I’ve been tasked with renovating the wall clock for my lodge, it’s over 100 years old and the mechanical movement in it is shot. My idea is to a relatively cheap and nasty Chinese wifi clock movement into it (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004505104389.html) to power the actual time keeping, as that’s too much of a stretch right now for my ESP skills.
However, I need to be able to make the clock chime, by hitting the bell inside with the existing ‘hammer’. I have the bell and the hammer, but I need to be able to write up something to an ESP board to apply a voltage and make something move the hammer backwards and forwards. I was thinking a solenoid or something like that might do it, but right now I have no idea.
Does anyone have any tips or pointers to similar projects that can ‘move’ something back and forth when triggered by an ESP board?
Here’s some images of the existing movement. My idea is to remove the movement itself and keep the bell and (perhaps) the hammer. But really, I just need something to strike the bell at a set time?
Thanks. The bell only needs to be struck lightly for it to make a nice ring, so I don’t think I need anything to powerful. I’m just not sure if a solenoid will hit the bell ‘fast’ enough, as it needs to strike and then pull away to stop the hammer muting the ring - know what I mean?
