Back in the old days, we didn’t have fancy digital clocks. No, we had good analog clocks with a big hand and a little hand, and if you wanted to know the time you had to look at the clock and figure out which number each hand was pointing at, or kind of pointing at. It wasn’t easy, and we liked it that way.
So now, along comes an analog clock that’s nothing but the hands — no dial, no numbers, just hands. How is such a thing possible? The clue is in the clock’s name: AKUROBATTO, and in the video below, which shows the acrobatic movements of the clock’s hands as it does its thing. Serial improbable-clock maker [ekaggrat singh kalsi] clearly put a lot of thought into this mechanism, which consists of the hands and a separate base. The hands are joined together at one end and powered by small stepper motors. The base has two docking areas, where servo-driven claws can grasp the hand assembly, either at the center pivot or at the tip of either hand. With a little bit of shuffling around at transition points, the hands sweep out the hours and minutes in a surprisingly readable way.
For as cool as the design of AKUROBATTO is, the internals are really something else. There are custom-built slip rings to send power to the motors and the Arduinos controlling them, sensors to determine the position of each hand, and custom gearboxes for the steppers. And the locking mechanisms on the base are worth studying too — getting that right couldn’t have been easy.
All in all, an impressive build. Whether displaying the time on a phosphorescent screen or a field of sequins, it seems like [ekaggrat] has a thing for unique clocks.
Love it – would like to build one myself.
You have an idea how it works!? You’re a better man than me.
you mean the mechanism or the working?
Well I looked at the your IO page but I still don’t believe it, so I’m going with you using some kind of black magic! Anyway, well done, very well done.
Kudos on the design. Very cool. I want one.
Although I hear ya, ESK’s descriptions over on Hackaday.io are as well-done as the clocks themselves. You’ll get it.
I’m the one who really suffers here, though. I’m going to have to try to describe this without using images on next week’s podcast!
If the clock was rotated 90° and attached to a wall, would it be possible to make it flip the hands on :30 and :00 ? It would be more akin to some cuckoo clocks were the animation happens at these minutes.
cool idea i will look into it
This is a good idea. The movement is a little awkward, but might be better oriented vertically
Thats a pretty crazy clock design, well done! looks great!
Could you share the Github of this project? I love it
currently i don’t intend to share as it is a very complex project and it would be next to impossible to replicate. thanks for liking it