clock hacks

908 Articles

An Apple ][ With A Pendulum

February 5, 2024 by 6 Comments

Clocks are a favourite project here, and we can say we’ve seen all conceivable types over the years. Just a software clock on a retrocomputer perhaps isn’t the coolest among them, but [Willem van der Jagt ]’s Apple][ clock has a little bit extra. It takes its time reference from a real pendulum, on an antique wall clock.

A proximity sensor next to a metal pendulum gives an easy way to generate a digital pulse on each pass, but leaves the question of how to transfer it to the computer. With computers of this age the circuitry is surprisingly simple, and in this case he’s sending an interrupt to the machine which the software can pick up for its timing. There is a small logic circuit between the sensor and the interrupt allowing him to gate the pendulum line, triggered from one of the output lines exposed on the Apple’s game port.

The code is written in assembly, and counts the number of pendulum swings before incrementing the number of minutes. It’s an enjoyable reminder of the days when the architecture of a computer was this accessible, and for those of us whose past lies in the Sinclair world it’s also been a little peek into something of how the Apple works.

We think this is the first pendulum-driven retrocomputer clock we’ve seen here at Hackaday, as you might understand when a clock has a pendulum it’s usually a more traditional design.

Resistor Color Code Clock Is A Bit Of Fun

February 3, 2024 by 6 Comments

Younger electronic engineers may see resistors with old-style color codes to display their values a little less than those from previous years, but if there’s a shibboleth among those who wield a soldering iron it’s probably something similar to instinctively saying “1K” when asked “Brown-black-red?”. Colors as numbers can be used outside resistors, for example in a clock, as [Det Builds Stuff] shows us with an ESP32 TFT dev board.

It’s fair to say that this is more of a software project than a hardware one, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing as he takes us though the process of creating a Network Time Protocol (NTP) capable clock with the dev board. He claims it may be the world’s first resistor clock, something we’d have to disagree with, but beside that we can see this could make a neat little desk ornament with a 3D printed case.

Oddly though, we’d expect older engineers to face the same steep learning curve as younger ones when reading it, because it’s easier to recognize visual sequences of numbers as preferred resistor values than it is to visually decode each one every time.

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Neon Watch Glows Rather Nicely, Tells Time

January 17, 2024 by 12 Comments

It wasn’t long after the development of the LED that LED watches became available. They were prized for their clear light output and low power draw. Neon bulbs, on the other hand, are thirsty for current and often warm or even hot in operation. And yet, [Lucas] found a way to build them into a sweet watch that actually does the job. Nice, right?

The design uses a simple trick to avoid killing the batteries with excessive power draw. The neon lamps are only activated when the user waves a hand above the watch, at which point the lamps light to display the time. Reading the time is  a little fiddly, but understandable with the aid of this PDF diagram. Basically, the two electrodes of each neon lamp are driven independently. This gives each of the four lamps three possible states: with the first electrode lit, the second electrode lit, or both lit. Four lamps multiplied by three states equals 12—so the watch can display the hour quite easily. As for minutes, a similar scheme is used with some modifications for clarity. Setting the time is via a light sensor on the watch which picks up flashes from a computer screen.

It reminds us of a time when we once thought nixie tubes were too power hungry for a wristwatch build… until the hackers of the world proved us wrong. Video after the break.

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Kinetic Clock Is A Clean Modern Way To Tell Time

January 16, 2024 by 11 Comments

Hackers and makers aren’t usually too interested in basic round analog clocks. They tend to prefer building altogether more arcane and complicated contraptions to display numbers for the telling of time. [alstroemeria] did just that with this nifty kinetic clock build.

The basic concept of the kinetic clock is to have a flat plate, which individual segments raise out of to create a physical (instead of illuminated) 7-segment display. This is achieved with servos which push the segments in and out using a small rack mechanism. It’s not a sophisticated build; it simply uses 30 servos to handle all the segments needed to tell time. Thus, the Arduino Mega was the perfect tool for the job. With a sensor shield added on, it has an abundance of IO, driving a ton of servos is a cinch. There’s also a DS3231 real time clock to help it keep accurate time.

Incidentally, it’s a hefty thing to print, according to YouTuber [Lukas Deem] who replicated the project. It took around 85 hours to print, and a total of 655 grams of filament – not counting mistakes and trashed parts.

And if you think you’re having deja-vu, you might well be. We’ve seen a take on this exquisite design before. We liked it then, and we like it now.

Overall, it’s a stylish build that looks as good as your 3D printer’s output will allow. A resin printer would be a massive boon in this regard. Video after the break.

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Making A Kit-Kat Clock Even Creepier

December 19, 2023 by 10 Comments

If there’s anything as American as baseball and apple pie, it’s gotta be the Kit-Kat clock in the kitchen. For the unfamiliar, the Kit-Kat clock is special in that its pendulum tail and eyes move back and forth with each passing second. They’re equal parts cute and creepy.

But not this particular Kit-Kat, not once [Becky Stern] got a hold of it. The cute/creepy scales have been tipped, because the eyes of this Kat follow you around the room. “You” in this case is fellow maker [Xyla Foxlin], whom [Becky] drew in the Maker Secret Santa pool. See, [Xyla] loves cats, but is deathly allergic to them. So really, what better gift is there?

In order to make this happen, [Becky] started by disconnecting the long lever that link the eyes and the tail, which move together, and connected a servo horn to the eyes. [Becky] drilled out the nose in order to fit the camera, which is connected to a Seeed Grove AI Vision board with a Xiao RP2040 piggybacked on top.

While soldering on the servo wires, [Becky] accidentally detached a tiny capacitor from the AI Vision board, but it turns out that it wasn’t critical. Although she only had to write one line of code to get it to work, it ended up working too well, with the eyes darting around really quickly. By making the servo move in timed increments to the new positions, it’s now much more creepy. Be sure to check out the build video after the break.

You know we can’t resist a clock build around here, especially when those clocks are binary.

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Binary Clock Kit Blips Again

December 10, 2023 by 15 Comments

Back in 1978, the world was a bit different. There was no Raspberry Pi, no Internet, and not even an ESP32 to build projects with. And rather than order electronics kits from Tindie or Adafruit, [Dr. Francitosh] selected this binary clock with his mother from a catalog, and made the order via mail. Simpler times. The good Doctor, AKA [Greg Smith], was a young electronics tinkerer, and his mother wanted a good project-in-a-box to show off his skills. Thus, a Greymark Binary Clock was ordered and assembled. Then, sadly, the beloved clock crashed from its proud mantle position, doomed to never to blink or blip again. Or was it?
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Inside A Rubidium Frequency Standard

December 5, 2023 by 14 Comments

We think of crystals as the gold standard of frequency generation. However, if you want real precision, you need something either better than a crystal or something that will correct for tiny errors — often called disciplining the oscillator. [W3AXL] picked up a rubidium reference oscillator on eBay at a low cost, and he shows us how it works in the video you can see below. He started with a GPS-disciplined oscillator he had built earlier and planned to convert it to discipline from the rubidium clock.

The connector looks like a D-shell connector superficially, but it has a coax connector in addition to the usual pins. The device did work on initial powerup, and using a lissajous pattern to compare the existing oscillator with the new device worked well.

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