Clock pendulum Regulator
Thanks for the response from you all.
I have learnt my first lesson in this Forum, give more info else the thread will never end. I wanted to be as brief as possible, but will now take a new approach.
I repair and restore church clocks. This started as a hobby a few years ago when I retired.
These clocks are not quarts driven and many are still hand wound since they are 50 years and some even more than 100 years old. It is a mission to keep them on time once fixed.
I developed a system to regulate the rate of the clock by "interfering" with the swing of the pendulum.
I have the first system running. It is a logic arrangement with three relays, two transistors to amplify the pulse per second from a GPS receiver, and a few more bits and pieces which I will call the controller. I installed it a few weeks ago and it works beautifully.
The controller receives the PPS from the GPS, the transistors amplify the pulse, this pulse goes via two glass reed switches in close proximity to the pendulum to which a permanent magnet is fitted. This pulse then passes through to the controller whenever the pendulum is out by more than a few milliseconds and thus passes over a reed switch which closes the contacts. The controller then sends 12V @ 1Amp to the gadget which will correct the pendulum's swing. It works very well, but my aim is to replace this with a board without mechanical parts. Also, the pendulum of most of these big clocks swing 27 times per minute (ticks 54 times per minute). Very few tick 60 per minute and some only 30 per minute.
So, my present controller only works for very few clocks. I need the GPS pulse per second to be divided by 10 so that the pulse always coincides with the pendulum of ALL clocks in a predictable position when the pulse arrives. One size fits all, in other words.
What I have so far:
Darlington pair to amplify the GPS pulse, 4017 to divide by 10 (here is my problem), the divided pulse goes via reed switches, when it passes through one of the reed switches it will go to one of the two 555 timers, one for slow and one for fast. One of these timers will then send a 9 second amplified current to the gadget that does the regulation. Then the system rests until the clock is out once more. This will happen infrequently as the clock should also be able to keep reasonable time.
It effectively keeps the divided pulse between the two reed switches. So, if the pulse from the 4017 is 1 second, it will fire both reed switches every beat.
It takes the pendulum (about) one second to swing from one side to the other. In half its path I have one reed switch about a quarter from the swing extreme on the left and another a quarter from the right, so the time taken from one reed switch to the next is less than 500ms, When the pulse coincides with one reed switch while closed by the magnet the pulse goes through and the system will adjust the rate, lets say faster. When it coincides with the other reed switch in the closed position, the clock needs to slow down.
I do NOT have an electronics background, but I am learning fast. So, I have some questoins.
Audioguru, what is a highpass filter?
MikeMI, you are way above me. It looks interesting, can you explain more?
3v0, Sorry, I agree with MikeMI, it will take me forever and I want to build something I understand and fix when it breaks.
bychon, I am so with you on this.
rogs, Sorry, I have wasted your time. After reading the above you will see I need to use the 4017 to get a pulse every 10 seconds. The accuracy of the pulse is taken care of by the American Defense Force and that is to the nanosecond, so less work for me. The clock will be accurate year after year. All I need at this stage is to shrink the output from the 4017. Sure I will need more help after that.
MikeMI, 3V0, Yes, let me get past the present hurdle and I will attempt the PICs. I am also a computer programmer and have done some work in C many years ago. Assembler, no thanks.
Ubergeek63 You may have something here, but I cannot see it through. So the 10th pulse from the 4017 will go forward and do its work, but also stop/reset the 4017? Pls give more info.
Mikebits Yes, you are right. Above I hope I gave a full description of what I want to do.
Please note that in South Africa we sleep while most of you are posting, so have patience with me.