Volt meter clock

posted Jan 16th 2010 8:11am by Caleb Kraft
filed under: home hacks

The Volt meter clock continues our recent slew of interesting clock projects. Though considerably easier to read than the resistor clock, it is in the same frame of mind. Set up to look like the face of an analog volt meter, it almost looks like something official or scientific. Since [Jon] couldn’t simply drop a clock mechanism in, he used a PIC microcontroller. The circuit is pretty simple, but he deserves some credit just for the unique layout.

Comments [16]

tagged: clock, meter, pic

16 Responses to Volt meter clock

medix says:

January 16, 2010 at 9:23 am

That is, quite possibly, the largest meter I’ve ever seen. Impressive just for the sheer size of it.

Props for using a PIC. ;)

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Ron says:

January 16, 2010 at 9:30 am

Reminds me a bit of the “Chronulator” kit, which uses two analog meters (one for hour, the other for minute).

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MS3FGX says:

January 16, 2010 at 10:05 am

Interesting concept and well implemented. Though personally it seems like the face would make more sense if it were 24 hours with 12 noon in the center. Though I suppose that would make the clock harder to read accurately (at least the minutes), since the distance between hours would be reduced.

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darus67 says:

January 16, 2010 at 10:13 am

I, too, was thinking that 12 should be straight up.
It could still be done that way as a 12 hour clock.

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risu says:

January 16, 2010 at 11:16 am

Looks very clean. The two 12′s confused me for moment till I noticed the minute range.

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gradbert says:

January 16, 2010 at 11:21 am

I did a volt meter clock a while back, with three meters for hours minute and seconds. http://gradbert.org/wordpress/?p=5
I went with a 24 hour dial.

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Slurm says:

January 16, 2010 at 11:34 am

he used a servo to move the clock pointer ? wouldn’t it be easier to just just an Digital/Analog converter for voltages from 0V to 12V ?
something like “gradbert” did.

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Jon says:

January 16, 2010 at 11:38 am

Have you tried to buy a large analog meter recently? A $3 servo and a buck for a microprocessor is far cheaper!

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Jon says:

January 16, 2010 at 11:40 am

And actually, no, it would be more difficult to drive an analog meter. No external parts are needed to drive a servo. It’s actually pretty simple.

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vito says:

January 16, 2010 at 12:14 pm

Anybody notice its 4:20?