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Peter Wagner's Crazy Clock
Bob Moog and his Synthesiser
As the heading above suggests, there are two parts to this feature. Once the umbrella has succesfully fully opened, a model of a three-tier modular Moog synthesiser, complete with patch leads, rises out of the pulpit to the sound of electronic music. Lights on the sysnthesiser flash as they might on the original. In front of the synthesiser is a manikin of the inventor (and a hero of mine), the late Dr Bob Moog, who I once briefly met. For more information on him, click here. By the way, Moog rhymes with "vogue"!
To lift Bob and his synthesiser up into view from the bowels of the pulpit, I needed to construct a rising platform onto which, the synthesiser and manikin are attached. I thought of a number of ways of doing this, but in the end I came up with the idea of a motor on the platform, turning a long dowel rod onto which are attached three lengths of heavy-weight fishing line. The other ends of these are attached, via pulleys, near to the top rim of the pulpit. As the motor turns the rod, the fishing lines are wound around the rod thus pulling the suspended platform up. To stabilise the platform and stop it swinging and rotating, two vertical wooden rods pass through two holes at either side of the platform. Thes rods are fixed to the top and bottom of the pulpit barrel.
Top view of platform raising mechanism.
Close-up of right hand line and limit switch.
I also found some images of rosewood panels, the wood used for the original synthesiser cases. I sent these artworks off to be professionally printed onto self--adhesive plastic. These were applied to the front, top and sides. White and red LEDs were added in the relevant areas to emulate the lights that would have been on the original. One of the modules was a sequencer which had eight bulbs which would step through in a repeating sequence. These I connected to a little circuit board I bought off the internet, which performed this function. The circuitry was concealed inside the synthesiser and powered by a switched supply to power the circuitry for Bob's head - see later in this section.
Close-up of geared motor and left hand line.
The images show the platform in the raised position. Two limit switches can be seen to stop the motor when the platform reaches the top and bottom of its travel. The top-of-travel switch can be seen in the close-up picture, where it is activated by hitting the underside of one of the vertical rod supports. The bottom-of-travel switch can be seen behind the centre of the roller in the top view image. It is activated by a lever protruding through the bottom of the platform, which hits the top of the baseboard at the bottom of the pulpit barrel and activates the switch, cutting power to the motor.
At this stage, it is worth mentioning that with the eventual weight of the synthesiser and manikin sitting on top of the platform, the motor struggled with the weight. So I cut out large sections of the platform that were not essential in order to lighten it.
The next job was to construct and add a model of the iconic Moog Modular synthesiser. I created a rectangular box frame using lightweight wood and covered the front, top and two sides with foamex. The back was covered in a black plastic sheet to save weight. I found some images of a suitable synthesiser which I modified for my purposes.
Model of the synthesiser with flashing lights.
I made a few patch leads from thick white wire and some small dowel lengths for the plugs, which were painted black. Holes were drilled into the end of the dowel and each end of the lead glued into a hole. The other ends of the dowels were screwed to the panel from the inside in appropriate places. The bottom of the frame was left open and was designed to sit over the platform lifting mechanism, so hiding it. Cut-outs were made to allow the three platform-lifting lines to pass through the front and back. The synthesiser module was screwed to the platform by a few small right-angled brackets at the base. It was at this stage in September 2023 when the BBC came to film the Crazy Clock for Midlands today!
Next comes the manikin of Bob Moog. I particularly liked this image of him, shown with his trademark selection of pens in his shirt pocket. The original Guinness clock featured a zookeeper ringing a bell and turning his head repeatedly from left to right. In replacing him with Bob Moog, I wanted to add a bit more variety and make his head turn to a variety of positions, dwelling for a random time and moving with a variety of speeds. I used a tiny Arduino microcontroller and radio control model servo to achieve this. But first, I constructed his body out of chicken wire and covered it with papier-mâché. The two arms were likewise constructed and bolted on. Believe it or not, but you can buy dress shirts for 3 month old babies! One of these fitted perfectly. I added the tail end of an old tie and decorated his pocket with a tiny pen, pencil and ruler. I made his head by carving a block of phenolic foam cut from a sheet of insulating material. This was carved undersize and then covered with a thin layer of modelling clay and molded to the appropriate shape.
Dr. Robert A. Moog
Chicken wire torso
Covered torso with arms attached
Assembled manikin (1st attempt!)
Servo and controller
Once this had hardened, I then painted it with acrylic paints, using a variety of photos as reference. It must be said at this stage that I am not happy with the result and will have another go at it later. This is why his face is blurred out on the images. To make his head rotate in a random fashion, I inserted a rod into the foam at the bottom of the neck. The other end of the rod was attached to a servo motor fixed to the platform directly underneath where his head was to be. The top of the rod was stabilised by passing through a Meccano bracket support fixed to the base. The rod was driven by a separate Arduino microcontroller fitted alongside. As mentioned earlier, I wrote the software for this to move his head randomly. This was powered by the same supply driving the synthesiser lights and switched by the main controller all the time the entire structure is visible.
I fixed the manikin using a few screwed clips so it was over the servo and in front of the synthesiser, positioned such that it just missed touching the sides of the pulpit. Again, some cutouts had to be made in the torso to allow the front winch line to pass through.
The sequence of events triggered by the main controller is as follows:
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The sun starts to spin round.
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The umbrella opens as muffled electronic music plays quietly in the background. The sun stops spinning.
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The synthesiser and manikin of Bob Moog slowly rise into view as the music gets louder and less muffled, making the audience think the music is actually coming from the synthesiser. All the while, lights flash on the synthesiser and Bob's head randomly turns.
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The music soon concludes and other events of the clock take place.
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At the end, the sun starts to spin again and the synthesiser and manikin descend back into the pulpit barrel.
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The umbrella closes and the sun stops spinning.
The music I wanted to use was one of the pieces performed by Wendy Carlos on her LP "Switched on Bach" released in October 1968. The music, composed by J.S.Bach, was "Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir", BWV 29. However, on asking for permission to use it, the reply came back that there was a minimum licensing fee [which they] didn't think I would be able to afford, and that is without even considering whether they felt it's use would be appropriate in [my] application. So, because the music is so iconic and important, I downloaded a midi file of an orchestral version of the piece and played it back on my Yamaha Tyros arranger keyboard. I re-assigned each instrument part to various synthesiser sounds so as to make it sound electronic and of a similar character to the Switched on Bach version, but different! I recorded this and then edited it to shorten it so it ran for a suitable time.
Finished Pulpit, synth and Bob (although I will have another go at his head!)
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