This clock has a robotic twist to it. It will show you the time by drawing it in dry-erase marker. There’s a bit of play in the arm joints and some loose motor precision which results in a wavy font that prompted [Ekaggrat] to name his project the Doodle Clock.
The shape and building material used here really make the timepiece look great. We think if the arm holding the acrylic writing surface had been at right angles this would not look nearly as pleasing. The video after the break shows the bot in action, at first flexing its wrist to switch back and forth between marker and eraser. From there it starts to draw the time, tracing the segments of each digit multiple times to achieve a readable number. The entire thing is driven by an Arduino compatible board mounted on the base of the clock.
This reminds us of that felt-tipped Turing Machine. A variation on that would also make a really nice clock display.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSdylL9qs7o&w=470]
Very cool and the copper gives it a steampunk look, I just hopes its parkinsons clears up. :)
Very cool. Overengineering with style. :)
I’d be worried about the marker drying out, though – maybe some sort of auto-capping feature for v2?
Or replace the marker with chalk.
For a moment I thought the clock was doing a fist pump until I realized it was erasing the number.
I thought the same thing
I think it should write mirrored so you can view the clock from the other side. (without the arm in the way). Very interesting project.
Hah this is pretty cool. Thumbs up!
Very cool but kind of violent in movements
I LOLed hard, especialy on the erasing part. great idea
I love it.
I do wonder about the marker drying out. Chalk would work. This could also use an ink well, and even a classic feather tailed pen.. Surely they make dry-erase ink for fountain pens and ink wells? No?