Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Lockdown project

What is your lockdown project?

I decided to finally do something about my clock project. This is the minute dial of what will eventually be a two dial clock emulating a tachometer and a speedometer.

It is a bit bodged up at the moment. The microcontroler used is an Arduino compatible board and motor shield from Adafruit. I need to add a Real Time Clock (RTC) to is to keep accurate time and I need to program that into the code plus various other provisions such as a method of controlling the correct zeroing and positioning of the hands.

At the moment the "hand" ticks around at 30 second intervals and when it arrives at the 60 minutes reverses quickly to zero to start again.

I started with the minutes because it seemed better than waiting 12 or 24 hours to see if the code worked correctly, at some point I realised that I could run it 10 times faster for a test: that is 6 minutes for the sweep of the minute hand

The dial is just printed on photographic paper and the "hand" is a small Allen key taped to the motor spindle.

Eventually I will use a smaller microcontroler and mount the two "instruments" in a wood panel. I am not yet sure if I can get the current draw low enough to have it battery powered or if it has to be plugged in to a power supply with a Lipo battery backup.

If I can do it in the available program space I intend to have it automatically move to the correct time display on start up (getting the time from the RTC) and automatically adjust for daylight saving time.

Painting the calipers red which I have now done successfully with spray paint. Also touching up any rusty bare metal surfaces with black Hammerite, including track rods/ends and stub axles. Exhaust clamps starting to rust as well so may look into replacing with stainless ones.

Just need to apply the vinyl "Morgan" logo transfers to calipers now. My brother had some large ones applied to his car by first spraying surface with watered down detergent. This apparently allows the transfer to be slid slightly into exact position before pressure makes it stick. Feel unsure about this though

Good luck with clock project Peter.

Richard, remember building Airfix kits as a boy & applying the transfers ?

Yes but I seem to remember they were water transfers though Jon. Have now checked on t'net and it is a recognised method for vinyl as well so will give it a go. Apparently helps to squeegee out bubbles as well.

Yep, it's the method used for applying the big vinyl ads in shop windows, only use a tiny bit of detergent (just to break the surface tension & lube it)

Have you looked at the ESP 8266 12E microcontroller family?
These seem to be replacing Arduino's in the maker community for reasons of cost and functionality.

It also has onboard WIFI and analog as well as digital I/O capability ( but less ports than Arduino ), and uses the same IDE as the Arduino to program.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07ZCMZW9Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used this technique to fit vinyl frosting to our front door after Mrs F decreed that it was too transparent. Worked a treat. You need a good squeegee and patience.

I had fuel vapourisation problems with my Elan in Italy last year, when parked with a hot engine and the car sat in the sun. So I thought I'd make a small vent for the bonnet to try and improve things.

My milling machine has been converted to CNC, only 2 1/2 D but it's good for profiling etc. I made roughed out the mould on the mill, then with filling and sanding made it the required shape. The part came out not too bad but using wet layup I find it's hard to get all the air out, so I've over coated it and now needs leaving to fully harden before polishing.

Very impressive.