Help hacking a quartz clock...I'm so lost!

[Holychachi]

Hello all,
First let me say I'm new here and very very new when it comes to the world of electronics. Surprisingly electronics is seeming hard to crack into. So much to learn, electronic components, programming, and on and on. It's overwhelming to say the least. But it seems to be a great hobby with the almost limitless directions you can go and things you can create.

As for the problem at hand...you guys will probably scoff at this but when you are done calling me a noob and ROFLing at me, I would appreciate any advice and direction you guys can provide. I'm trying to build a clock where the minute hand moves once per minute in a swift motion like the second hand. I know I could do this by using some type of stepper motor, which i am interested in how you would do that, but I would really like to do it by hacking a quartz clock. I found an interesting article at http://josepino.com/circuits/one_second_timebase, which kind of inspired my idea. I'm wondering if there is a way to turn that 1hz pulse into uhhh 1/60hz...? In other words turn that once per second pulse into a once per minute pulse. This, it seems to me, would essentially turn your second hand into a minute hand.

So if I can just find a way to get the minute hand to move in pulses 6 degrees at a time once per minute, then I will be happy. Then of course I can follow this thread up with a 'Need help getting an hour hand on a clock to pulse once per hour' thread. Sorry if I dumbed down the forums too much, but hopefully one day I can be the one answering the silly beginners questions. Thanks in advance for all your help, can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

Charlie

 

[duke37]

Clocks usually use a solenoid to step the second hand at once per second and a gear train drives the other hands. I would think that the easiest way do do what you want is to remove the second hand, store 60 pulses and then output them as quick as the solenoid can respond.

 

[Holychachi]

Clocks usually use a solenoid to step the second hand at once per second and a gear train drives the other hands. I would think that the easiest way do do what you want is to remove the second hand, store 60 pulses and then output them as quick as the solenoid can respond.

How would you store the pulses?
Is there some way you could add some type of counter that once it reaches 60 it will pulse once? How about changing the binary counter so instead of counting to 32xxx it counts to 60 times that before it emits the pulse.

 

[duke37]

There are many ways of doing what you want, most of which I have an idea of what can be done but would need to do considerable study to derive the optimum.
A counter set to 60 (10 times 6 or 12 times 5) will store the increasing number. It could then either output 1 pulse or 60.
If you drive the second hand, you will not need to make any changes to the mechanical drive system of the clock. If you drive at one pulse per minute you will need to make a new drive motor to drive the minute hand.
You will need to consider how to set the time.
One way of doing what you want would be to use a microcomputer to act as a timebase and output one pulse per minute. You will need to learn some programming.