of Western Union and Self-Winding clocks going back
    beaucoup years. I have information on how they work, and have restored a
    Self-Winding (made by the Co. of that name) that quit self winding to
    operation. What I want to do is to install several of these clocks in
    different places on the - shall we say - "campus" or group of buildings,
    and build a circuit (there's plenty of twisted pair around) linking these
    clocks - the easy part - with a system that receives time signals off of the
    internet and translates it into every-even-hour pulses to maintain these
    clocks on time. The latter is the hard part.

    Some of the info I have about the WU service is interesting. Even into the
    '40's and '50's the service cost like $2.50 a month, and installation was
    around $20.00. WU had a catalog of over a dozen different clocks - even
    desk clocks. In the early days you could buy your own clock from The
    Self-Winding Clock Co (N.Y. and Chi.) and have WU supply the service. They
    were powered by two No. 6 dry cells which ran the motor that wound the
    clock every hour.

    Let's have a good O-T scramble now.

    Frank

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

    2002-to-present greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
    1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
    Randy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search Tool: http://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html

    This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
    Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20130422/9e1eb763/attachment.html>