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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Monitors I Use
I like the Microset timer for monitoring a variety of mechanism actions and the TimeTrax for amplifying its beat. The TimeTrax monitor with pickup costs about $50 . Yup, there are less expensive beat amplifiers - but I find that if a mechanism is loud enough to work with other amplifiers - heck, I can hear it just fine without an amplifier. But, if I want to hear a really quiet beat, well, the only one that works for me is the TimeTrax. And no, I don't get a commission from either of these instruments makers - I've just had a lot of different beat monitors and amplifiers and am sharing what I find works. In the car world one says YMMV - which stands for Your Mileage May Vary...
