The answer, of course, is a word clock. This is actually [Eric’s] second version of a word clock. Like the first one, it uses 114 LEDs to back light the words on the display.
In his first iteration he used an Arduino to drive a Charlieplex array of lights. It was an 11 by 10 grid, plus four LEDs to display the in-between minutes as dots at each corner of the clock face. This time around he’s still using an Arduino, but the lights have seen a huge upgrade. In one of his build pictures you can see the reel of RGB led modules which have two RGB LEDs and an HL1606 driver on each segment. These are SPI controlled, making them easy to hook up, using just a few data and power bus rails. Check out the test video after the break that shows what this grid is capable of.
In case you can’t figure out what time is displayed above, you might check out an English version of a Word Clock face to help in your own build.
[flickr video=http://www.flickr.com/photos/eokgnah/5991599239/ w=470]
>In case you can’t figure out what time is displayed above,
It’s ten past twelve. ;)
Beautiful clock.
no, es ist zehn nach zwolf?
actually it was 14 past 12, because all four corner leds are on.
each corner led is one minute more then the time shown in the text. so you can display the time up to the minute. ;-)
I’m no German expert, but a friend of mine who took 4 years of German told me it says “It is Ten after Twelve”.
I probably should’ve refreshed before I commented. lol
Another English version of the word clock is ClockTHREE, check it out here:
http://wyolum.com/clock3/
(also available for purchase as a kit).
very nice!
any description of the technique used for the faceplate? obviously laser cut, but how? i see an Xacto used to remove the inside of the lettering, but how are things like the inside of “R” held in place?
if I remember corectly, from the first version, they are printed on clear sheets, and he used a couple sheets so no extra light would make it through.
Hi.
Those word clocks have been around for quite some time by now, you can find a nice instructable at http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Word-Clock-Arduino-version/ for instance. I do remember a loooooooong forum thread over on microkontroller.net about those clocks, think it was at http://www.mikrocontroller.net/topic/156661#new for those of you who speak German. The faceplate probably is screenprinted on acrylic glass, I do remember someone at the MK forum ordering a couple dozens/hundreds of those, to be sold among the forum members. :D
Ah, I’ve been meaning to build one of these beauties for a while. Very nice. Now I have to come up with a way to improve upon the design, because I can’t just build the same thing :)
Wunderbar! ;-) really cool!
For hose of you speaking German (as I do ;) check out this Link:
http://www.mikrocontroller.net/articles/Word_Clock
This is the complete concept including an English front-end.
At the bottom of the page you’ll find two different ways of realization, as not everyone in the mikrocontroller-community wants to do things the same way ;)
Is it just me, or does a word clock look cooler in german, than it does in english ?
I think your right! Its to bad he isn’t selling them. I’d pay top dollar for one of these in english (hint hint, if someone wants to make me one for a reasonable price :P). I lack the technical skills to make one on my own =(
Similar (in functionality) kits available for sale here:
http://wyolum.com/catalog.php
hi,
its my clock.
to answer some questions…
the clock face in the pictures is just a b/w print on heavy paper on a A0 printer. it is 50x50cm. and it is mounted like any picture in this 15€ ikea pictureframe.
front = glass
then
printet paper
then
spacer
then backpanel with led-strips
then
wall.. ;-)
but the “printed paper” solution is just a workaround until i upscaled my small 25x25cm cnc up to 60x60cm. then ill make a nice lasercut face for the v2 as well. in my flickr stream you can see the lasercut workflow from the v1 clock.
…eok
p.s.
did i mention that every time you powercycle the clock she comes up with a differen color? ;-)
so white is not the only color i use.
you can get red, green and blue. and yellow, cyan and magenta as well.
just replug the power cord and the next color comes up. i used a eeprom address in the arduino to remember the last color before the power disconnected and setting the new one on bootup for the next cycle.
Hey that is cool, What if it had an idea of my schedule and colored the time accordingly. ie : If its almost time for me to leave for work, it goes orange, then red…
no problem dave. implementing that is just a matter of some simple lines of code.
color = white
if time is between a and b then color = orange
if time is between x and y then color = red
i use something similar for birthday remembering already. pls look at this feature here my v1 clock:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FubwWCcmHFk
As cool as this is, I’m disappointed because I’m working on basically the exact same thing right now.
since some asked…
i made a quick step by step:
“how do i design a charlieplexing led array wit easy wiring”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eokgnah/sets/72157627664794597/
you can easily scale it, since the principle is every time the same.
Where to get the RGB strips???
i got mine from ebay.
it was a seller directly from china.
but adafruit is selling them as well and others too. just search for “HL1606 5v” and choose a seller you trust/like.
Thanks a lot !
I put together a web version of one of these. Probably not of great interest compared to the hardware versions but I thought I’d share:
http://dev.lewby.com/clock/
Can you share the code for this arduino clock pls.
I built a similar clock. Checkout my blog (german) http://tiny.cc/2qv5kx