DMX controlled clock

[Roderick]

Working on a production of 'Brief Encounters' for the local community theatre.

 

There is a huge clock on the set I would love to be able to control and set to different times during the play.

Is there an affordable solution to that? It has to be be able to drive an analogue clock.

[IRW]

Working on a production of 'Brief Encounters' for the local community theatre.

 

There is a huge clock on the set I would love to be able to control and set to different times during the play.

Is there an affordable solution to that? It has to be be able to drive an analogue clock.

 

This has popped up every now and then before- Here's a few results!

[DrV]

Have you already got the clock? Can you drive it with a small stepper motor? I made one for Cinderella a couple of years ago. Mechanism was made out of Meccano and the stepper was driven by an Arduino. I made a little handset with buttons for FWD, REV, FAST and Release (so that the crew could set it to the appropriate time when out of sight of the booth). It even kept fairly accurate time if you didn't press any buttons! It was connected down a mic cable borrowed from the noise boys. No reason why it couldn't have been DMX controlled though. Happy to share info if you want

Dave

[Jivemaster]

Do you already have the clock? I have heard of a 50Hz electric clock being run off an audio signal generator - It was a Blick time clock in the days of time cards! Send the clock 50Hz and it should keep time, send it 75 it should run 50% faster etc.

[w/robe]

The affordable solution to control a huge clock on set that I have seen was also the simplest.

 

Minute hands connected to pipe, hour hand connected to bar running down the middle of the pipe, master hands on the back of the set. Once you have the crew member trained to tell the time backwards they will always hit the right time on cue on the right line or note of the music more accurately than any machine.

 

BR member Andy_S also worked on the production that used this system and had less to do with the costumes than I did but more knowledge about the clock if you require further information.

[bruce]

A deliberately cheesey - but remarkably effective - example, from a school production. In schools, small helpers are much more cost effective than DMX complexity.

 

 

 

Only one hand needed to move.

 

From the front:

 

 

And round the back:

 

[w/robe]

That is exactly what half of our system looked like.

It is tricky with 2 hands if you want to move one 12 times faster than the other but if it is just getting them to a certain time or moving the minutes in roughly real time it is easy.

 

Ours was a pro show which had 4 different incarnations including UK touring and going to NY but still the system was a bloke in black moving the hands of the clock between other cues.