1. SPS Accounts:
    Do you find yourself coming back time after time? Do you appreciate the ongoing hard work to keep this community focused and successful in its mission? Please consider supporting us by upgrading to an SPS Account. Besides the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from supporting a good cause, you'll also get a significant number of ever-expanding perks and benefits on the site and the forums. Click here to find out more.
    Dismiss Notice
Dismiss Notice
You are currently viewing Boards o' Magick as a guest, but you can register an account here. Registration is fast, easy and free. Once registered you will have access to search the forums, create and respond to threads, PM other members, upload screenshots and access many other features unavailable to guests.

BoM cultivates a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. We have been aiming for quality over quantity with our forums from their inception, and believe that this distinction is truly tangible and valued by our members. We'd love to have you join us today!

(If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you've forgotten your username or password, click here.)

Clock/Calendar Project: Additional Components

Discussion in 'BoM Blogs' started by Blackthorne TA, Jan 25, 2013.

  1. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2000
    Messages:
    10,415
    Media:
    40
    Likes Received:
    232
    Gender:
    Male
    Remove all ads!
    Now that I had the WWVB receiver, what else did I need to complete the design?

    Since I wanted this clock to have an LED display, I needed something to drive a fair number of LEDs. What I decided to use was the Intersil ICM7228 8-digit microprocessor compatible LED display decoder/driver. What the ICM7228 was designed to do is drive 8 7-segment LED displays which if you are not familiar with them includes 7 LEDs arranged in a figure 8 plus an 8th LED for a decimal point. Driving 8 of these displays allows for a grand total of 64 LEDs in a display. A nice extra feature of the ICM7228 is that it has a no-decode mode that allows independent control of all 64 LEDs, which is exactly what I needed.

    Next, I decided to include a battery-backed Real-Time Clock (RTC) chip to maintain the time and date in between WWVB updates and across unplugging the clock (driving so many LEDs would make battery power fairly short-lived so the clock will plug into the wall and only have a small coin battery backup). For this I decided on the Maxim DS1307 I2C interface RTC which had everything I needed: Battery backup; simple serial interface via I2C; and included registers for seconds, minutes, hours, day of the week, day of the month, month and year.

    To control all this I decided to use the same Cypress CY7C63823 microcontroller that I used for the USB DSO. Even though I didn't need the USB functionality, I already had some left over from before and it included some unique timing functionality that would be useful for decoding the demodulated WWVB signal.

    Then of course I needed the LEDs. I decided to use four colors (blue, green, red and yellow) of tiny (1.6mm x .8mm) surface mount LEDs that I was able to get for less than 1 cent apiece.

    So those are the main functional parts of the design. Of course there are miscellaneous other parts like a power supply, resistors, capacitors, different connectors and a coin cell battery holder, but all that will be seen in the complete schematic designs coming up in a later update! :)
     
    Blackthorne TA, Jan 25, 2013
    #1
  2. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2000
    Messages:
    23,653
    Media:
    494
    Likes Received:
    570
    Gender:
    Male
    Nice, but a couple of pictures wouldn't hurt!
     
    Taluntain, Jan 26, 2013
    #2
  3. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2000
    Messages:
    10,415
    Media:
    40
    Likes Received:
    232
    Gender:
    Male
    Oh you will get plenty of pictures of all of the above and more. :) This was just to outline the design decisions I made and what parts I selected. Coming up will be the clock face design, electronic schematics, PCB designs, and of course pictures of the build in process and the final product.

    Lots to look forward to! :)
     
    Blackthorne TA, Jan 26, 2013
    #3
  4. Dice

    Dice ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2002
    Messages:
    5,125
    Media:
    24
    Likes Received:
    149
    Gender:
    Female
    Oh I just realized that you are blogging again BT. Sorry I was late getting to read them. I'm looking forward to seeing the pics too.
     
    Dice, Jan 31, 2013
    #4
  5. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2000
    Messages:
    10,415
    Media:
    40
    Likes Received:
    232
    Gender:
    Male
    :) There was no schedule to follow. I'm glad to see you're interested though.
     
    Blackthorne TA, Feb 1, 2013
    #5
Sorcerer's Place is a project run entirely by fans and for fans. Maintaining Sorcerer's Place and a stable environment for all our hosted sites requires a substantial amount of our time and funds on a regular basis, so please consider supporting us to keep the site up & running smoothly. Thank you!

Sorcerers.net is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products on amazon.com, amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.