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Wobbly clock

somethingorotherwhatever.com

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Re: Wobbly clock

#41

Post by quietbritishjim »

hammock wrote: post #38

Would be cool to build one of these in real life! Doesn't seem that hard to build, perhaps hard to calibrate though.

I don't see how a real life one could be made to look exactly the same (but I could be missing something).

The seems to have something that stops the end of it moving on until enough tension has built up to side underneath it. That much is fair enough. But then that same thing stopping the end would also prevent the same satisfying wiggle when it gets to the next position because it overshoots immediately.

The only thing I can think of is that the restraining pins move in and out is the clock have at just the right time but that would be quite a fiddly implementation and probably affect the visuals

Re: Wobbly clock

#42

Post by QuadmasterXLII »

quietbritishjim wrote: post #41
hammock wrote: post #38

Would be cool to build one of these in real life! Doesn't seem that hard to build, perhaps hard to calibrate though.

I don't see how a real life one could be made to look exactly the same (but I could be missing something). The seems to have something that stops the end of it moving on until enough tension has built up to side underneath it. That much is fair enough. But then that same thing stopping the end would also prevent the same satisfying wiggle when it gets to the next position because it overshoots immediately. The only t…

You could get close by having the restraining pins hold the tip at 5N + 1 seconds instead of at 5N seconds

Re: Wobbly clock

#43

Post by moistofreason »

quietbritishjim wrote: post #41
hammock wrote: post #38

Would be cool to build one of these in real life! Doesn't seem that hard to build, perhaps hard to calibrate though.

I don't see how a real life one could be made to look exactly the same (but I could be missing something). The seems to have something that stops the end of it moving on until enough tension has built up to side underneath it. That much is fair enough. But then that same thing stopping the end would also prevent the same satisfying wiggle when it gets to the next position because it overshoots immediately. The only t…

You’d need a mechanism at each 5 minute mark that grabbed the hand and released it at the appropriate time, then you could make the hands a s Wobbly as you want

Re: Wobbly clock

#44

Post by wussboy »

amelius wrote: post #8
naillo wrote: post #5

Wild to get a "This project has received too many requests, please try again later." message for what I assume is just a static page. Makes me make a note to self not to use glitch.me

Perhaps they serve requests in bursts, just like how this clock works.

Some sort of "wobble server" technology?

Re: Wobbly clock

#45

Post by shagie »

quietbritishjim wrote: post #41
hammock wrote: post #38

Would be cool to build one of these in real life! Doesn't seem that hard to build, perhaps hard to calibrate though.

I don't see how a real life one could be made to look exactly the same (but I could be missing something). The seems to have something that stops the end of it moving on until enough tension has built up to side underneath it. That much is fair enough. But then that same thing stopping the end would also prevent the same satisfying wiggle when it gets to the next position because it overshoots immediately. The only t…

A physical implementation could use magnets to hold to the specific spots. Once enough torque is built on trying to move the hand, it would snap out of place and would then find the next magnet and 'hold' onto that spot.

As an aside, I'm not sure that doing this for the hour hand is a "good" idea. The difference between 10:00 am and 11:00 am is significant and needing to check how much the bend is doesn't "feel" right.

(late edit thought) If we're getting to the "this is controlled by some other system that doesn't need to be purely mechanical", having an electromagnet on at the right spot that then toggles off at one 5m increment and on at the next so that there's only one magnet active at a time could reduce possible issues of having the wiggle/snap attach to the wrong magnet.

Re: Wobbly clock

#47

Post by GrumpyNl »

quietbritishjim wrote: post #41
hammock wrote: post #38

Would be cool to build one of these in real life! Doesn't seem that hard to build, perhaps hard to calibrate though.

I don't see how a real life one could be made to look exactly the same (but I could be missing something). The seems to have something that stops the end of it moving on until enough tension has built up to side underneath it. That much is fair enough. But then that same thing stopping the end would also prevent the same satisfying wiggle when it gets to the next position because it overshoots immediately. The only t…

You can use a rubber second hand and put a nail at the 5 seconds, same effect.

Re: Wobbly clock

#48

Post by throwaway744678 »

ColinWright wrote: post #21
microjim wrote: post #20

Do hands release from the line they're on at the point of the next time increment being reached (meaning, by the time they hit the next line, they'll be late) or does it kindly release earlier, affording time for the hand to travel to and arrive at the next line in time for it to represent the current time?

Just by observing it, when the machine clock clicked to 14:20 (UK time) the second hand snapped to the vertical and the minute hand snapped to the 4 (the 20 minute mark). Does that answer your question? I don't know what I can do that you couldn't do for yourself, so maybe I'm not understanding your question.

I believe GP's question was: does the hand get released at 14:20 or 100ms before 14:20 to have it reach its position at exactly the right time, accounting for the animation delay.

Re: Wobbly clock

#49

Post by maybe_pablo »

GrumpyNl wrote: post #47
quietbritishjim wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how a real life one could be made to look exactly the same (but I could be missing something). The seems to have something that stops the end of it moving on until enough tension has built up to side underneath it. That much is fair enough. But then that same thing stopping the end would also prevent the same satisfying wiggle when it gets to the next position because it overshoots immediately. The only t…

You can use a rubber second hand and put a nail at the 5 seconds, same effect.

That would probably prevent the wobble if the nails are not automatically retracted.

Re: Wobbly clock

#50

Post by mprovost »

agys wrote: post #39

Made me think about the Swiss Railways clock that has the second hand completing the circle in 58.5 seconds; all the clocks on the network then wait for the sync signal from the “master clock". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_railway_clock

I love those clocks! But from memory, the second hand gets "stuck" at 12 and then when it moves again, the minute hand advances at the same time. On this one, the minute hand jumps forward at the same time that the second hand goes to 12.
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