Few mechanical clocks are silent, and many find the sounds they make pleasant. But the stately ticking of an old grandfather clock or the soothing sound of a wind-up alarm clock on the nightstand are nothing compared to the clattering cacophony that awaits [ProtoG] when he finishes the clock that this electromechanical decimal to binary to hex converter and display will be part of.
Undertaken as proof of concept before committing to a full six digit clock build, we’d say [ProtoG] is hitting the mark. Yes, it’s loud, but the sound is glorious. The video below shows the display being put through its paces, and when the clock rate ramps up, the rhythmic pulsations of the relays driving the seven-segment flip displays is hypnotizing. The relays, one per segment of the Alfa Zeta flip displays, have DPDT contacts wired to flip a segment by reversing polarity. As a work in progress, [ProtoG] hasn’t shared many more details yet, but he promises to keep us up to date on the converter aspect of the circuit. Right now it just seems like a simple but noisy driver. We’ll be following this one with interest.
If you prefer your clocks quieter but still like funky displays, check out this mixed media circus-themed clock.
The sound’s great indeed, but the “drawing” of the numbers is pretty cool as well!
Indeed. Also, maybe the clock should have fractional seconds or a groovy scroller like the []
Thank you, I spent quite a bit of extra time programming to make sure it wrote the numbers as I would on paper. Displaying and clearing digits instantaneously didn’t look/sound as good.
That’s super cool. I don’t think I’d have thought of that! Way to go.
Thank you!
+1 !!!
Great looks and great “click” sounds too.
Thank you.
Sh#t that’s cool. Would be amazing as some sort of terrifying ‘You’ve tripped a booby trap’ sequence.
Regarding the sound/noise of a clock: I can not have any mechanical clock on my bedside table. The ticking noise hinders e from falling asleep. Probably because I used nearly exclusively digital clocks during my life. When I have been at my grandma’s place as a child, I used to put. her mechanical alarm clock out of the room.
From the standpoint of reading the time, I see a digital watch much more convenient and faster. “Time is a number, not an angle.” :-)
Not really. Time is analogue even if you measure it with the oscillation of a caesium atom this only represents a digital snapshot of analogue time. Put that way time is closer to an angle than to a number.
If you deconstruct it that way, there’s nothing digital in the world. Everything’s just a snapshot of an analogue system, using arbitrary bounds to separate it into digital date.
*data whoops
Yup! That’s about the speed of it.
As a younger child (single digit years) I had a wind up alarm clock by my bed, designed for kids with a picture and some ‘animated feature’ instead of a second hand. So I guess it’s by the same reasoning that I find the ticking of a clock really quite soothing, comforting, especially when falling sleep (although admittedly I’ve never found that hard anyway). While I’d love a clock with the display featured here, it’d probably be a tick too far for even my bedside, but would look awesome in my office!
Hmm, wonder if there’s an anti-alarm clock that ticks imperceptibly slower and slower to help you sleep. Not quite sure how it gets to catch up – maybe in the morning a ramp-up of the ticking speed will subconsciously prepare you to awake…
And if it stops, do you go into stasis or a coma?
wow one of the most intriguing 7 segment displays i have seen in a while.
Riverdance, anyone?
Here’s the functioning converter:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtJ-09U4fTo&w=560&h=315%5D
I wish I had a desktop this clean
I’m in love with this thing! I can not wait to see the full clock!
Pretty neat, take care at high rates though if you are concerned about display longevity. According to the AlfaZeta website, “allow at least 900 msec before driving the same segment again”.
Definitely, the clock will not operate that quickly. I’m also only driving them with 12V instead of the recommended 19V.
Great part find and project idea, good work!
Thank you!
@ProtoG42 That’s pretty great. It reminds me of the time I spent in a nuclear power plant control room. . . where one could hear a faint clattering of relays. I asked our guide about it and he replied “Oh, that’s from the relay banks.” Of course, I was like “Relay banks!?!” and demanded to see them. Upon opening the door, we stepped into a sweet cacophony of 10’s of thousands relays clattering away.
It was music to my ears.
That’s awesome! Thank you!
What makes more noise: the digits or the relays?
@ProtoG42, that is EPIC!
A few years ago, I made a clunkier version.
http://g33k.blogspot.com/2013/12/servo-driven-7-segment-display.html?q=7+segment
https://open.spotify.com/track/4BVE5tIIpYabZcYCbephNW?si=25WtLgfLS3m5QkWXQKiSag
This totally was the beat from the one’s digit at full speed…
I love it.
I want one!!