Do you have the time Grandad?

[FlipNascar]

Yes. Yes you do. Because it might not be the first KSP clock. But it's certainly a waste of time. And now you can have it. And do nothing but curse it with its 531 parts.

The jets' exhaust spin the cogs. The two cogs that are driven by the jets are intertwined so that they stay in sync. On their shafts is a single extra tooth that will grab and drag the pendulum to simulate it. Off of one of the main drive cogs it drives a smaller shaft to transfer the motion to the front of the clock, where we then drive yet another cog that is our clock's hand. Through a little No Offset Limits magic we have a clock hand that's low in part count and complexity. Because there's already enough that can go wrong and jam. Something like 8 possible points of contention for the cogs to get stuck and no longer mesh... Peak cogs?

To operate: Stage once.

Full power.

Watch and wait for it to get stuck.

To unstick try "a" and "d" keys to wiggle the wheels and hopefully dislodge the stuck mesh collider.

If that fails, cycle the gear. There are landing gear legs that can help unfreeze the pendulum.

If that fails. Time is up, and thus you should restart. Or try cutting the throttle and letting the engines spool down. Then do some wiggles. And try again.

I'd like to have fixed those sticking niggles, but it's impossible (for me at least) to find the root cause of them... It's just going to stick, and there's no set time between sticking. There are no fewer than I think 8 separate cogs in the mechanism ranging from one tooth to I think 20 that are reliant on eachother to work correctly.

Pull it apart and cry at my poor engineering. Or, improve it and make a better one! I dare you. And if you do build you own... Why not enter it into the clock building challenge?

Download from KerbalX

Edited September 29, 2015 by FlipNascar

[Sharkman Briton]

Good to see it finished! And looking at the pictures of the mechanism made my head hurt.

[FlipNascar]

Good to see it finished! And looking at the pictures of the mechanism made my head hurt.

Building it made my head hurt. Never again.

[pTrevTrevs]

I've always wondered why grandfather clocks have pendulums. I'm pretty sure that the pendulum is what turns the cogs and runs the clock, but yours obviously doesn't do that...

[Bubbadevlin]

That is pretty amazing... looks absolutely GREAT

[Gaalidas]

That's some really insane stuff there. But... it's also the logical next step. After that, I say it's time to make it fly. Seriously... how hard could it be?

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Very impressive!

[Red Dwarf]

Hey guys, do you remember space ships? I remember space ships.

Sometimes I show this sort of thing to people who aren't familiar with KSP. I tell them that there are no rotor parts, no gear parts, no axle parts, and no hinge parts. It is a game about flying space ships. And yet, somehow, people have managed to build functioning grandfather clocks. This place might be the highest concentration of incredibly talented and mad engineers outside of SpaceX.

[FlipNascar]

I've always wondered why grandfather clocks have pendulums. I'm pretty sure that the pendulum is what turns the cogs and runs the clock, but yours obviously doesn't do that...

That's also because you wind up a real one right? If the pendulum stops... The clock stops.

That is pretty amazing... looks absolutely GREAT

Thank you.

Hey guys, do you remember space ships? I remember space ships.

Sometimes I show this sort of thing to people who aren't familiar with KSP. I tell them that there are no rotor parts, no gear parts, no axle parts, and no hinge parts. It is a game about flying space ships. And yet, somehow, people have managed to build functioning grandfather clocks. This place might be the highest concentration of incredibly talented and mad engineers outside of SpaceX.

What is this space you talk of?

Very impressive!

Thank you.

[Redshift OTF]

Can't wait to download this!

[Inquisition]

That is amazing, jaw was hanging open when I saw all the gears.

[FlipNascar]

That is amazing, jaw was hanging open when I saw all the gears.

Thanks!

[Redshift OTF]

It looks like the big cog at the front gets its teeth stuck on the small wheel in the axle that goes front to back. I don't think it's a collider issue, more like the spacing between these teeth aren't even. Maybe reducing the number of teeth on the front of the axle from 6 to 4 so the spacing matches the big cog?

Just tried that and it seems to help but I think you need to increase the number of teeth on the back of that shaft as well. If the spacing between teeth are not even then the teeth hit the top of each other rather than meshing.

[FlipNascar]

It looks like the big cog at the front gets its teeth stuck on the small wheel in the axle that goes front to back. I don't think it's a collider issue, more like the spacing between these teeth aren't even. Maybe reducing the number of teeth on the front of the axle from 6 to 4 so the spacing matches the big cog?

Just tried that and it seems to help but I think you need to increase the number of teeth on the back of that shaft as well. If the spacing between teeth are not even then the teeth hit the top of each other rather than meshing.

Interesting. I will take that on board and a have a poke around. For me it's always the two big cogs that are driven by the jets that get stuck. There's usually a tooth in there that sticks to its tooth friend. Even though the cogs are identical. But then it could be because I am also blowing onto it directly?

[burnoutforzai]

Err... Erm... Err... h... how?

[Redshift OTF]

Yeah changing the front small cog to 4 and the bigger cog on the same shaft to 12 helped but it seems the 2 teeth that control the pendulum movement get stuck to the teeth on the pendulum cogs. Not sure how you could change that. Maybe just have 1 cog with a small offset axle pointing out, (so the axle moves in a circle and translate that into an up and down movement when it connects to the pendulum stick. If that makes sense, lol. It would be less parts. Perhaps also considering installing the no restrictions off-set mod as that reduces parts too.

Perhaps some pictures would help:

Edited October 5, 2015 by Redshift OTF

[damerell]

I've always wondered why grandfather clocks have pendulums. I'm pretty sure that the pendulum is what turns the cogs and runs the clock, but yours obviously doesn't do that...

No. The pendulum regulates the clock. Because a pendulum's phase is (nearly) the same whether it is making large or small swings, if the weight is correctly adjusted the pendulum will swing once a second (or once every half-second, or whatever). The wound-up spring drives the clock, and if it could it would drive the hands round very quickly when the spring is tightly wound then more slowly as it unwinds - but every time it pushes the mechanism on, it finds something stuck to the top of the pendulum's in the way, and it has to wait for the pendulum to swing to the opposite position before it can push the hands a little further round - only to get stuck on the pendulum again.

The engines in this clock, I infer, fill the role of the spring.

[FlipNascar]

Yeah changing the front small cog to 4 and the bigger cog on the same shaft to 12 helped but it seems the 2 teeth that control the pendulum movement get stuck to the teeth on the pendulum cogs. Not sure how you could change that. Maybe just have 1 cog with a small offset axle pointing out, (so the axle moves in a circle and translate that into an up and down movement when it connects to the pendulum stick. If that makes sense, lol. It would be less parts. Perhaps also considering installing the no restrictions off-set mod as that reduces parts too.

Perhaps some pictures would help:

http://i.imgur.com/pWy8mFM.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Bo14fjz.jpg

You read my mind... I just played with the cogs and that seemed to help, until the weak point of the Pendulum. It's been the weak point from the get go, I originally had more teeth connecting with it, but that caused it to stick. 1 tooth per "drive cog" seemed to give the most "reliable".

I have the no offset limit mod... Now.

My fear is that it actually needs to be rebuilt... Or give the pendulum its own drive device, but then that somewhat defeats its purpose. As it stands, if the pendulum stops the time stops. So just like a real Grandfather clock.

Really appreciate the constructive criticisms and help!