clock hacks

977 Articles

Waking Up With The (fake) Sun

July 9, 2010 by 38 Comments

[Bogdan] has some trouble getting up in the morning. A blaring alarm will do the trick but that’s no way to start the day. To get him through the dark winter months he wanted to try a sunrise simulator. He patched into the alarm signal of his bedside clock, intercepting the command from the clock’s microprocessor and using it as an input for his own ATtiny13. From there, the tiny13 gradually brightens a 150W halogen lamp using a triac until his room is as bright as a July morning. A signal is then sent to the alarm clock’s audio amplifier to turn on the audible alarm. He’s got the system set for a 20-minute sunrise so it’s just a matter of programming his alarm 20-minutes early than the ‘I absolutely have to get out of bed now’ time.

Multi Multimeter Clock

June 24, 2010 by 19 Comments

[Alan Parekh] built this clock to look like a Multimeter using analog multimeters for the three displays. A PIC does the timekeeping and feeds a specific amperage to the three displays which show hours, minutes, and seconds.

We’ve seen clocks that use analog meters before. [Alan] took the concept to the next level, replacing the graduated markings behind each needle to correspond to the correct display. He’s also included precise calibration so that each meter is as accurate as possible. After watching his video we’re convinced this is a refined product ready for a wide market, at least for those who appreciate the geek factor of the display.

Giant LED Matrix

June 23, 2010 by 6 Comments

We all love blinky lights. What we love even more than blinky lights is a very detailed tutorial with great photos. [Richard Kline] has written this fantastic tutorial on how to build a large 5×7 LED matrix and control it with a PIC processor.  The bulk of the body is a foam insulation board, covered with a diffuser. Source code and schematics are available for download from the site. If you’ve ever thought about getting into PIC processors, this would be a great beginner project.

[via MakeZine]

Morse Code Clock

June 22, 2010 by 14 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQwGw0s2qAc&w=470]

[Johnny Carlo] put another spin on clock displays with his Propeller-based Morse Code clock. He repurposed a tap light, using the tap function as a switch input and actuating the bulb inside with the help of a transistor. If you want to know the time just give it a tap and the device will transmit back to you in a series of flashes. This is great if you’re contemplating a career as a Navy Signalman or just need another way to practice Morse Code.

[Thanks Mike]

Color Clock Makes Telling Time Impossible

June 7, 2010 by 22 Comments

[Bogdan] set out to build the all-too-familiar binary clock. But, he didn’t want to be ordinary, and set the goal of making the clock as hard to read as possible. What he ended up with is a clock that is almost impossible to read correctly.
He’s using colors to tell the time. We immediately thought this might make use of resistor codes as the display but it doesn’t. Red shows the hours, green for minutes, and blue for seconds. Now stack all of them on top of each other in binary and you’ve got the time. That means you’ve got to know all of your color combinations, plus read the binary value correctly, to decipher the time. Add to that the display changing every second and we’re in trouble.
Aside from the user difficulty level, this is a really clean build. It uses an ATmega8535 in conjunction with our favorite DS3232 RTC chip. The etched board is nice and clean, making for an aesthetically pleasing clock.