OT; clock running backwards?

A bi directional counter and readout. Clock rate 1 pps or even minute and change the direction appropiately. ...lew... (first thought as an electronics person) :-)

The easiest to hook up is a pair of running time meters. Most of the meters are 120 volts, your circuits are likely 24 volt AC relay lines. Use a couple of door bell transformers running in reverse to make the necessary step up. Find the necessary 24 volt connections in the mechanical room, run low voltage wires to some convenient spot in the living area (next to the computer is perfect) for the readouts.

You will want to take the readings near midnight (OK, just before bedtime) so you can correlate the results with the NWS heating and cooling degree days. You may also want to straight counter to get the number of cycles, be able to compute an average on time, avoid short cycling. Load the results into a spread sheet.

I did this drill for several m> I'm trying to monitor my heat pump, both heating and cooling, to see

Dataq makes an inexpensive data acquisition unit (DAU) that attaches to a PC. I little isolation circuitry and 2 voltage dividers would make easy work of the this measurement. Their USB version costs about $50 which includes recording and graphics software. Come to think of it, a wall wart (if you can tap into a 120 volt control line to your valves or someting) ought to provide the isolation and even produce DC that would be easy to graph and store. Go to Dataq.com and look at the Di-148U. It's one of their "Starter Kits", the cheapest one that works with USB. I am currently using their serial model, since I bought it before USB became so popular. The software you get with the starter kit is the "Lite" version, but it has way more features than you will need for the task at hand.

I am using my DAU to record 2 dc voltages and one current for my solar pv expirement. Feel free to email me off list if you have any questions. I am not associated with DATAQ; I just think their starter kit is a useful tool.

In the battery charging business, they have ampere hour meters that run both directions, by the way. They use them to determine net gain or loss to the storage system. Come to think of it, what about a battery powered wall clock, where you'd switch the direction of current to the clock motor with a relay attached to your "off cycle" sensor.

I, too grew up on vacuum tubes, Pete Stanaitis

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nick hull wrote:

You may be able to get a digital timer to do what you're asking. For example:

But I don't see how a single up/down timer will tell you any more than whether the pump is running more or less than 50% duty cycle.

Before he died my uncle had a clock in his shop that was all vacuum tubes and Nixies. The parts are all available on Ebay, waiting for a clever circuit designer -- what's your problem?

Being a mechanical type: If you can find a differential (rear end automobile) from a model car, and run two clock motors, one on each axle, the driveline will reverse, depending on which motor is running. Dave

If it is an older mechanical electric clock, take it apart and reverse the stator ,portion 180 degrees. I believe this will work as I have reversed many shaded pole motors this way.

Chuck P.

Interesting you should bring that up. That is exactly how they used to sync two or more AC generators to a single power line. When the output shaft rotation went to zero, they could throw the big switch and combine the power from both generators.

Paul, KD7HB

Yes, but it won't run BOTH ways

Free men own guns - www(dot)geocities(dot)com/CapitolHill/5357/

Try your local RC hobby shop.

r/c car.

Actually I've got enough LARGE Nixies, what I lack is a clever circuit designer. I usually try to hack some existing part to make it do what I need.

Free men own guns - www(dot)geocities(dot)com/CapitolHill/5357/

Interesting suggestion, where might I find a differential flimsy enough for a clock to power? :)

Free men own guns - www(dot)geocities(dot)com/CapitolHill/5357/

That looks ALMOST perfect, the problem being it seems to require a PC and I use a Mac. I have lots of obsolete Macs that still operate if I could find a Data acquisition unit compatible with Macs. I'm still looking.

Free men own guns - www(dot)geocities(dot)com/CapitolHill/5357/

How about a surplus power meter. I understand they will read backwards ith ---- Nope, that won't work. OK, you know how many hrs there are in a day. I'm thinking 24hrs - run time will give the off time per day. Unless I'm misunderstanding what your desired output is.

Wayne Sippola

Am I missing something here? A couple industrial timers of a sufficient number of digits and a reset. Timer A runs continuously. Timer B runs when the heat pump is on. Off time is B-A...\

Jerry

If you are a handy type maybe build one.

My thermostat tells me the run time of the last 24 hours and the last

--Andy Asberry--

------Texas-----

You mentioned you *could* use two clocks.... get one running normal, and get another in which you rotate the stator to make it run backwards.... Ken.