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Clock/Calendar Project: Clock Face Design

Discussion in 'BoM Blogs' started by Blackthorne TA, Feb 3, 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!)

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    Remove all ads!
    In my last blog entry I mentioned that I had 64 LEDs to work with for the clock face display. What I wanted to display was an analog style clock face that included the time of day (hours, minutes and seconds), the day of the week, the month of the year, and the day of the month.

    How to display all that with 64 LEDs? Well this is what I came up with:
    [​IMG]

    The top part is the time of day and the bottom part is everything else.

    Each of the blue LEDs in the outer circle of the time of day part represents a five second period within the current minute with the first one lighting in the position of the current hour of a typical analog clock.

    Each of the blue LEDs in the arc of four inside the time of day circles represents one second within the current five second period.

    At the top of any minute none of the blue LEDs will be alight. At second four in the current minute only the four LEDs in the arc will be alight. At second five in the current minute only one LED in the circle will be alight in the position of the current hour. At second ten in the current minute two LEDs in the circle will be alight in the position of the current hour and the one immediately clockwise from it. At second 59 in the current minute all the blue LEDs will be alight except for the one in the circle immediately counterclockwise from the current hour position.

    Similarly, each of the green LEDs in the inner circle not counting the first one to light represents a five minute period within the current hour with the first one lighting in the position of the current hour of a typical analog clock.

    Each of the green LEDs in the arc of four inside the time of day circles represents one minute within the current five minute period.

    At the top of the hour one green LED in the circle will be lit in the position of the current hour. At minute four in the current hour only this one LED in the circle and the four LEDs in the arc will be alight. At minute five in the current hour two LEDs in the circle will be alight in the position of the current hour and the one immediately clockwise from it. At minute 59 in the current hour all the green LEDs will be alight.

    The red LED in the middle of the blue and green circles indicates AM (when dark) or PM (when lit).

    The first arc below the time of day circles indicates the day of the week. Starting with the first blue LED on the left side which represents Sunday, each will progressively light each day until all seven are lit on Saturday.

    The first circle below the day of the week arc indicates the month. The three blue LEDs represent Winter months, the three green represent the Spring months, the three yellow represent the Summer months, and the three red represent the Autumn months. Only the LEDs of the current season will light. For example, in December only one blue LED will be lit, in April only two green LEDs will be lit and in August only three yellow LEDs will be lit.

    The yellow LEDs inside the month circle represent the day of the month. Each yellow LED in the top arc represents a four day period within the current month. Each yellow LED in the bottom arc represents a single day within the current four-day period. On day one of the current month, only the rightmost LED of the bottom arc will be lit. On day four of the current month, only the leftmost LED of the top arc will be lit. On day 31 of the current month (if the month has that many days) all the LEDs in both arcs will be lit.

    The green LED in the center indicates whether the clock has successfully synchronized with the WWVB signal on the last attempt.

    If you count them all up you can see that I utilized 63 of the 64 LEDs I had to work with!

    I hope the verbal exaplanations for the mechanism for the display elements made sense... I know it may be hard to visualise... :)

    Coming up next: The electronic schematics!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 20, 2015
    Blackthorne TA, Feb 3, 2013
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  2. Dice

    Dice ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran

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    That is so cool BT. I love it. Are you going to reproduce these eventually? I bet there are lots of people who would go crazy for something like this.

    I think you might need to include a little plaque accompanying it that explains how it works.
     
    Dice, Feb 3, 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!)

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    No, this is just stuff for myself. Maybe when I retire I'll consider going into business with stuff I've made, but not now :)

    Glad you like it though! Later I'll show pictures of the actual thing working.
     
    Blackthorne TA, Feb 3, 2013
    #3
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