Gadget Freak

Made by Monkeys Editor Karen Field shares with us a unique spin on the good old quartz clock:

“While there’s some evidence low-cost lighting products made in China are of dubious quality, I have no data, anecdotal or otherwise, on quartz clocks manufactured there.

“Though if a clock costs you only $1, I suppose you can expect to get what your pay for.

“Jose Pino has apparently into more than a few cheesily-made quartz clocks, or just has had extremely bad luck, as he’s come up with a nifty circuit to get one second (1hz) pulses from a broken quartz clock. He writes:

Quartz clocks break easily after a while. The gears lose lubrication and the dust gets the job done. Fortunately, the electronics of the clock work for many years without problem, so you can “hack” a quartz clock to get a timebase generator, which can be used in any project that needs exactly one-second pulses.”