{"id":5306,"date":"2025-06-30T14:34:44","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T19:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/?p=5306"},"modified":"2025-06-30T14:34:45","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T19:34:45","slug":"veeder-root-counter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/?p=5306","title":{"rendered":"Veeder-Root Counter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One favorite hobby of mine is visiting flea markets and antique stores, looking for inexpensive and weird pieces of technology, and figuring out what they do. The Mystery Telco Box<\/a> is a good example; I knew it would be interesting but had no real idea what it did. (It’s a monophone power unit.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another gizmo bought roughly around the same time is a Veeder-Root device with a six-digit counter on it. The only control visible is a digit-reset wheel, which seemed to work correctly. It was clearly either a counter or timer — hard to tell which. (It could easily be based on a 60Hz AC motor, or could count pulses.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The front of the device (after some testing)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"

The manufacturer’s plate, showing the model and expected voltage.
Still doesn’t directly say what it is. (I could look online, but that’s cheating…)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It wasn’t immediately obvious how to open it, other than removing the front cover plate. Loosening the four screws around the connection wires just seemed to loosen an internal piece, so I put them back in place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, I noticed a drop of dried pitch in the middle of one side. Scraping it off revealed a flat-blade screw (the only mainstream choice worse<\/em> than Phillips.) It came out with a minimum of fuss (for once), allowing the two halves of the cover to be removed. Pretty slick design, honestly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
With the covers removed, the inside is visible.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now that the mechanism was visible, the device could be seen to be a counter. Two electromagnets work in tandem to pull a metal bar to advance the count. (The only problem was, manually pushing on this bar didn’t quite advance the count — the mechanism was out of adjustment.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The back side, showing the escapement mechanism that advances the count.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A little experimentation revealed the problem — the bar was being pulled to the electromagnets correctly (good — I really didn’t want to re-wind the coils)<\/em>, but wasn’t being pushed back far enough by the spring to catch the next digit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veeder-Root helpfully provided a set screw for this function (and another for the backstop). By turning it almost to the end of its travel, I was able to get it to tension the spring enough to push the plate back in place, allowing a complete count. But we’re out of set screw at this point — if it fails again, it needs a new spring (or for this spring to be uncompressed a bit.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The set screws. The top one tensions the spring, and is about as far in as it can go.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This counter will probably be a static museum display piece, so I don’t need it to be reliable. (Otherwise, I’d have replaced the spring.) But it’s working now, and (at least with a new spring) should keep on working for another eighty years or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n