There is a lot of great clock designs out there and for some pendulum clocks some sort of electromagnet is used to give the pendulum the required push - rather than using a fully mechanical system.
I recently found these on Ali by accident looking for an adjustable quartz clock mechanism.
I did not get my hopes up for this sole electronic part on the board…
And sure enough it is ‘just’ a hall effect switch.
Means the electromagnet is energised by the magnet on the bob of rod passing over it.
BUT: Both are designed to work with a single 1.5V battery and that actually works and without using too much juice.
Requires a small enough gap though and preferably a magnet disk about the same diameter as the electromagnet in order to get a meaningful push for power hungry pendulum.
Has anyone used these in their designs yet and has some feedback on these things ?
Like how the battery Voltage dropping affects the output over time - any compensation required for example?
As the sensor clearly is not as simple as it seems - did anyone do some timing tests ?
In my basic tests it seems the thing works as advertised but it only work in one direction, while the ‘push’ in the other direction is wasted as the pendulum already moved over the coil.
No clue how this tiny three leg thing deals with the reverse impulse from the electromagnet or from the passing magnet but am sure there are ways to utilise this otherwise lost energy somehow.
Either way it still is a cheap way of getting a good coil and battery holder for a related project running on a single battery…