[Sean_Carney] build this clock that tells the weather instead of the time. The two hands display the current conditions and the temperature. Forty below zero seems amazingly cold if you’re on the Fahrenheit scale but [Sean’s] from Winnipeg so he’s operating on the Celsius side of things.
Two servos move the hands to match the data scraped off of the Internet. An Arduino does the scraping with the help of an Ethernet shield. This reminds us of the Harry Potter clock that tells a persons location.
[via Flickr]
I’m always for a good hack but a window does the same (allow you to see what the weather is) and cheaper.
FYI: -40C = -40F.
mongo: Yeah, I was just having a good laugh at that; I presume it was intentional humor. :)
Um, -40*F==-40*C
Cold either way.
Colder than that in Fairbanks today.
TEMPERATURE JOKES!! haha
“but [Sean’s] from Winnipeg so he’s operating on the Celsius side of things.”
Just like the rest of the freakin world!
So true. Why the hell would you use Fahrenheit and imperial measurements. Whose foot is a foot based on anyway?
My foot!
It’s so annoying too – we get a lot of American TV shows in Australia and having to listen to “mile” this and “pound” that requires more brain cells than neccessary (to do the conversion) for watching TV. For such a technologically advanced country, this is very backward.
You can imagine my disappointment when I visited the UK in 2008 – they’re still on freakin miles! Ugh!
Actually, of all of the weird units that are in use in the US, Farenheit is actually fairly useful to describe weather. 100 degrees is f’ing hot and 0 degrees is f’ing cold.
yeah, I hope that’s a funny on the part of the writer that -40F is equal to -40C…
i dont get the farenheit/celcius joke. was it a joke or did Mike Szczys screw up?
Rick – 100 is so overrated – 40 is the new 100!
Besides, 100f == 37.7c – hot, but not f’ing hot!
Today in Melbourne it’s gonna be 40 degrees. Damn hot. Yesterday it was freakin 43.
Yuck!
mehmet – I’m pretty sure it was unintentional.
today in Rio de Janeiro we got 50Celsius
That’s f’kin hot!
the farenheit/celcius joke is that -40° is the only point at with both are equal
-40.0 °C = -40.0 °F
sorry for bad english^^
Hah, I’m from Winnipeg as well. Cool beans.
Yes, it is cold here.
Just saying, I live in Ottawa, it gets cold as hell here. It is not uncommon to have a few -40*f days in late winter.
Awesome! But would be cooler if the hands were centered like a real clock.
Uhm.. -40 degrees in the Fahrenheit scale is the same as -40 degrees in the Celsius scale..
-40 is where the scales converge, actually, so -40 is still f***ing COLD
A great idea, and looks great too. Kind of steampunk.
To the people that didn’t get it…
*woooooosh*
@WeblionX
Hahaha, yeah. Pretty much.
just be glad it’s not -40ºK
A window might do the same thing, but im in a basement and this would actually be neat!
I’d love to see a 30$ version of it go for sale, i’d grab it even if i had a functional window since this is much funner to be honest, great stuff.
The hands above each other look out of place, the harry potter multi hand clock “thing” looked more pleasing but was a bit more work. Less work is good some times too.
Cool project, but exactly how does looking out a window tell you the temperature? -40 with the sun shining sure looks a lot like -5 with the sun shining but go outside without your jacket and you’ll soon feel the difference.
I’ll buy this thing))
when i worked in NYC, i would have to go to the window and look up to see if it was sunny out. the buildings were so tall and close together, the sun did not reach my floor or the street.
cool clock. what about adding a feature where it ticks to the max temp,current temp and min temps for the day?
It reminds me of a barometer.
“[Sean_Carney] build this clock that tells the weather instead of the time.”
Me want build too.
@Suki: Shhhh!
You’ll just provoke ’em.
They’ll come back when the power fails.
I really liked this project, from idea to implementation. I’d rate it 99/100.
One minor critique with regard to aesthetics. It would have been nice if both hands pivot on the same axis, as is the case with real clocks.
It’s easy to buy hobby brass tubes. Consecutive sizes will slide into each other in a coaxial fashion. The larger, “hour hand” shaft could drive the temp pointer, and the smaller
“minute hand” shaft could drive the cloud pointer. Heck, you add a third “second hand” pointer with barometric pressure, if you wanted.
Granted, this complicates the drive inside the clock, but it’s not overwhelming, particularly since the shafts only rotate over a fraction of a revolution. You could solder a bellcrank to each shaft, and actuate it with a servo. Gears or even small rubber belts (neoprene O-rings?) would be an alternative.
Just my 2 cents worth. Nice project, though.
Pookey
-40F is when Celsius and Fahrenheit overlap <.<
Also, most people should know that when it’s -40, it’s cold enough to instantly freeze boiling water thrown in the air. Easy snow basically.
Hay guyz did anybody said that -40f is liek teh same as -40c lols!?
FFS people, try to read the comments before you repeat what has already been said several times.
As for the hack, beautiful. I’m actually considering making one for myself but perhaps more modern when it comes to looks.
At first glance [Sean_Carney] looked like [Sean_Connery]. If only he were a hacker, too.
Celcius isn’t that much better than Fahrenheit, but having 0 be the point where water freezes makes it somehow more logical to use Celsius for weather, since the freezing is a significant weather event.
Real hackers use the Kelvin scale.
I don’t think that’s even theoretically possible, jh.
Hey did anyone know that -40C is the same a -40F?
That’s so cool there are some other hackers out there in this city!I just got my order from free day today and am ready to go!
Like a set of scales the barometer balances the weight of the mercury against the pressure of the atmosphere.
yay, good to see a fellow hacker from winterpeg!!