Ball Clock II ~ Quarter Ball Selection

Photo 158 croppedWith the quarter ball magazine completed it was time to tie it to the feelers for the quarter hour flips.

Rods were attached to the adjustable hubs on each of the feelers.

This way I could adjust the amount of down travel in relationship to the feeler being stopped by the quarter flips.

Photo 162Blocks were also put at the end of the rods to add enough weight to overcome the pressure of the balls releasing.  Screws with small balls at the end allowed for minimum resistance and easy adjustment.

When a ball trips the reset cycle to restore the counter flips it also causes the feelers to drop and sense the position of the quarter flips.  Depending on which ones are flipped, this allows the feelers to travel enough to either block a ball in the quarter ball magazine or allow it to exit.

Photo 161It is important to note that when the full hour ball travels to the end and operated the hour lever, it resets the three flips before the other flips are reset by the clutch cycling the reset shafts.  Therefore when the feelers drop, the three quarter flips are already reset and no quarter balls are released on the hour.

Additional weight had to be added to rotate the feeler shaft when the reset cycle occurred.

Now that I have selected the right number of balls for the quarter strike, it is time to work on the striker mechanism.

Here is a video showing how the selection works.  I added a temporary small section of track just to catch the balls released from the quarter magazine.  Notice three balls were released, which would be the three quarter hour strike.  This is also a good opportunity to see the reset cycle work.  Notice the cam on the upper right.  The balls replenishing the quarter magazine.  I apologize for the roughness of the video, but I couldn’t upload more than 10m.

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