This good-looking clock appears to be made out of a block of wood with LED digits floating underneath. In reality, it is a block of PLA plastic covered with wood veneer (well, [androkavo] calls it veneer, but we think it might just be a contact paper or vinyl with a wood pattern). It makes for a striking effect, and we can think of other projects that might make use of the technique, especially since the wood surface looks much more finished than the usual 3D-printed part.
You can see a video of the clock in operation below. The clock circuit itself is nothing exceptional. Just a MAX7218 LED driver and a display along with an STM32 ARM processor. The clock has a DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor, as well as a speaker for an alarm.
Setting the clock is a breeze since it offers a WiFi interface, thanks to an ESP8266, of course. There’s also a vibration sensor to cut off the alarm. You could change the software to suit if you wanted to handle things differently. For example, we might make the vibration sensor snooze, and require the user to access the web page to turn the alarm off just to make sure we were really awake.
Contact paper is available in lots of finishes, so this technique could turn a 3D-printed box into a box with a solid color, a marble pattern, or even simulated carbon fiber.
We couldn’t help but think about putting some of the unusual LED clocks we’ve seen in this kind of enclosure. Maybe even one with words.
Video doesn’t work. Also… have you not heard of paper veneer? ;)
I thought so too, but sadly, it’s a sticker with wood print on it.
…that’s what paper veneer /is/. It’s /paper/ /veneer/ — paper that is printed to look like wood.
Not all. There are actual thinly sliced wood, some are paper-backed. Kinda disappointed that the clock face is not as flat as it shows the dent for the display.
“Thinly sliced wood” is veneer that is not paper veneer, i.e. it is /regular/ veneer.
Yes, this one:
http://www.microwood.com/ (very thin veneer with a papercarrier on the back). I built an LED pixelmatrix with that, too. also see here: https://hackaday.io/project/11064-raspberry-pi-retro-gaming-led-display
Kinda sad then the USER of the VIDEO has been terminated… can you remove the video? Obviously the video will never be published since the user is GONE.
Video works, at least for me in the middle of the Midwest, USA. is 28:06 long. guessing Youtube had overload due to holiday.
I think it is using a stm8, not a stm32.
“This video is unavailable”
Went to the video’s cryptic name and got:
“This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated. ”
Poor guy, probably a victim of the veneer mafia or something :)
You paya da money or we maka you flat
I think I met [androkavo] at Bay Area Maker Faire this year… I remember talking to someone either at my booth or at one of the get-togethers about this exact project. Very similar concept to some of the magic mirror projects out there.
Why not run the whole thing with the ESP8266? The Veneer idea though is the main point and is quite nice.
Thats a good point and…
If you need inspiration for other designs, just search for “wood led clock”, there’s quite a few out there using this concept.
I couldn’t care less about fake wood grain, but what a great idea to add the vibration sensor! I’m tempted to add one in parallel to the snooze button.
measuring “G” forces would make a good snooze button.
I have found this works *just* OK with very thin Balsa wood so I am going to try it with a thin piece of Balsa wood stained with an polyester based stain.
Video worked for me
Inventables have a micro thin veneer. I have some – works great.
https://www.inventables.com/categories/materials/wood-mdf/veneer
Incidentally, you can buy these kind of clock ready-made on the popular Chinese websites too.
(That’s for those ‘iphone users’ talked about elsewhere on HaD.)
Example: https://www.aliexpress.com/item-img/Wooden-Clock-Digital-LED-Desktop-Alarm-Clock-with-Green-Light-CA1T/1943585795.html
And yes, they had them before the instructable
I have one of those for a couple of years. Snoozes via G sensor, has alarm, temperature sensor (didn’t pried it open.. but temperature is off bu a lot – heating from LDO?)
Costed 5€. Just begging for an ESP8266.
Really, Chinese cheap “wood” LED clocks used to be everywhere here in S.E. Asia. Basically a dirt-cheap 4-segment LED clock with sticky wood-grain film that (quite convincingly) looks like a block of wood. Good examples used to sell for around $5-$10 a-pop. The bigger ones had a USB or barrel connector to power them on all the time. But I haven’t seen them around here for sale in the past year or so.
Using two 32 bit CPUs together just for a clock is quite an overkill. :-) Where are the times when I did this with a single PMOS IC (something from National) and some logic (40xx)? It was in the late 80ies or early 90ies :-) But as there was no internet (at least for the normal public) it was without network connection.
LOL
I did the clock thing with CMOS SSI in the 80’s. It was fun. Now they do it with two 32-bit micros because that’s what is “fun” now. That they do it at all, is the important part.
Didn’t you ever put a 351 into a mini-minor?
Serch for “wood pcv film” in Aliexpress ( http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/3376yrj ) The material seems similar
Have had one of these for a few years and found the display kind of lost half the temperature lettering display. My question would be: how would I fix that? I also got fed up with constantly hooking up batteries so use it with a power adapter which seems to work OK (same voltage and almost same amps).