Vibrograph, choronoscope, Zietwaage

[FxrAndy]

A while ago there was a lot of talk about cheep methods of timing your watches, and softwear and computer addons to make a sort of vibrograph (a thing that listens to and counts the tick tocks and them compares them to a standard and tells you lots of things)

Well i saw from this German firm www.prelis.de this on the bay, it is quite a small little thing with quite a couple of wires to attach but seams to be quite usefull, I looked a a couple of other like this and this but the price i got this one for i could get 2 compared to the prices of the other ones, I think the others have a bit more funtioality and you can view them on screen but they are 70% more expencive even when you dont get them cheep on ebay.

I paid the extra so that i got the atonic clock sync reciever and the USB interface to print out reports on my PC, what you get is some thing like this

MEASURE REPORT

______________________________________

Rate [mm:ss.ff] -00:02.11 / 24h

Drop: [ms] 001.83 ms

Beats meas.: [/h]21599 / h

Beats norm.: [/h]21600 / h

Beats detect: Automatic

Rate time: 0166.67 ms

Date: 16-12-2008 18:10:06

Measure time: 002 min

Device: CHR-7

Software version:29.10.08

f Oscillator: 16000685 Hz

Device calibrated______________________________________

www.CHRONOSKOP.de

You can tell a beat error and if it is running fast or slow with a visual display and it will average out the error the longer you kep the mesurement going for. I will say i have been playing with this all afternoon and it takes a bit of geting used to the sensitivity need to be played with a bit to get a happy medium and i have found far better results with the case back removed, i have mesured all most all of my watches today and as i know they all ran a bit fast as i like them that way i am happy to report that this device told me the same. I am doing a longer test on my railmast that i just messed up for the sake of experiment and i am going to try to get it back with in COSC timing, I will let you know how i get on.

Pros and Cons

Pros:-

Cheep

Small

Can be battery powered for travel (not sure why i dont plan on regulating watches on my car, but i can if i want to)

Easy to read and lots of info

Cons:-

very susseptable to local noice, cough and it will tell you.

Not able to rotate the mic for different positions (i think technic lego may solve this though!

Untidy with wires on the desk, (will post some photos later)

If you dont have a slight grasp of german it may take you a couple of mins to work out what it is trying to tell you (even swithched to the english menu it has some german wording)

PC interface gives me a black screan that i have to hilight the wording to read it (may be my settings though)

It may tell you to too much if you dont know what you are doing or understand what your watch is doing

Not exactly a finely finished product but functional.

So it looks like it is working well, i will let you know more later when i have ran a longer un synced teast and them runn it again after a 12 hour sync with the atomic clock (I gave it the min sync of 1000 second but they recomend 12 hours)

BTW i am no way connected with this firm!

for all you rich kids you can get the top flight here for about 2k

[Toadtorrent]

21GBP?? That is cheap!

[FxrAndy]

i paid

[FxrAndy]

BTW if people are going to bid on these on the bay it would be good to let people here know to save 2 members bidding againt each other and putting the price up unnesesarily

[PhilipM]

1. The Set Up.

Yes, i suppose if someone is after that, it might be better to let others know.

I'm looking into buying an oscilloscope sometime soon, and a PC based one should be able to replicate these functions with a bit of programming, and a high gain quartz mic.

After a while of getting used to it, you should be able to pick up bearing wear, damaged teeth, untrue gears.

Could be a great tool!

[FxrAndy]

1. The Set Up.

Yes, i suppose if someone is after that, it might be better to let others know.

Not sure what you are trying to say there Philip, I found this on the bay after i hade been looking for one for some time to save paying for the service of using some one elses, i have oftern recomended sellers here but have never had any thing to do with them save them providing me with a decent product at a decent price. if you notice there were more cons than pros!

[chrgod]

Interesting tool. It will be fun to read about your experiences.

I have been watching these. It is way more advanced than the basic tinkering I do now, but it could be interesting if one want to take the hobby to the next level. Real "Boys toy"!

[RWG Technical]

Neat tool.

Although more expensive, I still stand by the Vibrograph B200A that I use.

I did buy one of the "Modern" Wichi style readers, it was a complete and utter piece of junk. At $1200 for the unit, it was worth no more than $50 and didn't work worth shit. Total crap...I sent it back and got a refund.

Have fun adjusting your watches.

RG

[FxrAndy]

Glad i did not spend the extra then, i have found so far thet results vary as the weather the movement is in the case or not and where the movement is placed on the mic but getting used to it now, my railmaster was a pain as it need servicing i think but i cot it back to plus 2 seconds, here are a couple of photos of a brand new seagull ST3600 (unitas copy) running @ 21600 bph

A well running example of a watch i was finishing putting together, the 3 blips are my daughter talking

Brand new movement that i messed up the beat and timing on, running plus 2 and half min fast a day

Getting better

opps too slow

closer

About as good as it gets

Now bear in mind that this is only on one axis to get it better i have to go through a balancing act with this get a reading of pendant up/down/left/right ect and then make an average, now if i sont restart the timer it will give me an average any way but the noise of me moving it makes an efect also so it is better to make the avaerge manualy.

I hope this helps, i like the devise it certanly helps me. I was wondering if the microphone from a Vibrograph like ziggy has would fit and work this uses a normal 3.5mm?? jack plug?

Any thoughts?

[FxrAndy]

Update

out of 4 watches timed 2 days ago all with brand new seagull ST 3600 3 are running with in 1 second of each other and one is about 4 seconds out so i will have to revisit this one but it looks like this tool once you get used to it is a usefull addition.

[szvwj]

Interesting post, thanks for the information. That looks like a good price.

I'm curious about the microphone/preamp. It sounds like you're getting a pretty good signal. Is it necessary for you to be in a very quite room (will the noise of a computer fan, for example, mess up your signal)?

Can you open the watch and place the watch 'crystal down' on the microphone and still get a usable signal? In other words, can you adjust the watch as you're taking measurements?

I've been using a home-built mic/preamp along with software and have been able to regulate my watches to within COSC spec, but it's a pain because my pickup is so noisy.

[801run]

Interesting post, thanks for the information. That looks like a good price.

I'm curious about the microphone/preamp. It sounds like you're getting a pretty good signal. Is it necessary for you to be in a very quite room (will the noise of a computer fan, for example, mess up your signal)?

Can you open the watch and place the watch 'crystal down' on the microphone and still get a usable signal? In other words, can you adjust the watch as you're taking measurements?

I've been using a home-built mic/preamp along with software and have been able to regulate my watches to within COSC spec, but it's a pain because my pickup is so noisy.

szvwj! I'm looking to find a mic suitable for doing just this, I have the software but can not get hold of a mic. Can you guide me to where I might find a mic suitable for this?

[FxrAndy]

yes back ground noise does get picked up a bit but you can di it with the back off, infact i normaly do it with the back off dial up and turn down the sencitivity of the mic, once i get it good i then check with dial down, and then with a bit of abalening act, crown up and crown down, I was thinking of trying to get a virograph mic and see if that works as tht will have the clamp and also alow the watch to be positioned easyer

[redwatch]

Hey Andy,

Just curious how you've been making out with this timer?

[FxrAndy]

Reg great bit of kit for the price, you just need a quiet room, and get a bit of experience. All the people i have made and worked on watches for are all happy, one particular friend is very fastidious, He only wears his watch in the evenings(he is a drainage technician) you know the sort of drainage i am talking about! so he tells me he winds his watch every morning and it sits all day next to his radio controlled alarm clock he comes home from work puts the watch on, wears it all evening and then when he goes to bed he puts it back next to the clock, after about a month he complained that it had lost about 10 seconds, I was elated!

I bought him a beer and educated him a little, no complaints any more just good reports I gave him the info from the old rolex paper work

so that he can try and work out the positioning to get it perfect,

But back to the tool its self it is very good once you learn to set the volume pick up for the right movements and cased or uncased. I have my pick up set in a bed of foam to insulate it from the desk a little, It is not a replacement for a witchi watch expert but a damn sight cheaper.