Scoping a perpetual motion ornament

A thorough exploration of the very retro perpetual motion style ornament that was HUGE in the 1970's, and still lives on with little difference to the circuitry.

A starter search on eBay would be:-
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=magnetic+perpetual+motion&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&LH_BIN=1&_sop=15
Target price $12 to $20.

The technology is very similar to the solar powered rocking ornaments, but they actually use a dedicated blob-chip that has self starting ability due to a voltage threshold trigger that can pulse a coil to try and get the pendulum started, and then uses the same coil to detect the swinging magnet and nudge the threshold of the coil pulser.

This older technology uses the brute force of a big magnet travelling at high speed over a large coil to trigger a single transistor directly.

I'm not sure why they don't use a flyback diode across the coil to protect against the coil's back EMF (ElectroMotive Force). I'd guess it's because these ornaments are all based on an original design. I don't think there's a drawback to doing the modification, and it didn't seem to affect the operation of the pendulum.

Magnetically maintained pendulums are fascinating. A lot of fun to build and they can run forever with a solar panel topping up a small cell. Long decorative pendulums make a very pleasing wall ornament.

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