Clock Bargain

Clock Bargain

What do you do when you see a clock for sale for one pound?
You buy seven, of course.

Then you attach them to a board and there you go, a timezone array clock thing (I'm still not sure what these things are called).

The location labels are CNC routed out of a plastic that I took ages to source that has a white layer on top of a black substrate. It took ages, not to find it, but to find it at a reasonable price. It's really nice when routed, and has an old-school type of look to it. This plastic was used a lot in the sixties and seventies for labelling electronic equipment controls.

The whole thing didn't cost too much more than the bargain £7 for the clocks, either. The board is made from scrap and recycled packing case material, and I bought more of the expensive label material than I needed here, so I will use that on other projects.
Seven batteries is a not insignificant cost, either.

Canon Selphy Printer Cartridge Transplant

Canon Selphy Printer Cartridge Transplant

I recently fixed a canon Selphy 740 printer, (see here). As the repair was successful I then needed some more cartridges for it. It doesn't use ink, it uses a dye sublimation process (I think) that takes a multicoloured film and transfers the coloured material to the paper in a sequence of passes. The cartridges are pretty expensive, so I bought some non-original versions as they were a bit cheaper. All was well and I printed some photos with the replica cartridges. Then I tried another cartridge I had bought and it didn't work. I tried the first one again and it was fine. After a few prints I worked out that two of the three cartridges I had bought didn't print reliably. Oh dear.

I contacted the supplier but didn't really want to go through the hassle of returning the cartridges. The Canon cartridges were very reliable so I wondered if the replicas were mechanically slightly different. Could I take the film from the replica and put it into an empty Canon case?

The cartridge case clips together so it is simple to unclip it and get access to the film:

I then swapped the film over and clipped the Canon cartridge together again:

The Canon part had a metal rod holding the film down, the replica had a plastic rod. I don't think this could be the cause of the problem I saw, I think it's more likely that the ratchet mechanism that is used wasn't unlatching.

Does the transplant work? Yes it does:

It takes a while to swap the film, but you get the cost savings and you can print. You do need a few canon cartidges first, though, and I only have two.

DIY "Digital" Watch

DIY "Digital" Watch

OK, it's digital in that it's made of bits. From ebay. It's actually mechanical and uses a movement, case and strap from ebay and a couple of 3D printed movement rings to hold it all in the case. The current setup is this:

I bought really cheap parts, and had a few adventures along the way but I have finally got somewhere. I started by buying a Chinese movement that might be based on the ETA 2824, or not. I also bout a case which is better than I thought it would be, and a bracelet. I also bought some hands to fit on the movement. For some reason that I can't remember I part dismantled the movement, I can't remember why. There must have been a reason as I intended to just fit the movement in the case. Anyway, in the process I managed to shear a screw (left and thread, I though they were marked with three slots?) and lose a click spring. I have subsequently managed to make a click spring and replace the sheared off screw with a new one, and the movement works again.

While I was wondering if I'd ever fix the movement I bought another one (even cheaper than the first), as a replacement for the broken one. It was about £11 on ebay and I found out that that isn't really enough money to make a decent movement. The move expensive movement was £22 and that does seem to be enough, just). The cannon pinion never worked properly and the movement kept awful time, simply because the minute and hour hands weren't moving. I eventually gave up on this movement, I may have another go at getting it to work sometime.

At the same time as buying the second movement I bought a correct sized dial, which was very nice. Unfortunately the dial doesn't fit the dial mount on the first movement so I can't use it. I may get another one if I feel like it.

The dial is held in the case with a 3D printed ring, you can see it in the photo above. The movement is also held in place with a 3D printed ring. The case has a clear back, which I didn't deliberately look for, but turned out to be useful when I was sizing and adjusting 3D printed parts:

The movement is automatic, so should and does appear to wind itself.

So, this is an alternative to the digital watches I've been trying to make, and stalled on for the time being, it tells the time, doesn't need batteries and shows the date. That covers most of what I want it to do.