As cool as split-flap clocks and displays are, they do have a few disadvantages. The mechanism sticks out on the side, and the whole thing relies on gravity. Some people don’t care for the visual split in the middle of each digit that comes as a result. And their cousins, the Numechron clocks? Those wheels, especially the hours wheel, are really big compared to the size of what they display, so the clock housings are huge by comparison.
[shiura] decided to re-invent the digital display and came up with this extremely cool spinning flap mechanism that uses a lip to flip each flap after it is shown. Thanks to this design, only half the number of flaps are needed. Not only is the face of the clock able to be much larger compared to the overall size of the thing, the whole unit is quite shallow. Plus, [shiura] tilted the display 15° for better visibility.
If you want to build one of these for yourself, [shiura] has all the STLs available and some pretty great instructions. Besides the printed parts, you don’t need much more than the microcontroller of your choice and a stepper motor. Check out the demo/build video after the break, and stick around for the assembly video.
Don’t mind the visual split in the numbers? Check out this split-flap clock that uses a bunch of magnets.
That is a brilliant idea! Great execution too, I love the clock.
Nicely done.
nice, very nice
There is a similar clock in venice, build in 1499.
It uses roman digits for the hours and normal for the minutes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mark%27s_Clocktower
That’s a really cool clock, thanks for the link. I also want to build the clock in the article. Damn you, Hackaday :-)
Well done !!
GE clocks from the early 70s used this exact design, with the dual sided flaps on a carousel that flipped over once per rotation. They even made some where they printed faux orange 7-segment numbers on the flaps to pretend to be a glowing digital display.
Fran Blanche did a video on this: https://youtu.be/fFowgEXNdAQ?si=ZqG3gaUO0Xmljh-K
Thank you for your comment. I think the design is almost identical except the motor position. Also National (domestic bland name of Panasonic in 1980s) sold similar clock named TE-818 and TE-814. That is also informed after the release of my clock through X (twitter) reply.
Seems like you could make a mobius strip version?
exactly my thought. was going to write the same comment.
Now THAT is a brilliant idea!
I’m also working on a Split-Flap display. Seems to be all the rage these days.
https://hackaday.io/project/185107-openflap
Lovely
Oh my god this is amazing… Could you make one that also does the day of the week? Even if it was just the first three letters that would be fantastic 🥰
Do you mean something like this: https://www.calcresult.com/temporal/twenty-four-hour-clock.html ?
The number of the day of the week is not even number so the design is not suitable for that use.