[gfish] was planning on attending Burning Man and wanted to make something unique (and useful) to wear. He decided on a hat/clock hybrid. Just slapping a clock on a hat would be too easy, though. [gfish] wanted his hat to change time zones both via manual switches or physical location.
On the front of the hat there are 2 hands, as most clocks have. Each one is attached to one of two concentric shafts that run to the back of the hat. Each hand is individually controlled by an RC vehicle servo. Those of you familiar with RC servos know that a servos’ max rotation is about 180 degrees and is certainly not enough for a full revolution required by the clock. To fix this, there is a 3:1 gear set that allows a 120 degree rotation of the servo to move the clock hand a full 360 degrees. With this method, each hand can’t move past 12 and instead has to quickly move counter-clockwise to get where it needs to be in order to again start its journey around the clock face.
Mounted inside the hat there is an Arduino that controls the clock, a GPS shield to determine location and an RTC to maintain accurate time. Mounted on the side of the hat is a control panel that contains an overall on/off switch as well as a rotary switch for selecting a specific timezone or for engaging GPS mode. The whole thing is powered by a 9 volt battery.
If you like unnecessarily complicated top hats, check out this WiFi enabled message displaying one.
You should consider hacking into nasa or the vatacan’s telescope…
kk5
Perhaps it should have a display a mirror image mode when it detects you’re wearing it and it can see your face.
My favorite part is that brass plate. Great detail. I just wonder how long it lasts on a 9v battery, especially with the gps on.
The aluminum rivets ‘kinda stand out against the rest of the steampunk motif.
Should paint the rivets black or something.
A 9 volt PP3 battery has about 500 mAh in it. A reasonably low power GPS pulls about 20-25 mA and the Arduino wants about the same. Say 50 mA in total giving 10 hours runtime. Then reduce that time a bit for (hopefully) infrequently driving the servos. So maybe 7-8 hours which is not too bad.
I love it! You know, since Burning Man’s physical layout is sorta based on a clock (i.e., I once camped at 8:30 and Esplanade with the Mondo Spider guys), it could have a gps mode where the clock displays your current playa address / location.
It does, actually. :)
Just add a mini (backward looking) periscope, kind of steampunk google glass
The hat gives me Willy Wonka -vibes :-) http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc4oajSpxC1qzytg1.jpg
perfect time travailing accessory must grab one in a few years when goes commercial and takes over world defeating google. ow shit said to mutch. …..
A steampunk top hat is unique at Burning Man ? I find this hard to believe. Like this rendition of a steampunk classic though.
without a cuckoo cuckooing every hour it’s kind of unfinished