Help me build ticking clock with chime

[nuggetz]

I'm very new to electronics. Been playing with Arduino for a few years but nothing serious. I've been wanting to build a circuit that does the following and need some help:

I have a wooden box that I'd like to have it function sort of like a clock but not really as all I need it to do is tick every second and maybe have a way for it to chime on the hour.

For the ticking, I was thinking of a piezo or something and maybe for the chime, I could purchase one of those greeting cards that you can record your own message onto and have it somehow triggered every 60 minutes somehow. I could find a chime sample off the internet and record that on it. How difficult does this sound? If I can just get it to tick for now then i would prefer that an LED be tied to the tick so that it lights up every time it ticks - once per second. Might be easier with the arduino but I dont want to tie it up. I'd like the unit to be standalone. I have no idea where to begin.

 

[3v0]

Break the problem into steps.

First you need to come up with a way to know when 1 second has passed. Not hard with the arduino.

Then for each second activate the piezo. There should be tutorials on using an arduino to drive one.

Count up the seconds to know when the hour is. Use the arduino to turn on a transistor that activates a solenoid that strikes a chime.

etc

 

[carbonzit]

Suggestion (and this has nothing to do with electronics): for a more realistic ticking effect, you want more than 1 tick/second. Think of the "60 Minutes" ticking sound. Mechanical clocks that use an escapement actually tick at least twice per second, some as many as 4 times. Experiment for the coolest sound.

 

[wombweller]

For the seconds tick this could be quite simple but for realistic effect the tick from one second to the other needs be be a slightly different tone then you get the 'tick tock' sound.

A simple 1hz circuit to transistors to solenoids that tap pieces of hard wood for the tones.

Arduino/PIC might be the best route but here is a good tried and tested route that can be made to your requirements- clock

 

[3v0]

Just get it working with what you have. You can always modify the way you make the sounds.

 

[colin55]

I have a 2-transistor "Ticking Bomb" circuit.

 

[nuggetz]

I found this but have no idea how to read the schematic. Actually, I understand some of it, like the resistors and what not but I'm lost on the capacitor connections and some of the other triangle like things. Would be cool if this was translated into a breadboard design somehow. Is there software that will allow me to draw this up and have it spit out a physical diagram? Also, some of the parts mentioned here are strange.

https://www.scribd.com/doc/854510/Adding-TickTock-Sound-to-ur-digital-clock

 

[colin55]

**broken link removed**
TICKING BOMB
This circuit produces a sound similar to a loud clicking clock. The frequency of the tick is adjusted by the 220k pot.
The circuit starts by charging the 2u2 and when 0.65v is on the base of the NPN transistor, it starts to turn on. This turns on the BC 557 and the voltage on the collector rises. This pushes the small charge on the 2u2 into the base of the BC547 to turn it on more.
This continues when the negative end of the 2u2 is above 0.65v and now the electro starts to charge in the opposite direction until both transistors are fully turned on. The BC 547 receives less current into the base and it starts to turn off. Both transistors turn off very quickly and the cycle starts again.

 

[carbonzit]

I found this but have no idea how to read the schematic. Actually, I understand some of it, like the resistors and what not but I'm lost on the capacitor connections and some of the other triangle like things. Would be cool if this was translated into a breadboard design somehow. Is there software that will allow me to draw this up and have it spit out a physical diagram? Also, some of the parts mentioned here are strange.

https://www.scribd.com/doc/854510/Adding-TickTock-Sound-to-ur-digital-clock

Sorry, but you really need to learn to read schematics. The good thing is it's really not all that hard.

Couple hints here: the triangle thingies are op-amps, which means that they're little solid-state amplifiers (lotsa transistors) on a chip. Since the schematic has pin numbers, connecting them up is easy. Capacitors are likewise easy; the only time it matters which way they go is when they're an electrolytic capacitor, which is usually indicated on a schematic as having a plus (+) side. The capacitors themselves actually have the minus side marked, so just connect them accordingly.

With things like transistors and ICs (chips), you need to have a datasheet or other diagram which shows which pins go where. After that, it's simple. Just connect things the way they're shown in the schematic. (The physical layout--where components actually go on your breadboard or circuit board--is up to you. This puzzle is left for you to solve.)