We love clocks, and [Chris] got our attention with the internet enabled Light Clock. Time is displayed via RGB LED strip in a number of different ways around a 3D printed white disk. All the modes are based on two selectable colors to indicate hours and minutes, either in a gradient fashion or a hard stop.
Light is provided by a 144 LED neopixel strip and is powered by a beefy 4 amp 5 volt power supply, which also powers the controller. Brains are provided by a ESP8266 powered NodeMCU-12E board, and software is written using ESP8266 for Arduino core.
Being a WiFi enabled micro controller it is a simple matter of connecting to the clock using WiFi and using the embedded web pages to select your local timezone, color palette, and display mode. The correct time is set by network and will never be wrong. While there is a Kickstarter for selling the finished project, instructions and software are provided for making your own if you wish.
Join us after the break for the promotional Kickstarter and demonstration video
It looks like a bomb!
All kidding aside… Great looking product albeit a very cryptic to try to tell time. As a guest you’d only have a 50% chance of getting the time right without being told the pattern, or you would just have to stare at it for a while to see which color was moving, which might be kind of soothing I suppose.
Welcomed guests you don’t tell unless they ask.
Guests that have overstayed their welcome you explain how the clock works.
Lol! Perfect.
Yeah, you do have to know which colour is which, but I think that’s part of the fun. Part art-piece part timepiece :)
Nice. I’ve build such a clock a year ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14hvjW1nEEU
I still like the first one I saw like this in 2010… http://www.bramknaapen.com/equinox-clock/
I think they may need to work on their logo. I didn’t see Clock at first, and I don’t think I’ll be the only one.
Ha! My partner and I have joked about the logos many times, but you’re the first one to actually mention something. I just figure we have our next product lined up ;)
Can you still buy this somewhere or is the kickstarter it?
You can pre-order here :)
http://www.thelightclock.com/product/the-light-clock/
The price will go up once production is complete. Also, people on this board may be particularly interested that we’re making a kit form that should be available around March/April next year as well :)
So is it 120 LEDs or 144? Video says 120 and hackaday says 144. And there’s no actual picture of the LEDs mounted to the case. I guess I could read the code if I wasn’t too lazy.
It uses the 144LED/m neopixel strip, but I cut it off to use only 120 of them.