Earlier than we had fancy digital clocks — and even spring-driven mechanical clocks — most strategies for measuring quick intervals of time relied on gravity transferring one thing in a constant, repeatable approach. Each water clocks and hour glasses work below that precept. Nevertheless it isn’t very enjoyable to observe grains of sand fall, which is why Brett Oliver constructed a kitchen timer that makes use of a rolling ball to rely the seconds.

This venture began with a rolling ball escapement designed by JBV Inventive. That mechanism merely flips forwards and backwards as a ball bearing rolls from one facet of the observe to the opposite. Perpetual movement is inconceivable, in fact, so this mechanism depends on a weight to show the gear system that pivots the observe. The ball is simply there for timing: when it reaches the tip of the observe, it pushes a lever that releases the mechanism and lets the burden drop just a little. This may work till the burden reaches the bottom or runs out of wire.

Oliver turned that mechanism right into a kitchen timer by changing the burden with a stepper motor managed by an Arduino Nano board. As a result of the motor finally drives the mechanism, it may well proceed working so long as it has energy. An LCD show reveals the remaining time and the consumer can set that with a couple of buttons. An MP3 module performs a user-configured sound impact when it reaches zero. The velocity of the stepper motor determines the time it takes the ball to traverse the observe and the default is 5 seconds, so the timer increments by 5 seconds with every go.

This is probably not extra sensible than an ordinary kitchen timer, however it’s way more attention-grabbing to observe.