A grandfather clock carved in Snoqualmie cedar, standing in the valley
between the falls and Mount Si. It keeps real time, and every hour it puts on a different show: the Towne
Crier with a prop or a gag (and the temperature), a Sheltie a beat behind, peekaboo zebras, an elk herd on
the tracks, emergency vehicles, and Snoqualmie Falls surging in the base.
Every show fits inside thirty seconds, doors open to doors shut.
The program
Twelve hours, two casts, a tune every half hour.
The cuckoo still counts the hour: three calls at three o'clock. What calls, and
what happens around it, changes every hour. In Mix, the Towne Crier takes the odd hours and the
menagerie the even ones. Two hours override both: midnight is a party, and at 3 PM the
ITMedic comes out on his daily rounds instead of the cuckoo. Click any show to play it.
Hour
The Towne Crier
The menagerie
Half past · quarters
How it would be built
Cams and levers for the charm; small electronics for the tricks.
Turn on Workshop view and every effect is labelled with what would drive it.
The rule underneath all of it: the movement is the master, and the electronics listen. A
microswitch on the strike train wakes the controller, so if the batteries die the Crier still
comes out on time. He just does it without the sound effects.
Purely mechanical
Cams, levers, springs, hinges
Doors on hinges, opened by the strike lever, as in any cuckoo clock.
Figures slide out on a carriage; a lost-motion slot gives the Sheltie his one-second lag.
Two bellows pipes make the cuckoo; the same wire lifts the dial's brows and mustache.
A count-wheel cam opens the shutters; a two-position cam flips the zebras side to side each hour.
A camshaft in the base nods the deer, twitches the squirrel and hops the rabbit.
The startled hat is a compressed spring on a trip latch; the spin exit is a quarter-gear turntable.
The pendulum rider's legs hang on a free pivot, so gravity swings them for nothing.
Small electronics
LEDs, micro-servos, a sound module
A real-time clock and a small microcontroller pick the day's show; the 3 PM repair visit and the late cuckoo are its decisions.
Micro-servos turn the sign, run the cloud along its slide, and flick the coat-tails for the sneeze.
A stepper turns the sun-and-moon disc; micro gear-motors run the train, the emergency vehicles and the elk herd.
Warm LEDs in the lanterns and windows, flashing light bars on the vehicles, blue LEDs for rain.
A sound module carries the voices, tunes, sound effects, laugh track and yodel echo.
A light sensor silences it all at night: the classic cuckoo-clock night shut-off.
The waterfall
Snoqualmie Falls in the lower cabinet
In the lower cabinet: the most practical place, far from the movement and the weights.
A silent 5 V pump recirculates water up a hidden tube and down a textured resin-rock face.
An acrylic front keeps splashes and humidity in; a vent and a micro-dehumidifier protect the wood.
A pull-out reservoir tray for topping up, without moving the clock.
Amber LEDs for candlelight, or cool blue for a moonlit stream; fiber-optic points for fireflies.
When the cuckoo emerges, the pump steps up and the backlight brightens for a few seconds.
The optional glass sheet behind the pendulum is the modern take: a thin film of water in a sealed channel.
Practical considerations
What keeps it running
Weight. Figures in basswood or hollow prints, a few grams each, so the carriage never strains the strike train.
Timing.Every show fits inside thirty seconds.
Noise. Felt pads on the door stops, silicone bumpers under the landing and the hat spring, slow servo sweeps, and a trickle kept under the cuckoo.
Maintenance. Cams and hinges over linkages; the electronics on a back tray with plug-in leads; a reservoir that pulls out.
Clock Only Mode
On a screen all day, or just at the top of the hour.
/cuckoo is the clock full screen, with
no flaps: in the valley (landscape, the default) or alone (portrait). It strikes on the hour and the half,
and on the quarters if you ask, all day. Every setting above rides in the link:
orient, detail, cast, season, falls, water,
sheet, bob, light, lights, half,
quarter, engine, temp. Add ?show=5 to open on the five
o'clock show, or ?tour=1 to open on Show off. Its own buttons do the rest: Show off, Strike
random, every animation by name, sound, full screen (or F), and settings that stay on your device.
For a venue's TV, the Towne Crier control panel has a Cuckoo clock switch. It can visit
the board for one show at the top of each hour and then give the screen back, or take the
screen over entirely in Clock Only Mode. Alerts always take the screen back.
On a computer, the clock makes a screen saver too, on Windows or a Mac:
here's how.
On a TV
A TV with a web browser can show it.
Open agents.itmedic.ai/cuckoo in the
TV's own browser, then press Full screen on the clock's bar. The first time, answer the cookie
notice with the remote. To keep it on all day, turn off the TV's own sleep timers;
the screens guide has the settings.
LGOpen Web Browser, type the address, then press Full screen.2018 and newer
SamsungOpen Internet, type the address, then press Full screen.2018 and newer
Fire TVInstall Silk Browser from Amazon's Appstore, free, then open the address.Silk
Google TVNo browser comes with it. Install one from Google Play, or open the clock in Chrome on a computer and cast the tab (Chrome's menu, then Cast).Browser or cast
Roku, and older setsNo browser that can run it. Plug in a Fire TV stick, or a computer by HDMI.Add a stick
For your town
Every town has stories. Yours could have a clock.
Snoqualmie's is the first. Another town's would be drawn from that
town: its own view, its own cast of characters and in-jokes, and its own events, buses and weather on the
marquee. Cities, chambers of commerce, tourism bureaus, downtown associations, libraries and museums can ask
about one. So can foundations and programs that fund community projects.