Troubleshooting
Sometimes a mechanism just doesn't want to run or strike correctly - despite pretty much everything looking like it should want to run. On those occasions I set up the mechanism, with its pendulum, on a bench next to my main bench and hook up both a beat amplifier (Time Trax), as well as a beat monitor (Bryan Mumford's Microset) that allows me to plot the beat and/or strikes on my computer monitor, which sits above my main bench. This gallery gives you an idea of how I set all this up.
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Monitoring a Mechanisms Strike
Another use of the Microset timer is for counting the strikes on a mechanism. This picture shows how I set up to count both the quarter-hour and the hour strikes on a Viennese mechanism. By having the strike hammers impact a piece of wood with the microphone attached one can “count” the strikes with the Microset. If one only wants to count one train it would be easy to set up the piece of wood so only one hammer hit it.
The next slides show patterns that reflect missed strikes, while the following slides show the patterns the Microset generates.
