Fixing the Portobello Police Station Clock

grahamburger

How fun! Once, after climbing around in a dusty old church attic like this, I had to head straight to the airport for a flight. Barely made it on because something in the dust kept flagging as dangerous. They were using a test strip on my backpack and clothing and analyzing it in some kind of machine. Stressful as I was already pressed for time! Finally got a clean test and they let me through.

totallynotabird

If you like old buildings, clock and bell mechanisms, or rigging, there's a fascinating series of bell tower repair videos on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DingDongitsthebellguy He also posts on reddit under dingdongbellguy

floam

They don’t seem to be in contact with the people who actually fixed it.

SaberTail

> The "Status" LED flashes some kind of code - long long, short short short. I assumed the number of flashes would correspond to the time but apparently not. We didn't have time to figure this out before we had to leave. long-long-short-short-short is 7 in morse code. They don't say what time they tried this or if it ever changed, though, so that's just a hypothesis.

IsopropylMalbec

The battery on that circuit looks very much like a backup battery we have connected to our house alarm. We moved in to the house in 2003 and that battery died this year, so I would imagine that it is already or will very soon die. That said, if it's a backup battery and the electricity supply is stable then it may not make any difference.

sippingabonedry

Send it to Big Clive with a felt pen enclosed.

bigmadshoe

Such a pleasant surprise to wake up and see my hometown at the top of hackernews!

cortesoft

This sounds like such a fun project, especially to share with like minded friends.

IshKebab

I dunno if setting the time counts as fixing...

Quai

I want friends like that!

timsneath

What a lovely blog in general: some really fun retro-computing projects, written up in a very thoughtful, human way. Feels like a throwback to the earlier hacking spirit of the internet. Thank you, Colin: your "experiment with writing" is a success as far as I'm concerned!

jareklupinski

i wish i could fix The Sun clock on Broadway and Chambers it's literally kittycorner from City Hall, and hasn't been running for a while... i'd do it for free if i knew who to even bother about getting up into it

initramfs

Seeing the number of holes in that ceiling I really am concerned that the floor the clock is on is the same as the one with the holes, and I would advise that you secure the floor if you return to the attic.

dtgriscom

There's a Reddit user who posts in a car repair subreddit about his work repairing bell-tower equipment. Very cool. https://www.reddit.com/user/dingdongbellguy/

dwayne_dibley

This is what I want the internet to be. Great read.

buildsjets

If you enjoyed this, here's Fred Dibnah exploring Big Ben and discussing some of the engineering details. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi1cqR1bJC4 Fred Dibnah was a treasure. If you enjoyed 5 minutes of Big Ben, here's an hour of his day job in heavy industrial steeplejacking - "The Ups and Downs of Chimneys" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK2wF_-yoEg

nephihaha

One of many old clocks in Edinburgh that needs fixing. The one on the Balmoral Hotel had to get a lot of work done. There were three identical street clocks in Edinburgh that the council there have tried to remove. They succeeded with the one at Tollcross.

chrisvls

"a circuit board which definitely was not from 1877" ;)

BHSPitMonkey

Obviously, the next logical step is a Home Assistant integration.

jdnordy

I love this. Any advice how to get involved in my local community in a similar way? I'd be so into doing some community project during my free time.