Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

Hi All,

A while ago I picked up a Gents Pul-Syn-Etic slave clock with a 4 Ohm coil and built a simple 30 second timing circuit to run it.

The timing circuit works well and keeps good time. However, I have an intermittent problem with one of the terminals on the clock itself which means it periodically stops working. The coil measures fine, but one of the connections between the external screw terminal and the soldered end of the coil intermittently develops a high resistance (5 Ohms to 1 few hundred Ohms) which is enough to restrict the current flow and prevent the clock working.

The connection between the solder terminal and the screw appears to be inside the Bakelite moulding, therefore I can’t see whether or not it is damaged. I’m also unable to remove the front of the clock to remove the mechanism completely as the front face appears to be glued on!

I’ll post pictures soon to show what I mean. If anyone has any experience with these clocks and can shed any light on the problem that would be very useful. Tips on dismantling would also be much appreciated.

Cheers

Liam

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

Hi Liam,

The painted/printed dial is often tacked on with blobs of black adhesive, though it usually gives way fairly easily, to reveal the fixing screws for the movement. Occasionally though, there are tiny countersunk screws around the edge.

Also note that you'd have to remove the hands, and that the minute hand is often attached by a collet with TWO grubscrews!

N.

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

They where built to be very cheap, your best bet is to bypass the hidden bit with a bit of wire as you have access to the coil. My Magneta master clock runs the four house dials (kitchen, hall, upstairs landing and workshop), welcome to the master clock club.

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

...but with a quick service, they will work as well as they day they were made, often well over half a century ago.

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

I'm not convinced they were built to be very cheap, if we are talking about genuine Gent's products. Certainly not 'value engineered' in the way a modern product would be. A picture would help.
Andy

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

Not that far, but still as cheap as could be.

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

Thanks for your replies.

I've attached a couple of photos. The red arrow in the view of the mechanism shows the connection which is high resistance.

Bypassing it with a wire jumper as suggested would be a good solution, however it might make it difficult to fit the back cover.

I might try a jumper with the back off for a while to see if it solves the problem, then go from there.

Cheers

Liam

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

Nothing "cheap" about that IMHO!

I would cheat by adding a discreet wire link.

BTW, there's all the info you need to service and adjust up one of these on Bob Freshwater's telephone site.

Nick.

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

My point exactly! Gent's products were very well made.

Andy

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

Cheaper than a spring-driven, fusee wall clock in each room by far, admittedly, but that's the raison d'etre of master/slave clock installations.

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

I can't see why, a little bit of wire soldered to the tag and passed under the screw.

Yes, only 1/2 a dozen quite clunky bits of metal, cheap to make, easy to maintain. My dials must be over 50 years old, I just put them on the wall, still going. A lot to be said for cheap and simple.

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

Most of the bits for each clock were stamped out of a small rectanglular sheet of metal. If you've got one in pieces and a few spare seconds, you can do a little jigsaw! For example, the front plate has a round cutout in it, into which the main toothed wheel fits exactly.

I'd describe it as elegantly simple. "Cheap" in the sense of not costing a great deal, but certainly not nasty.

N.

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

Here's all the info I have on my PC concerning these clocks, gleaned from various web sources including here: http://waitingtrain.blogspot.co.uk/2...s-booklet.html

Their origin should be easy to establish; apologies to the site owners for not acknowledging them here and thank you for posting these incredibly useful documents.

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

And my Gents movement (an S-type, derived from the earlier C9), stripped down after decades if neglect for a long overdue service. It now lives in a 1930s mahogany longcase clock case in our living room, powered from one of Mark Lines' modules.

You can see clearly how lots of the smaller bits have been made from stock stamped out of the front plate, minimising the amount of metal used without compromising its build quality in any way.

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

That's proper engineering, solving the minimal waste / maximal quality optimisation!

On the subject of master-slave clocks - my ITR (IBM) slaves are out of service at the moment as switch bounce seems to have them a bit inclined to run fast at random. I assume it's switch bounce, though the main switch is a mercury-in-glass-bulb tilt thing with lots of mechanical inertia, which it is hard to imagine bouncing anywhere! Oddly, the two slaves seem affected by this to a different degree. I wonder if there should be a low-pass filter somewhere (caps across the signal?) to take some of this out?

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

I thought I'd finally joined the 'master clock club' just a few weeks ago, when someone remembered that I 'like old stuff', and offered me 'a long wall-clock that they took out when they re-wired the office block', that her uncle had taken home with him as scrap.
I offered her £50, just from the description, and her uncle duly dropped it off for me.

Anybody want a Blick time recorder?

Re: Gents Pul-Syn-Etic Slave Clock Problem - High Resistance Terminal
 

Indeed.
Not nasty at all, takeapartable and fixable, just not your high end clock finish, who cares if it works?

Nickthedentist, wonderful picture, whack-stamp and all the bits are there, brilliant.