Overview
DTLclock recreates the movement and sound of a French grandfather clock in a responsive Windows interface.
The pendulum drives the visual mechanism. The second hand advances at every mechanical beat, even when the tick-tock is stopped, muted, or unavailable.
Main features
- animated pendulum and synchronized mechanical second hand;
- tick-tock with independent start, stop, and volume controls;
- two chimes: 18th-century metallic and 19th-century deep tone;
- automatic hourly and half-hour chimes;
- chime test button;
- silent hours configured through a hidden compartment;
- responsive interface and stand-alone Windows executable.
Mechanism and chimes
At every full hour, the selected chime strikes the time on a twelve-hour cycle. At every half-hour, one fixed 18th-century chime strike is played. Automatic chimes can be disabled globally.
The central rose hides the silent-hours panel. Selecting an hour silences both its full-hour and half-hour strikes.
Configuration
DTLclock.ini contains the visual and mechanical settings and the initial tick-tock volume. If the file is missing or a value is invalid, the application uses its built-in defaults.
Quick start
.\dist\DTLclock.exe python .\DTLclock.py
Running from source requires Python 3.10 or later. The stand-alone executable is built with PyInstaller.