Clock Hides Time Until You’re In Close Proximity

[Alan] is branching out beyond the Arduino with this clock. He’s still using the same code but built this board around an ATmega328 and the components he needed, saving his Arduino board for further development. The concept uses a character display housed in an old iPod Touch case. The build relies on an infrared sensor to actuate the LCD backlight. The closer your hand is the brighter the light.

The Maxim DS3232 RTC chip keeps time in this application. We’ve seen this little marvel used before, popular because it uses temperature compensation to maintain accuracy. If you’re interested in this part, check out the library file that [Alan] wrote for it.

10 thoughts on “Clock Hides Time Until You’re In Close Proximity

  1. @Kyle
    Picture is not clear indeed, but most of the pins are grounded together. I’ll add a nicer picture.

    @Birdman & @The Ideanator
    Thanks, my thoughts are the same. Except if you need USB permanent connection, Arduino is only meant for prototyping.

  2. I’m not anti-Arduino, but an Atmega328 still seems like overkill for a clock. That aside, this is pretty cool (and probably a good learning experience). If it were me, I’d probably ditch the RTC and try to come up with apps for the proximity sensor :D

    BTW, the horizontal-scrolling iframe inside the vertical-scrolling page: very annoying.

  3. I have been considering the DS3232 instead of a DS1307, but I find one aspect of the design puzzling. The temperature sensor is only +-3C, which is rubbish. Why make a super accurate temperature compensated RTC but give it such a poor temperature sensor?

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