clock

656 Articles

Time Never Moves Slowly With This Clock

July 4, 2026 by 16 Comments

A clock is by its very nature a device for measuring time, and thus it moves forward at a constant rate. But how about in a theatrical setting, where time runs at the whim of the director? For the stage, a clock with more flexibility is required. To this endeavor [Playful Technology] has you covered, with a larger than life stage clock whose hands are independently controllable by DMX.

Behind the clock is a very unusual part, not the modified clock mechanism one might expect, but a dual stepper motor with a concentric shaft. This is driven by an Arduino with a stepper driver shield more familiar from the world of 3D printers, and an RS485 interface for DMX interfacing. The hands are built in OpenSCAD, and 3D printed to be an interference fit on the shafts. The DMX controller software has a handy rotating knob style interface, allowing easy hand manipulation.

You can see the results in the video below, complete with an exhaustive dissection of the Arduino code. Meanwhile DMX is itself a fascinating subject, and in the past we’ve taken a deep dive into RS485.

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VFD Clock Runs On A Single AA

June 24, 2026 by 3 Comments

There are lots of different ways to build a clock. [Sciter_] came into the possession of some old calculator parts, and decided to reuse them for just such a project.

The heart of the build is an ATmega328P microcontroller, running off of a 32.768 kHz crystal. This allows the chip’s counters to neatly divide down the frequency to get a steady 1 Hz pulse for accurate timekeeping. Time is displayed on a vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) harvested from an old calculator. These displays need rather high voltages to run, which in this case are produced by a HV5812 driver chip and supporting circuitry. The display itself is neatly cradled in a pair of copper pipe elbows for a stylish look, with some addressable RGB LEDs present to provide some charming underglow.

Power for the device comes from a single AA battery, using a transformer-based low voltage converter. Alternatively, it can run off a USB 5 V power supply, which also charges the NiMH AA cell while available with the aid of an LM2576-ADJ buck converter.

Overall, it’s a neat homebrew clock that taught [Sciter_] plenty during its construction, and not the first time we’ve seen somebody put together a clock with second-hand VFDs. If you’re finding fun ways to reuse old display tech, don’t hesitate to let us know on the tipsline.

Building An Analog Meter Watch

May 23, 2026 by 18 Comments

Most conventional analog watches have two or three hands, covering hours, minutes, and seconds (where present). [Sahko] has built a different kind of analog watch that creatively displays the time with just one. 

The build is based around a simple analog coil meter, which, at its heart, just sweeps its needle across a scale based on the voltage input to the device. A Raspberry Pi Pico is employed to drive the meter through a digital-to-analog converter. Pressing the buttons on the outside of the device tells the watch to display hours, minutes/seconds, or the current month or day of the week. With a single needle, only one parameter can be displayed at a time, but that’s just a compromise you accept for having a cool unique analog dial watch.

Another cool touch in the design is that the dial backer isn’t just a printed piece of paper—it’s a custom PCB, which has a much nicer, hardier finish. The case of the watch is also CNC milled out of aluminum and bead blasted for a quality surface finish, adding a nice industrial touch to the build.

This is a great example of a custom watch with quality fit and finish. The attention to detail really pays off in terms of feel. We’ve seen other watch projects use similar construction techniques before, too.

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Voltmeter Clock Has The Time Dialled In

May 18, 2026 by 31 Comments

You could make a clock with three hands spinning about nested central shafts. If you did that, we probably wouldn’t publish it on Hackaday unless you really found a way to make it interesting. Make a clock out of voltmeters, however, and that usually catches our eye. [lcamtuf] has done just that.

The heart of the build is an AVR128DB28 microcontroller, an 8-bit microcontroller that is still currently in production. It runs at 8MHz, and drives a series of three Baomain 65C5 voltmeters to display hours, minutes, and seconds. Each has a custom printed face with the correct number of 13 or 61 divisions as needed. The voltmeters are driven by a continuous stream of 1-bit pulses with a software-controlled duty cycle determining exactly how far the needle moves. Yes, it’s using simple pulse width modulation, coded by hand by [lcamtuf] to do the job. All the components are wrapped up in a beautiful wooden case, with delicately kerf-bent panels to create the attractive curved lines.

We’ve featured similar builds before, too. As it turns out, hackers just really love clocks and old-school dials. Video after the break, which is worth watching for the rollover behaviour alone.

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Salvaged VFDs In Nixie-Like Clock

May 16, 2026 by 6 Comments

In between the Nixie tube era of the 50s and 60s and the advent of multi-digit vacuum fluorescent displays (VFDs) common in 80s and 90s consumer technology, there was a brief time in the early 70s where single-digit VFDs were commonplace. Superficially these devices look like Nixie tubes, but have a number of advantages to them including lower voltage, lower power requirements, and lower cost. [maurycyz] recently found a number of these salvaged from old calculators and used them to build a retro-themed clock.

[maurycyz] was not able to find datasheets for this display, but was able to reverse-engineer each of the digits. Similar to vacuum tubes there is a heater which has a few ohms of resistance, and from there each of the segments of the digit can be deduced by probing the 13 signal wires. These are analog devices in some respects, so a lot of experimentation had to go into driving the displays to find their optimal conditions. A quartz crystal was used for timekeeping with an AVR128DA28 microcontroller chosen to provide control for the digits, using seven pins as segment drivers and four as grid drivers. Each digit uses around 0.14 watts, so with all four digits on it can consume a little over half a watt. A simple wood enclosure rounds out the build.

As Nixie supply wears thin, VFDs like this can be an excellent stopgap or replacement while still building retro-themed displays like this clock or this calculator which uses similar VFDs for each digit.

LED Matrix Clock Proudly Shows Its Inner Wiring

March 31, 2026 by 25 Comments

Some projects take great care to tuck away wire hookups, but not [Roberto Alsina]’s Reloj V2 clock. This desktop clock makes a point of exposing all components and wiring as part of its aesthetic. There are no hidden elements, everything that makes it work is open to view. Well, almost.

The exception is the four MAX7219 LED matrices whose faces are hidden behind a featureless red panel, and for good reason. As soon as the clock powers up, the LEDs shine through the thin red plastic in a clean glow that complements the rest of the clock nicely.

[Roberto]’s first version was a unit that worked similarly, but sealed everything away in a wedge-shaped enclosure that was just a little too sterile, featureless, and ugly for his liking. Hence this new version that takes the opposite approach. Clocks have long showcased their inner workings, and electronic clocks — like this circuit-sculpture design — are no exception.

The only components, besides the Raspberry Pi Zero W and the LED matrices, are the 3D-printed enclosure with a few hex screws and double-sided tape. Design files and code (including the FreeCAD project file) are available should you want to put your own spin on [Roberto]’s design.

Momentus Clock Aims To Find Meaning

March 26, 2026 by 8 Comments

A lot of the time, we must assign our own meaning to the numbers on the clock. 8:30 AM is work kicking off, 12 PM is lunch, and 5PM is when the corporate chains release us to what’s left of the day. If you’d rather the clock tell you what’s special about the current time, though, you might like this project from [Andy Isaacson].

It’s called Momentous—”a clock to make every minute meaningful” in [Andy’s] own words. The concept is simple—for each minute, the clock digs up some random mathematical fact relevant to the current time. For example, you might think of 3:14 as Pi o’clock, but Momentous also notes that the sequence “314” shows up at the 856th decimal of e. Useful? Probably not. Fun? If you like numbers, then very!

[Andy] wrote Momentous in Typescript with React Native and Expo. Baked into the app is a computed list of fun number facts for every conceivable time from 00:00 to 23:59. All these timely numbers were processed through a “fact generation” algorithm to dig up mathly tidbits. Do they contain primes? Do the numbers show up in a famous irrational number sequence? Are they palindromic, or can some neat facts be gleaned from Wikipedia? Maybe the current time shows up in your best friend’s phone number! Momentous uses all these and more to make every minute of the day a little bit more interesting.

You can check out the clock for yourself in your web browser. Alternatively, you can install it on your iPhone if you so desire. We feature all kinds of fun clocks here, from the wordy to the absurdy. If you’re cooking up your own timely hacks, we always love to to hear about them on the tipsline!