Got a sunny day with a slight breeze? Then it’s a perfect time to go sit out back in the garden. Take a glass of ice tea and a good book and enjoy yourself. You won’t loose track of the time because you’ve got a Sun Chime over in the corner.
From a distance, it appears to be a regular sundial, with a set of windchimes hanging from the edge. Upon closer inspection however, you notice that the large face of the sundial is in fact a solar panel with a ring of tiny light detecting sensors. The sun provides the power to switch on/off the dampening devices, which systematically prevents certain chimes from sounding. Given the position of the shadow on the face, the light sensors detect the approximate time and trigger the corresponding dampening devices to switch on/off. Therefore, every half-hour of daylight has a unique combination of tones, allowing the experienced listener to tell time while they enjoy the subtle music.
Note: This requires a good sunny day AND a strong enough wind to sound the chimes, so it should be considered quite unreliable, but it’s still a bit fancier than a regular sundial. With all the goofy things people put in their backyards, this should definitely be acceptable. Maybe I can find a way to incorporate a bird bath as well…-- luecke, May 28 2004 Rain Chimes http://www.halfbake.../idea/Rain_20Chimes(get the full set) [yamahito, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] (?) Sunchimes http://www.coolstuf....com/sunchimes.html...are actually Widely Baked, which I think answers that part of the question. [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] I was orriginally going to post the idea in that manner, but I had doubts as to how much power a solar panel can produce. I'm not even sure that it would be able to power the dampening devices, so I tried to keep it as simple as possible.
Does anyone know how much power a circular solar panel (~12-18 inch diameter) can supply?-- luecke, Jun 01 2004 Solar powered chimes are out there, per a quick Google. But I vote for the time-sensitive chimes.-- DrCurry, Jun 01 2004 Suggestion accepted - category changed. Thank you, [yamahito].-- luecke, Jun 01 2004 Nice. I'm inspired by it. +-- sartep, Jun 01 2004 Good. In fact, marvelous.-- DesertFox, Jun 01 2004 as I understand it, this is, beyond something to help you tell time, the turning of your being able to tell the time by hearing, into the signifiant characteristic of a splendid sunny day.. (+)-- sweet, Jun 01 2004 It would be nicer if the dampening were from something more elemental, say solar heating of some nitinol wire which deactivates the damper.-- macrumpton, Jun 04 2004 random, halfbakery