Analog Meter Clock Uses Parts From A Simpler Time

December 29, 2019 by 16 Comments

Clocks with hands that turn are all well and good for the common folk, but hacker types prefer something different. [Sjm4306] is one such person, and developed this analog dial clock with parts we’d almost consider retro by modern standards.

The microcontroller at the heart of the build is a PIC16F886. An 8-bit micro from the Microchip brand, it features no Arduino bootloader or USB interface, being flashed via a dedicated programmer. This is combined with a DS1302 real-time clock to keep accurate time, and a MCP4922 DAC which is responsible for generating the output to drive the dials. The dials themselves are sourced from eBay, being simple voltmeters. They’re given a new backing to display hours and minutes instead of volts, and backlit with LEDs for style.

In this day and age, we’re more used to seeing high-end micros used with integrated DACs and USB programming, but it’s nice to see the parts of yesteryear being used, too. It’s not the first clock we’ve seen from [sjm4306], either. Video after the break.

Continue reading “Analog Meter Clock Uses Parts From A Simpler Time” →

Follow The Bouncing Needles Of This Analog Meter Clock

January 29, 2019 by 12 Comments

Our community never seems to tire of clock builds. There are seemingly infinite ways to mark the passage of time, and finding unique ways to display it is endlessly fascinating.

There’s something about this analog voltmeter clock that really seems to have caught on with the Redditors who commented on the r/DIY thread where we first spotted this. [ElegantAlchemist]’s design is very simple – just a trio of moving coil meters with nice industrial-looking bezels. The meters were wired for 300 volts AC, so the rectifier and smoothing cap were removed and the series resistance was substituted for one more appropriate for the 0-5VDC range needed for the project. New dial faces showing hours, minutes and seconds were whipped up in Corel Draw, and everything was put into a sturdy and colorful aluminum “stomp box” normally used for effects pedals. An Arduino Nano and an RTC drive the meters with a nice, bouncy action. Simple, cheap to build, and a real crowd pleaser.

The observant reader will note a similarity to a clock we covered a while back. That one chose 3D-printed cases for an airplane instrument cluster look. We like the spare case design in [ElegantAlchemist]’s build, but wonder how this clock would look in a fine wood case.

Educational Arduino Clock Uses Analog Meters For Display

March 1, 2024 by 13 Comments

When it comes to educational electronic projects, it’s hard to go past building a clock. You learn tons about everything from circuit concepts and assembly skills to insights about the very nature of time itself. And you get a clock at the end of it! [hamblin.joe] wanted to do a simple project for kids along these lines, so whipped up a neat design using analog meters to display the time.

The build relies on that old stalwart, the Arduino Uno, to run the show. It’s hooked up to a DS3231 real-time clock module so it can keep accurate time for long periods, as is befitting a clock. Displaying the time is done via the use of two analog meters, each fitted with a custom backing card. One displays hours, the other, minutes. The analog meters are simply driven by the PWM outputs of the Arduino.

It’s not a hugely complex project, but it teaches so much. It provides an opportunity to educate the builders about real-time clocks, microcontroller programming, and even the concepts behind pulse width modulation. To say nothing of the physical skills, like learning to solder or how to assemble the laser-cut enclosure. Ultimately, it looks like a really great way for [hamblin.joe] and his students to dive into the world of modern electronics.

Analog Meters Become A Clock For Father’s Day

June 22, 2018 by 8 Comments

Around Father’s Day each year, we usually see a small spate of dad-oriented projects. Some are projects by dads or granddads for the kids, while others are gifts for the big guy. This analog meter clock fits the latter category, with the extra bonus of recognizing and honoring the influence [Micheal Teeuw]’s father had on him with all things technological.

[Michael] had been mulling over a voltmeter clock, where hours, minutes and seconds are displayed on moving coil meters, for a while.  A trio of analog meters from Ali Express would lend just the right look to the project, but being 200-volt AC meters, they required a little modification. [Michael] removed the rectifying diode and filtering capacitor inside the movement, and replaced the current-limiting resistor with a smaller value to get 5 volts full-range deflection on the meters. Adobe Illustrator helped with replacing the original scales with time scales, and LEDs were added to the meters for backlighting. A TinyRTC keeps time and generates the three PWM signals to drive the meters. Each meter is mounted in its own 3D-printed case, the three of which are linked together into one sleek console. We love the look, which reminds us of an instrument cluster in an airplane cockpit.

Bravo to [Michael’s Dad] for getting his son into the tinkering arts, and cheers to [Michael] on the nice build. We like seeing new uses for old meters, like these server performance monitoring meters.

[via r/DIY]

A Logical Clock That Pretends To Be Analog

October 23, 2025 by 6 Comments

[kcraske] had a simple plan for their clock build. They wanted a digital clock that was inspired by the appearance of an analog one, and they only wanted to use basic logic, with no microprocessors involved. Ultimately, they achieved just that.

Where today you might build a clock based around a microcontroller and a real-time clock module, or by querying a network time server, [kcraske] is doing all the timekeeping in simpler hardware. The clock is based around a bunch of 74-series logic chips, a CD4060 binary counter IC, and a 32.768 KHz crystal, which is easy to divide down to that critical 1 Hz. Time is displayed on the rings of LEDs around the perimeter of the clock—12 LEDs for hours, and 60 each for minutes and seconds. Inside the rings, the ICs that make up the clock are arranged in a pleasant radial configuration.

It’s a nice old-school build that reminds us not everything needs to run at 200 MHz or hook up to the internet to be worthwhile. We’ve featured some other fun old-school clocks of late, too. Meanwhile, if you’re cooking up your own arcane timepieces, we’d love to hear about it on the tipsline.

Making A Clock With A Retooled Unihiker K10

October 23, 2025 by 3 Comments

The Unihiker K10 is intended to be a small single-board solution for light AI and machine learning tasks. However, you don’t have to use it in that way if you don’t want to. [mircemk] figured out how to repurpose the device, and whipped up a simple Internet clock build to demonstrate how it’s done. 

While the Unihiker K10 is based on the common ESP32 microcontroller, out of the box, it isn’t compatible with standard Arduino libraries. However, [mircemk] had previously figured out how to get the K10 to play nice with the Arduino environment, building a simple light meter as a proof of concept. It just took a little tinkering to get everything playing nicely together, but soon enough, the TFT LCD and a light sensor were playing nicely with the K10 platform.

Moving forward, [mircemk] wanted to unlock more capability, so set about figuring out how to get WiFi and the onboard buttons working within the Arduino environment. A great way to test this was building a clock—the screen would show an analog clock face, the buttons would be used for control, and the WiFi would be used to query an NTP time server to keep it synced up and accurate.

It took a little work, particularly as the buttons are accessed through an external I/O expansion chip, but [mircemk] got there in the end. The clock may not be a particularly advanced project, but the write-up demonstrates how the K10 can readily be used with Arduino libraries for when you’re not interested in leveraging its fancier AI/ML capabilities.

We’ve seen a few good builds from [mircemk] before, too, like this neat proximity sensor. Continue reading “Making A Clock With A Retooled Unihiker K10” →

2025 One Hertz Challenge: Electromechanical CMOS Clock Keeps In Step With Mains Frequency

July 4, 2025 by 12 Comments

Some people can’t be bothered to read the analog face of a traditional clock. Some people cannot stand the low frequency “hum” of mains current. If you are in either of those categories, you probably don’t want to make [Christian]’s handsome and well-documented electromechanical CMOS clock.

As you might guess from the name, the clock uses CMOS logic, based around a 12 bit counter, to provide the divider circuits 24 (daily) and 60 (minutes and seconds). Specifically, the circuits are based around a CD4040 twelve-bit adder. Those signals go through DAC circuits based around DAC0808 chips to drive some very nice coil meters for hours and minutes in lieu of the traditional clock face. Taking the time to make a CMOS clock circuit from adder chips is respectable enough in this era of instant-gratification through micro-controllers, and we dig the blinkenlights built into the circuits, but it’s what is being added that is where things get really interesting.

[Christian] had the bright idea that a stepper motor could be driven via the mains, simply by using a capacitor to offset the waveforms on the coils by 90 degrees. With a 200-step stepper motor, [Christian] gets one revolution per second out of the 50 Hz grid; this generates the seconds signal for his CMOS chips by the simple expedient of a 3D printed arm and a light barrier. Once per second, the light is interrupted by the spinning arm, creating a pulse for the clock circuits to add up. Check it out in action in the demo video below.

This project also seems to have the distinction of being the first project submitted to our One Hertz Challenge. It’s not just for clocks, but keep an eye on your clock because entries are only open until 9:00 AM Pacific time on August 19th.

Continue reading “2025 One Hertz Challenge: Electromechanical CMOS Clock Keeps In Step With Mains Frequency” →