Flip Clock Mechanism

The flip clock mechanism controls the order in which the flaps move. There are two wheels with flap cards on them. The minute wheel displays the minutes from 00 to 59 in one complete revolution of the wheel. However, the hour wheel increments its count by one every half revolution of the minute wheel. Consequently, they doubled the hour digits, so the hour sequence is 1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6… and so forth up to 12. The hour wheel also has two sets of cards, one for am, and one for pm. Therefore, there are 48 cards in total for the hour wheel.

The large ring with numbers displays the alarm setting, and a green light bulb illuminates this ring. When the cogwheels for the displayed time aligns with that of the alarm setting, a mechanism triggers a micro-switch which then provides power to the radio circuit.

This image shows a better view of the alarm-setting ring.

A neon light bulb illuminates the flap cards.

The neon light bulb is the high voltage one that goes across the mains as shown in the circuit diagram in the following pages.

This cogwheel mechanism sets the alarm and triggers the micro-switches.

Here is a closer look at the alarm mechanism.

Here is the light bulb, which illuminates the alarm set wheel.

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