Tiny Bubbles In The Clock

December 20, 2019 by Al Williams 9 Comments

When [DonHo] sang about tiny bubbles, he probably wasn’t thinking of them embedded in glycerine. But that’s where the bubbles in [ShinodaY]’s clock reside. The viscous fluid holds the bubbles better allowing the time to be read more easily. You can watch the relaxing display in the video below.

The theory of operation is simple and reminds us somehow of a reverse Tetris game. Solenoid valves at the base release air bubbles to form a row of the display. The bubbles rising makes room for the next row. The display has as many columns as there are air outlets at the bottom. Spacing the bubble pixels is as simple as adjusting the timing between air bubbles.

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Numitron Clock Is A Tidy ’70s Throwback

December 20, 2019 by Lewin Day 13 Comments

As far as hacker clock builds go, the more obscure the parts involved, the better. By this yardstick, [sjm4306] has a great piece on his hands with this Numitron-based build.

The Numitron was a type of display popular in the 1970s, and often used in aircraft avionics and other high-end hardware. The display is a 7-segment type, but using filaments instead of LEDs. [sjm4306] was able to lay his hands on four of these devices, along with some bulbs to act as the digit seperator and AM/PM indicator. Due to being incandescent in nature, multiplexing wasn’t a practical option, with lower duty cycles drastically dimming the display. Instead, a 32-bit cascaded shift register was used to enable all the segments to be driven at the same time.

It’s a great build that uses some genuine original display hardware to create a clock with a compelling vintage aesthetic. This would make a great gift to a pilot from the era, or any hacker that likes the unusual display technologies of yesteryear. You can even build a Numitron watch, if you’re so inclined. Video after the break.

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Replace Your Smartphone With These Arcane Amulets

December 19, 2019 by Gerrit Coetzee 17 Comments

It’s hard not to feel the constant pull on our limited attention from the very interesting rectangles in our pockets and packs. [Antoine Pintout] is fighting against it with three interesting pendants.

The three objects each have functions. Sablier, tells time, but rather than giving the numerals it vibrates on a set interval to give a relative sense of the passage. Boussole is a compass like device which doesn’t tell the cardinal directions. Instead it tells you which way to go in order to get to a pre-set location. The last, Sifflet, is a pager, but rather than sending a text it plays a melody reflecting the sender’s mood.

We love the look of the objects. The circuits are beautifully laid out and showcased in well machined brass cases. Small details abound; in Sifflet for example, the coil antenna is symmetrically presented with its own cutout in the board. Laying out a board is hard enough, but taking this much care in component placement easily doubles the time.

All the files and models are available, though we’re not sure we possess the craftsmanship to reproduce these to the same standard.

A Nixie Radio Clock Fit For A Victorian Mad Scientist

December 17, 2019 by Gerrit Coetzee 11 Comments

[Ioszelos] built a nixie clock with a dizzying array of features.

Do you ever wish that you could log in to your clock from your phone and turn off your TV? We assume that [Ioszelos] did. The clock can also play MP3s and stream radio stations. It can record the indoor temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure. Did we mention it’s an FM radio too? We’re not sure, but we wouldn’t be surprised if there was a faucet hiding somewhere on the contraption.

A team effort shared between an ESP32 and Mega 2560 run the Rube Goldberg-like show. Custom boards were spun up to provide the control and voltages needed for the nixie tubes. The clock is constructed from machined plates and 3D printed files.

It all comes together in a steampunk reminiscent assembly. The glow from the RGB leds and nixie tubes combine to make an interesting visual effect. We’ve certainly never seen a clock quite like it before.

It’s About Time We Saw Another Infinity Mirror Clock

December 14, 2019 by Kristina Panos 5 Comments

Have you made an infinity mirror yet? They’re pretty much a rite of passage project at this point. But unlike that DIY power supply, most of them serve no function beyond looking cool (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Might as well make it do something, right?

[How Do You – DIY] has a built a few mirrors because he likes experimenting with the effects of different reflective surfaces in various positions. This time, he’s built a clock from the ground up. Basic infinity mirror rules apply here, though he used semi-transparent reflective film on both sides for greater effect and put an adjustable warping bar in the back so the trail curves toward the center. The actual timekeeping is done by an Arduino Nano.

The RGB LEDs on his strip were a few millimeters too far apart for his liking, so he added a few dozen hours to the build by cutting it apart and painstakingly placing them all around the wood frame. Then he Dremeled a groove for each set of three wires that link the LEDs so that they sit flush. The final product is beautiful, and it’s a shame that this LED-holding frame is hidden away inside the equally well-crafted aluminium frame.

Don’t waste another minute — sweep past the break to check out the build video. If it’s a portable and functional conversation piece you want, make a set of infinity mirror coasters.

Oh, and did we mention that we’re running a clock contest? Hint, hint.

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New Contest: Tell Time

December 10, 2019 by Mike Szczys 11 Comments

Clocks. You love ’em, we certainly love ’em. So you hardly need a reason to take on a new clock build, but it makes it much sweeter when you know there’s a horde of people waiting to fawn over your creation. Hackaday’s Tell Time Contest is a celebration of interesting timepieces. Show off a clever way to mark the passage of time and gain the adoration of your peers, and maybe even score a prize!

The Rotating Moon Clock is an interesting take on a timepiece

From now until January 24th, you can enter your Hackaday.io project by using the “Submit project to…” menu on the left sidebar of your project page. There is only one main constraint: it needs to somehow represent time. Microseconds or millennia, minutes until the next bus arrival or centuries until Pluto completes its next orbit, we don’t care as long as you find it interesting.

Document your timepiece with pictures, a description, and all of the technical details. Three outstanding entries will each receive a $100 cash prize, based on craftsmanship, function, and creativity.

Tick-tock… don’t delay. Time’s slipping away to have your quirky clock immortalized on Hackaday.

Start Your Day With The Mountain That Rises

December 4, 2019 by Tom Nardi 3 Comments

Like many of us, [Zach Archer] enjoys the comfort of his darkened room so much that he has trouble getting up and facing the day. To make things a little easier for himself, he decided to put together a custom alarm clock that would fill his mornings with the glorious glow of LEDs; and since he finds the mountains an inspirational sight he decided to wrap the whole thing up in a 3D printed enclosure that resembles snow capped peaks.

But even Bob Ross himself couldn’t have imagined a snowy mountain range that featured an integrated e-ink screen. The big 4.2″ panel is connected to a custom designed PCB by [romkey], which was graciously donated for this project. An ESP32 runs the show, providing a convenient web interface to control not only the clock, but various aspects of the mountain’s internal LEDs such as fade in time and total duration.

[Zach] says he originally printed the mountains in PLA, but the heat generated by the LEDs eventually started to cause things to warp. Switching over to translucent PETG not only solved the heat problem, but made for a very effective LED diffuser. Rather than complex animation patterns, he’s found that smoothly transitioning between different shades of blue and green seems to work best for him in the mornings.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen somebody use LEDs to get them out of bed in the morning, but we do appreciate the aesthetic that [Zach] has achieved here between the design of the mountains and the impressive artwork on the e-ink display. Then again, we’re also quite partial to this version that looks like a warp core, so our tastes do run the gamut.