[linux-audio-dev] Setting the Beat of a Clock

From: CapnLinux <capnlinux@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Sat Sep 24 2005 - 18:23:34 EEST

I would like to build an application to assist in setting the "Beat" of
a pendulum type clock. This is a tool used by a clock repair person to
set a clock to keep accurate time. It is basically a low frequency
oscilloscope with some specialized functionality.

A microphone is placed inside the clock case and attached to the mic
input of the sound card. I want to have a display of the resulting tick
and tock waveforms. There are two primary functions that are needed to
accurately set a clock's beat.

One is to be able to compare the tick waveform to the tock waveform. A
clock that is off balance and hence off beat will have a difference in
the sound of the tick and the tock. Tick being the pendulum swinging in
one direction vs the tock being the opposite direction swing.

The other function is to measure the time between the tick and the next
tick or full cycle of the pendulum swing. For instance, a lot of
pendulum clocks are set to have a pendulum cycle time of exactly one
second. Measuring this to say, hundredths of a second allows for
accurate adjustment of the clock.

I am looking for pointers to libraries and sample code that might help
me get started with this project. Once completed, it would be released
as an Open-Source project for use by any clock repairer that wants it.
I have not seen any open-source projects of this type and the commercial
units that perform this function cost several hundred dollars.
Received on Sat Sep 24 20:15:08 2005

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