Bulbdial clock kit released

posted Dec 10th 2009 11:00am by Mike Szczys
filed under: home hacks, led hacks

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has just released a Bulbdial clock kit. This has come a long way since their first prototype, featuring three PCBs to carry the 72 charlieplexed LEDs. For accuracy they’ve included an optional header for a ChronoDot precision RTC.

With a great looking face and laser-cut acrylic case available, this may soon adorn our mantle. Time to write that letter to Santa…

Update: [Windell] of EvilMadScientist.com posted some video of the clock in action. We’ve embedded it after the break.

Comments [12]

tagged: chronodot, clock, evil mad scientist laboratories, led, rtc

12 Responses to Bulbdial clock kit released

Josh says:

December 10, 2009 at 11:28 am

I have really liked this project since the beginning. I think the price is kinda high, but all things considered, its reasonable. Very nice looking.

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David says:

December 10, 2009 at 12:04 pm

For $85 that is a very reasonable price (with case). The amount of work that went into it had to be pretty substantial and we aren’t talking about someone from some third world country who produced it.

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Shadyman says:

December 10, 2009 at 12:19 pm

I think most of the cost is just the sheer size of the PCBs… I’m sure the fabhouse charges for the full square that each of those rings takes up, unless they have a yet smaller board inside.

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Mike Szczys says:

December 10, 2009 at 12:25 pm

@Shadyman: Good point… too bad the ChronoDot is not their product, they could have made the circular discs inside the rings during production.

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Nick says:

December 10, 2009 at 3:34 pm

As someone who makes / sells a fair amount of kits, The price seems very, very reasonable. PCB’s are usually priced on how much panel space they take up, those circular panels take up a ton of space and you have to pay more for the routing. Very nice looking!

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David S says:

December 10, 2009 at 4:40 pm

where’s my bulb dial watch??

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Bob says:

December 10, 2009 at 4:59 pm

Can you tell the time in a room with normal lighting (or even sunlight streaming in a window), or do you need to dim the lights?

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Drone says:

December 11, 2009 at 8:10 am

It says one “hand” moves every two seconds fading in and out. Hmmm…. I’d like to see a movie of this thing in operation.