alt Hacker NewsFixing the Portobello Police Station Clock
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One of the factors for the location I bought my house was the church bell that would ring on the hour from 8am to 9pm. The neighbors had the curch turn it off. :(
Maybe you could get this one to do 9am, noon, 3pm, 6pm weekdays, so you get the sound, but not the annoyance?
Wild seeing local stuff on HN. My dad used to work in that police station, probably the first (and only) HN story I’ll send him.
I love this. Any advice how to get involved in my local community in a similar way? I'd be so into doing some community project during my free time.
> The "Status" LED flashes some kind of code - long long, short short short. I assumed the number of flashes would correspond to the time but apparently not. We didn't have time to figure this out before we had to leave.
long-long-short-short-short is 7 in morse code. They don't say what time they tried this or if it ever changed, though, so that's just a hypothesis.
The battery on that circuit looks very much like a backup battery we have connected to our house alarm.
We moved in to the house in 2003 and that battery died this year, so I would imagine that it is already or will very soon die. That said, if it's a backup battery and the electricity supply is stable then it may not make any difference.
Next time you're in Baltimore, be sure to visit the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower where you can see its gravity-driven pendulum clock. It's a beautiful mechanism with a very specific claim to fame: "The clockworks is the largest four dial gravity driven non-chiming clock in the world with the magnificent 24ft dials."
https://www.bromoseltzertower.com/about/virtual-tour
(The elevator motors are also up there so there's a lot going on.)
What a lovely blog in general: some really fun retro-computing projects, written up in a very thoughtful, human way. Feels like a throwback to the earlier hacking spirit of the internet. Thank you, Colin: your "experiment with writing" is a success as far as I'm concerned!
If you enjoyed this, here's Fred Dibnah exploring Big Ben and discussing some of the engineering details. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi1cqR1bJC4
Fred Dibnah was a treasure. If you enjoyed 5 minutes of Big Ben, here's an hour of his day job in heavy industrial steeplejacking - "The Ups and Downs of Chimneys" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK2wF_-yoEg
Such a pleasant surprise to wake up and see my hometown at the top of hackernews!
Ahh this made me like the internet today, thank you
There's a Reddit user who posts in a car repair subreddit about his work repairing bell-tower equipment. Very cool.
> Written on 11th April
> I had hoped we could do a "test" by letting the clock chime thirteen
What in the Orwell
i wish i could fix The Sun clock on Broadway and Chambers
it's literally kittycorner from City Hall, and hasn't been running for a while...
i'd do it for free if i knew who to even bother about getting up into it
If you like old buildings, clock and bell mechanisms, or rigging, there's a fascinating series of bell tower repair videos on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/@DingDongitsthebellguy
He also posts on reddit under dingdongbellguy
This sounds like such a fun project, especially to share with like minded friends.
Does it work on a gear and pinion principle or an AC synchronous motor?
I want friends like that!
Obviously, the next logical step is a Home Assistant integration.
"a circuit board which definitely was not from 1877" ;)
Gorgeous building and a nice wee pub across from it! A couple of friends of mine used to stay not far from there.
I've half an idea I did some networky stuff for the Community Wardens probably around the time that chime box was fitted - if you see anything marked Alvarion or Ceragon, it's probably got my real name on it somewhere.
I'd love to poke about in there some time, maybe if I'm down in that part of the world I can jump in and volunteer to help too.
One of many old clocks in Edinburgh that needs fixing. The one on the Balmoral Hotel had to get a lot of work done.
There were three identical street clocks in Edinburgh that the council there have tried to remove. They succeeded with the one at Tollcross.
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They don’t seem to be in contact with the people who actually fixed it.
Seeing the number of holes in that ceiling I really am concerned that the floor the clock is on is the same as the one with the holes, and I would advise that you secure the floor if you return to the attic.
How fun! Once, after climbing around in a dusty old church attic like this, I had to head straight to the airport for a flight. Barely made it on because something in the dust kept flagging as dangerous. They were using a test strip on my backpack and clothing and analyzing it in some kind of machine. Stressful as I was already pressed for time! Finally got a clean test and they let me through.