Linear Ratchet Clock 

I hate when a video like this does not have more views

Leo is a clever engineer, and he has a good way of explaining his work.

Its amazing- You are lion of the jungle of technology you have great Ideas for product designing- I really appreciate your technical skill👍

Really admire your tenacity in holding the design tenets true in the face of poor substitute alternatives.

Mechanisms like that are just so satisfying to watch!

Thanks a lot for you great work. I learned so many thinks from you.

Brilliant Project and Inspiring.

Cool projects and cool shirts, as always!

The project is as nice as your video. Very didactic and organised.

Fun change of pace to mechanism design! Thanks for walking us through all the challenges and lessons learned...very educational!

The eddy current brake is a brilliant idea!

I like it!

I'm binge watching your content, so much cool stuff - well done!

Would something like a lead-screw mechanism work for driving the tape? I've seen stepper motors where the lead-screw passes through them. Affix the motor to the base and the lead-screw to the tape. The actuation time doesn't appear to be critical since you're advancing once a minute, so the motor could be stepped slowly enough to eliminate any noise. Since you'd be using a lead-screw, there would be a tendency for it to hold position through friction, and you wouldn't need to maintain holding current on the stepper motor coils. Or perhaps a small brushless motor that's gear reduced, although you'd need a twp position gear selector (one gear position to move the tape up, another for down). If the timing and gearing were correct, you could eliminate the microcontroller althogether.

Thanks for the great video! Annealing a bimetal blade with high speed steel teeth would be extremely challenging. It might be possible with a carbon steel blade. It's important to cool down very slowly. Warping is usually due to uneven heat distribution; typically avoided by packing in inert powders, such as lime or vermiculite, although sometimes you can get away with simply burying in hot ash.

Hi Leo - that ratchet in a slightly different form can be seen in electrical push switches.

Now that it's been some times you've posted the video, how about a follow-up ? Can we see the finished product ? And what is the name of those plants ?

Love the design. Try shape memory alloy (thin nitinol wire) as an actuator, it constricts in length by a few % when heated directly by current. You have plenty of length and it would be smooth as well as silent. Edit: Sprite_tm beat me to it!

Fascinating approach to showing the time, and a very satisfying mechanism too! Has given me inspiration for my own project, thanks for sharing. I wonder if a small stepper motor and some gentle drive waveforms might help you overcome the noise issue.

Incredible 👍

You may want to look at muscle wire to do the movement... it moves only a small amount per meter and it's fairly slow (as it works thermally) but given the size of the clock and the speed of the movement, it may just do the trick. And it's entirely noiseless to boot.

I want to see the final product! And watch it drop. Can you post a video?

Wow, that is a great accomplishment. You'll definitely need some determination to beat all the obstacles. Like having to 3d print a plastic part again because the shape isn't working.

Super cool,

You're really good on camera. Great job, Leo! Love your videos. ^^

A very nice design. I wonder if you have made any changes. A BLDC motor would take car of the noise. A harden pin sleeve would roll on the tooth and prevent some wear issue. I hope to see a follow-up.

I like the eddy current brake. I thought the background noise (birds?) was coming from outside my house.

Great project! Perhaps consider SMA (shape memory alloy) wire actuators to replace the servos. That would eliminate the noise issue.

Nice video. Many clever and well designed mechanisms and nice use of eddy current to brake the descent. Have you considered to harden the tip of the spring instead of softening the blade? Or maybe make just the tip of the spring from the same material as the blade.

Cool project! Really enjoyed watching it!

love it, i wonder if you could impelement counter saw blade to move upwards instead of the tape ribbon. i could eliminate the need of the servo motor.

Really cool video! A stepper motor could be a little less noisy compared to a geared servo. (+ It could play a tune)

That was really satisfying. Cool project! Would it be possible to use a solenoid with a "motor controller" that ramps up the current slowly, making the motion more smooth and quiet?

Just insane. I love clocks and building them but this is off the charts. You should've used a stepper motor with a silent driver if the sound bugged ya. Was that poly carbonate filament you used? Your printer is very dialed in. Once again, amazing stuff. You need to post more often haha

My first thoughts watching you move a wire up a saw blade is worn steel on steel?

If you used a solenoid, could you drive it with just a 555 timer? And is the clicking of the solenoid just from impact? Could you put some sort of padding inside or make a custom quieter one?

Nice work. Instead of using a saw blade make one your shelf (without its saw functionality) maybe from CuZn and a few millimeters thick.

can I ask how you bend your wires to be precise? By hand? Many thanks for the video!!!!

👍

Rather than attempting the soften the blame, why not put a hardened tip on the ratchet wire? Or maybe even a rotating collar that cover the tip?

Instead of annealing the blade, why not put 4-5 blades on top of each other? You can even spot weld them together to act like a single object. The thicker teeth wont be that harsh on the tiny spring wire. Or maybe I'm also missing something obvious....:)

I’m intrigued by the design integration process around the design of the latch mechanism. How much was done using the CAD software, and how much was done by printing a draft, testing and modding that assembly and then transferring the learning back to the 3D CAD model?

Your ratchet teeth are too sharp. Take some sand-paper and dull the teeth to cut down on the wear.