DIY Chronodot for Bulbdial Clock @ Take a break.

A friend from work gave me a really nice present this Christmas – Bulbdial Clock Kit made by Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. This clock is excellent addition to my collection of Ice Tube Clock and Monochron   Clock. I have really enjoyed building it. It looks so cool with all its RGB LEDs. There is an optional component that you can add – a real time clock (RTC) with battery back up. It is called Chronodot RTC. All it does is ensure that clock is still ticking when main power source is removed, that way you don’t have to reset the clock every time power cord is unplugged. A nice feature to have on any externally powered clock. You can buy one, but where is fun in that?!

Read more…

ISS tracking theme clock face – Monochron Clock Kit. SPACECHRON, Scott writes -

Some of my christmas money went towards purchasing a Monochron Clock kit from Adafruit.com.

It turned out to be an awesome build and I had lots of fun putting it together. I also chose it because it allows you to program your own clock “faces” for it. I’ve programmed a Space themed face for it that simulates the space station ground track. I’ve also programmed an autodim feature for the backlight because my preferred daylight brightness was too bright at night. The fact that I can customize it to fit my needs is an awesome thing. I wish there were more products like it.

Amazing, and the code is GitHub.

Nice ICE TUBE clock photo in the Adafruit customer forums by wd6cmu. Dark, yet glowy, like all of our favorite things

A Low Cost Sidereal Clock.

A clock that displays UT(Universal Time) and LST (Local Sidereal Time) is a useful device to have in an astronomical observatory. Using the Arduino open source platform it is possible to build a sidereal clock for less than $200.

NEW PRODUCT – Alpha Clock Five – From Evil Mad Scientist Labs! Evil Mad Scientist Labs never disappoints with their fantastic kits and clocks. The Alpha Clock Five is no exception: An awesome alarm clock soldering kit– featuring five crazy-bright, crazy huge 2.3″ alphanumeric LED displays in red, a Chronodot RTC (for precise quartz timing, complete with battery backup) and a handsome laser-cut acrylic case.

These big 18-segment alphanumeric LED displays are notoriously difficult to drive– there are 54 LED elements inside each LED character and the different segments take different amounts of current. We’ve now made it easy to drive five at a time, and wrapped it all up in neat package with classic alarm-clock styling.

Standard Features of Alpha Clock Five:

• Extremely wide display brightness range. All the way from very dim (for dark bedrooms) all the way up to annoyingly bright
• Huge 2.3″ (5.8 cm) tall digits are easy to see, even if you normally wear glasses
• Alarm on-off indicator
• Four standard alarm tones
• Snooze function
• 12-hour (AM/PM) and 24-hour clock modes
• Rear-panel white LED nightlight; can be turned on or off from the options menu
• Sturdy acrylic case features subtle, laser-engraved button labels
• Transparent rear panel lets you show off your handiwork
• Comes complete with plug-in power supply and backup battery
• Microcontroller comes pre-programmmed; no programming is required

Hacker-friendly Design:

• Open source hardware design– easy to hack!
• Open source software design– easy to reprogram (if you want to)!
• Upgradeable firmware
• Based on the ATmega644A microcontroller with 64 kB of flash, with plenty of room to grow.
• Comes pre-flashed with Sanguino bootloader; can be programmed through Arduino IDE (with extensions).
• 6-pin TTL-serial connector, can be used to display data or time sent from computer
• Unused I/O pins are broken out from the microcontroller, including one ADC and 5+ GPIO
• Open-frame case design gives easy access to serial connector and reset button

Alpha Clock Five kit configurations:
The full (non-basic) Alpha Clock Five kit– available on this page –comes complete with the beautifully made Alpha Clock circuit board, the five alphanumeric LED displays (ultrabright red, 2.3″ character height, with upper and lower decimal points), machine pin sockets for those displays, pre-programmed ATmega644A microcontroller with Sanguino bootloader, 5 tactile button switches, 20 ppm quartz crystal, universal-input plug-in power supply, stainless mounting hardware, alarm buzzer, all of the the LED driver chips, transistors, resistors, capacitors and other little parts needed to build the kit, plus a Chronodot real-time-clock module and a handsome laser-cut acrylic case.

The Alpha Clock circuit board is 9.430 X 2.736″ in overall size, and extra stiff at 0.094″ thick. It has a black soldermask and gold plated finish. Once assembled with its case, Alpha Clock Five is approximately 9.44″ wide, 3.78″ tall, and 2.80″ deep.

ChronoDot
Alpha Clock Five comes complete with a Chronodot real-time clock module. It provides your clock kit with (1) a higher accuracy quartz crystal oscillator, (2) a backup battery, and (3) extra geek cred for having a TCXO-based RTC. The included battery is estimated to last for 7 years.

USB-TTL Cable
You may be interested to add an optional FTDI USB-TTL converter cable, which provides an optional interface between your computer and your clock. It can be used (1) to sync the clock’s time to the time on your PC, (2) to reprogram the clock through (a modified version of) the Arduino IDE, or (3) to send serial data to display on the five-character LED display. Note, however, that these are entirely optional operations– no programming is needed to build or use an Alpha Clock Five clock kit!

Power supply
The Alpha Clock Five kit includes a universal-input power supply that will work with worldwide voltages. The plug is a power-strip-friendly US type, so you may need an inexpensive “grocery store” plug adapter to fit the wall socket in your country.

If you need to provide power from an alternate source, Alpha Clock Five requires (and provides hookup locations for) a regulated 5 V dc power supply with 1 A capacity

In stock and shipping now!

Adalight—ambient lighting for your monitor—was one line of LEDs, formed into a loop. Adavision—a mini LED video wall—spread out into a 2D grid. It’s only natural then to take the next step into the third dimension. Not simply a cube though…with the new year nearly upon us, and paying tribute to Adafruit’s NYC home, why not a shimmery Times Square-style “disco ball?” This would showcase the WS2801 Pixels’ greatest feature: unconstrained by flat planes or fixed grids, they can be spread out into any shape. Anything you can punch 11.5mm holes through, you can festoon with LEDs, whether it’s your backpack or the body panels of a Burning Man art car!

(Ours won’t be anywhere near this big.)

The Times Square ball drop always seemed a bit odd to me. New Year’s Eve? Ball drop? Buh…what? It was an excuse to stay up late, partying and making noise, and I never gave it much thought. Years later I learned the ball drop actually has a fascinating precedent, tracing its roots to one of the most pivotal inventions of modern commerce…

The marine chronometer was the first mechanical clock of sufficient precision to determine a ship’s longitude, based on the difference in the displayed time and the observed “local noon” time. It was largely the work of a single person, English carpenter and self-taught clockmaker John Harrison (1693–1776), who persevered in developing and refining his invention despite being largely overlooked by the establishment.

From the 1820s through 1920s, major shipping ports worldwide were home to observatories equipped with time balls, large and sometimes brightly-colored spheres that could be easily seen from ships in the harbor. At a fixed time each day (typically 1pm local time), the time ball was dropped so that all ships could precisely synchronize their clocks.

Prior to the invention of the chronometer, global navigation could be a hit-or-miss, potentially deadly endeavor. Harrison’s clocks in their day were as significant an advancement to maritime safety as the later inventions of radio and GPS, and opened the world to trade and travel.

It all comes back to science. So, this New Year’s Eve, as you watch the ball drop, raise your glass in a toast to Mr. Harrison and his amazing clocks.

Image credits: By Clare Cridland (Macy’s Times Square crystal ball, New York City) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Chronometer, photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons. Greenwich Observatory, by Green Lane (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Ice Tube Clock: Sync Clock with Router via the forums! hkmaverick writes -

I have a tp-link 1043 router flashed with dd-wrt that runs 24/7. The Ice Tube clock is sitting infront of the router and I figured why not use the router to sync the clock since the router’s time is already ntp sync’d.

Daylight Saving Time Explained 11/6/2011

NEW PRODUCT – Solder:Time DIY watch kit. Calculator watches are back, but microcontroller watches are always in style. Make your own with this easy to solder real time watch kit from SpikenzieLabs! It comes with a unique laser cut acrylic casing which protects the watch and looks snazzy besides: the four individual acrylic parts cut to fit the internal PCB, battery and switch perfectly. Included is a velcro wrist band. After soldering the Solder:Time, the watch is built by stacking the acrylic parts with the PCB and holding it together with the included screws.

The Solder:Time was designed to be a wrist watch. It doesn’t have to be limited to living on your wrist, you could also use it as a badge or desk clock.

Features:

• Great looking laser cut acrylic case
• Unique watch
• Easy to solder
• Stand alone project – no computer or other programmer required. Just solder it and it’s ready!
• On board Dallas DS1337+ Real Time Clock (RTC) for super accurate time keeping
• Jumper (on bottom) for always on use.
• Hackable: Programming and I2C pads labeled on bottom
• Clear front and back casing to show the internal electronics
• Adjustable wrist band
• Can be also be worn as a badge with optional badge clip.
• Long lasting battery, with special LED lighting method and very low power processor sleeping.

This is a DIY soldering kit, you’ll need to assemble it yourself but luckily that is very easy, and very fast so this is a good kit for beginners! You’ll need basic soldering tools such as an iron, solder, and diagonal cutters.

Kit includes: Solder:Time PCB with all of the electronics, Laser cut acrylic casing with four screws, Easy to use Velcro type wrist band (long enough for huge wrists, trim-able for smaller ones and a CR2032 Battery. All instructions are here!

In stock and shipping now!

Turn a 1970′s pinball machine into an atomic synced alarm clock using a gps and an arduino… via Laughing Squid…

One of the more common problems faced by pinball collectors is where to put the next one. The thought came to me one day – what if I could re-purpose the pinball machine? I could then replace an existing appliance with the pin and my problem would be solved. With that in mind I converted my 1975 Bally Wizard into the most accurate clock in the house. And all I needed was an Arduino, A GPS receiver, an 8 relay board and some assorted odd bits.

Dan has taken an Ice Tube Clock,  added a Roving Networks WiFly (RN-134) module, and wrote some firmware to add some more features to the clock.  He has added time synch, weather data display, and even a Twitter display.  He currently has it setup to alternate between the time, the weather and a Twitter message.

He has a full write-up on his blog.

MARIOCHRON! Monochron Clock Kit with customer-made Super Mario clock mod – on Github!

By Super Awesome Sylvia and her dad, James

It’s time to make another kit from Adafruit, the alarmingly awesome Monochron clock kit. Lets go!

For this timely build, we’ll need:

• Monochron kit from the Maker Shed
• Soldering iron & solder
• Wire snips
• and optionally, our good friends the circuit board vice or helper hands. If you don’t have ‘em, pick ‘em up at the Maker Shed if you want to make all your projects easier to handle.

Subscribe to the MAKE Podcast in iTunes, download the m4v video directly, or watch it on YouTube and Vimeo.

Read more!

Check out this awesome clock by Che-Wei Wang and Taylor Levy:

Thermochromic Clock is a 4-digit 7-segment timepiece. Each segment in the display is made with a length of nichrome wire and then covered by a thick layer of black thermochromic paint. Time is displayed by applying voltage to the nichrome wire. As the wire sustains an electric current, it heats up the surrounding thermochromic paint, causing it to become transparent.

Sandy writes in…

I’ve made a few drawing robots (I call them polargraphs because of the polar coordinates system that they use), using Arduinos, Adafruit motorshields and 12v stepper motors, and a Processing sketch.  I’m using the v1.4 version of the accelstepper libraries that I was so excited to see you add motorshield compatibility to, when I was making my last project which was the linear clock on instructables so thank you very much for doing that, and of course for making the motorshield so good in the first place.

The machines hang a pen against a surface, in the mode of Hektor the spraycan robot, and I currently have a show on in the Framed Gallery here in Edinburgh.  The show includes a installation of a six metre wide drawing machine installed in the gallery, and some smaller ones, and of course, some finished pieces.  It opened last Friday 10th with a launch that went really well, and I sold a few pieces! And it’s on until this Friday 17th, and the giant one will be filling in a new section of it’s wall every day this week.

At the end of this week, I’ll be taking some bits of hardware down and presenting the build as part of Hack Circus, which is a part of Interesting 2011 – a little one-day conference in London on Saturday.

BACK IN STOCK! MONOCHRON Clock kit – Open source clock platform! This easy kit is easily hackable to do whatever you wish, it’s a clock platform – have fun!

• 128×64 LCD (KS0108) – we special-ordered the black and white display!
• ATmega328 processor (we even stuck an ‘arduino’ stk500 bootloader on there too for hacking ease)
• Laser cut enclosure in black acrylic
• Beeping/blinking alarm with 10 minute snooze
• Battery backed-up real time clock (DS1307) keeps time even when power is lost for years
• European/US and 12/24 hour time display as well as date
• Completely open source hardware, all firmware, layout and CAD files are yours to mess with
• Plenty of space for mods, a prototyping area for soldering stuff in

Comes with: clock kit (includes all parts, programmed chips and LCD), coin battery, enclosure, 9VDC power supply for 220V or 110V

The firmware shipped with the kit is for the Retro Arcade Table Tennis for Two as shown in the video below. We have other clock firmwares available on the project page if you would like to change the display. This clock no longer includes the FTDI Friend + extras for updating the MONOCHRON with new clocks We suggest picking one up if you want to reprogram the clock (our tutorial for how to do this is on the MONOCHRON website.

You’ll need some basic soldering & hand tools that are necessary to assemble it! The good news is that this is a pretty basic kit and even if its your first soldering project, it shouldn’t take more than 2 or 3 hours to put together.

In stock and shipping now!

The Cogwheel Circuit Works Nixie Driver board is out.  It has its own documentation page jam packed with layouts, CAD files, etc, and the source code can be found on Github. This is the same board which drives his IN17x7 Clock and development of the display boards is said to be coming along nicely.

What a great way to give back !

With all our modern devices using surface mount technology , it’s still worth pointing out that vacuum tubes did more than just the tasks of amplification and switching.

Dieter Wächter shows us this with his extensive write-up on his Beam Deflection Decade Counter Tube Clock build. He gives us a great explanation on how this display tube works, pin-outs and detailed design photos.

Something magical about a display tubes green glow.

Build-Out of the Monochron ‘Pong’ Clock @ Byte Cellar… Blake writes -

I was running through some of my YouTube videos over the past months and realized I hadn’t posted my build-out of the Monochron Pong clock. I was trying to do a series of mostly-daily videos for a while, to capture my various activities, and this was one of them. I’ve gotten away from that, sadly, but who knows — maybe I’ll pick that back up in a while.

The Monochron clock is a DIY clock kit that comes with a blank printed circuit board, an LCD display, and many components that must be soldered together. What you end up with is a pretty bad-asssed digital clock. Have a look.

There are custom firmware downloads that change it up to Space Invaders-style displays and the like. If I ever install one of those, I’ll post the update here. There’s nothing like the feeling of “making” something like this yourself, I must say.

Cogwheel Circuit Works is has an update on whole bunch of Nixie Tube goodness. From a daisy-chainable B7971 to the a 128 bulb NE-2 display!

ABC’s “Shark Tank” had a maker favorite “Bacon alarm clock” looking for funding…

Matty Sallin, New York, New York. Bacon-cooking alarm clock. When Sallin first woke up to his Wake n’ Bacon alarm clock — constructed from a gutted Wal-Mart alarm clock, a PIC microcontroller, and two 100-watt halogen lamps — everything came back to him again. “My first thought was ‘Mom’s in the kitchen,’ soon followed by “The apartment’s on fire.”

Read more…

Interlock Rochester – Rochester’s Hackerspace “It’s “time” for hacking”

I’ve been interested in building kits for some time now, having previously built the Theremax, various small things from Velleman, and, most recently, a morse code practice oscillator. And, I remember a place near the central Rochester, NY post office called “Rogers Pianos and Clocks” that I have fond memories of visiting and gawking at cool looking timepieces. So, when I saw the “Ice Tube” clock kit from Adafruit, I knew it would be a great next project. This ATmega-powered clock features a Russian-made IV-18 vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) tube, which, despite being blue, like modern, annoying LEDs, is actually really really cool.

Thanks Steve!

Wise time with Arduino: First release of the Wise Clock 3 software via HaD.

The routine work of porting the “Wise Clock 2″ code to the new “platform” (namely the new 3216 bicolor display) went well. Most of features worked right off the bat. Some coordinates had to be adjusted in order to center the text (time etc) on the larger display. These adjustments could have been avoided if the original code used calculations starting from X_MAX and Y_MAX. Ideally, just by changing these two values, the code should have worked.

David writes:

One shot every 5 seconds, assembled in Quicktime Pro, postproduction in iMovie. Unfortunately, the single images were much too dark, since I didn’t cover the eyepiece of my camera, which confused the Exposure meter (something learned for next timelapse). So I had to tweak the exposure and saturation in iMovie, thus the washed out and bleak look.

The occasional ‘thumbs up’ scenes really take it to the next level

ahoude writes -

Hello, This mod use a strip of copper tape to detect capacitance change through the acrylic for snooze activation. Here a short video as proof! More info and firmware available on my website.

This is our first clock kit design, made with a retro Russian display tube!

• Cool glowing blue tube with 8 digits, PM dot and alarm on/off indicator
• Adjustable brightness
• Alarm with volume adjust
• Precision watch crystal keeps time with under 20ppm (0.0002%) error (less than 2 seconds a day)
• Clear acrylic enclosure protects clock from you and you from clock
• Battery backup will let the clock keep the time for up to 2 weeks without power
• Selectable 12h or 24h display
• Displays day and date on button press
• 10 minute snooze
• Integrated boost converter so it can run off of standard DC wall adapters, works in any country regardless of mains power
• Great for desk or night table use, the clock measures 4.9″ x 2.9″ x 1.3″ (12.5cm x 7.4cm x 3.3cm)
• Completely open source hardware and software, ready to be hacked and modded!

Complete kit comes with a 110/220V 9VDC power supply (a $1 plug adapter from your local hardware store will allow it to be used worldwide), all components including PCB, vacuum fluorescent tube, backup battery and a clear acrylic enclosure. Assembly is required! This kit is made of through-hole components but is best built by someone with previous soldering experience as there are many parts and steps.

Making classic frequency counters into Nixie clocks @ Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. EMSL writes -

One of our favorite longstanding projects– which we dropped a hint about some time ago –is converting old HP Nixie-tube counters into happily glowing Nixie clocks. Here’s how we do it.

DCF77 radio clock receiver for Ice Tube and Monochron… PurpleTentacle writes –

Hi all, I’ve now connected a DCF77 receiver to pin PC1 of my monochron and it works fine! I made a fork of the MultiChron project on github to add the DCF support to the firmware. The sources can be found under (git hub). The hardware modifications are described in a howto document (PDF).

Found in the Adafruit Flickr Pool: this fantastic photo of the Icetube Clock by martini038.

You just can’t beat a fast prime lens (55/1.2 Nikkor). Nice work!

Over the last few months we caught up to all the back orders (and back order notifications) for MONOCHRONs! We’re now making them and putting them in stock on a weekly basis – they’re in stock now and shipping immediately!

A new clock kit! This easy kit is easily hackable to do whatever you wish, it’s a clock platform – have fun!

• 128×64 LCD (KS0108) – we special-ordered the black and white display!
• ATmega328 processor (we even stuck an ‘arduino’ stk500 bootloader on there too for hacking ease)
• Laser cut enclosure in black acrylic
• Beeping/blinking alarm with 10 minute snooze
• Battery backed-up real time clock (DS1307) keeps time even when power is lost for years
• European/US and 12/24 hour time display as well as date
• Completely open source hardware, all firmware, layout and CAD files are yours to mess with
• Plenty of space for mods, a prototyping area for soldering stuff in

Comes with: clock kit (includes all parts, programmed chips and LCD), coin battery, enclosure, 9VDC power supply for 220V or 110V and new in this batch: an FTDI Friend + extras for reprogramming the MONOCHRON with new clocks

You’ll need some basic soldering & hand tools that are necessary to assemble it! The good news is that this is a pretty basic kit and even if its your first soldering project, it shouldn’t take more than 2 or 3 hours to put together

For much more information including parts list, instructions, videos, etc. check out the MONOCHRON website

In stock and shipping now!

Very large VFD display tube. Lot of 6. This never been used, from the old stock.  Indicator displays one digit. Size 83mm x 140mm. Size sign 46mm x 85mm. Color green. 

Same type of display as our Ice Tube Clock!

Nixie clock using homemade stepper relays and Telechron motor for timing sequence. Only solid-state components in this clock are diodes in the power supply… Electromechanical nixie clock via Tubeclock db.

Dataman writes -

Just posted MultiChron Version 1.1:

• AutoSetting time through easily attached optional GPS module,
• A New Clock: TimesSquareChron – We Love you Big Apple,
• DeathChron: A Count Down Clock (In the 1.1B Verison),
• Batch files to simplify loading firmware.
• See ReadMe.TXT

Because we’ve grown to 6 clocks, We now have 2 packages:

The MultiChron 1.1, and 1.1B Distributions.
1.1 Contains 5 Clocks+GPS: IntruderChron, RattChron, SevenChron, TSChron, XDaliChron
1.1B Contains 2 Clocks+GPS: DeathChron, RattChron

Instructions on connecting GPS module at http://crjones.com/adamods (zip here)…

Equinox Clock via HaD. Bram writes -

Ever since my Remote Context Communicator project I’d been walking around with the idea to make a clock in the same style. I just never had the time. Last summer I did and designed and built the thing. And this is the result!

Build photos and review of our MONOCHRON kit!

Introducing DOTKLOK. Andrew writes -

Today I made some initial progress on one of my summer projects here at NYC Resistor –  a rudimentary mock-up of the DOTKLOK hardware.

DOTKLOK will be an open source clock kit with multiple time-telling animations, some literal like the simple display above, and others showing the passage of time through abstract patterns, following on from my Electric Window 3 series.

The inspiration for this clock is to combine a bunch of cool ways to show time — such as in a sentence, with words, or retro game displays — along with my own original animations, while providing a platform on which others can further develop cool timepieces.

Thanks to a great RTC1307 tutorial and library by Adafruit, I was interfacing with the clock chip faster than expected, and soon had a rudimentary sketch up and running.

Lots of clocks in the “Snap a picture of your ADAFRUIT clock and post it” forum!

The newest member if the MultiChron family. TimesSquareChron was designed to look like the scrplling marquee of Times Square New York. We love you big apple. Free! And only on MultiChron!

Touch Brightness Bulbdial via HaD. Alex writes –

The Bulbdial clock from Evil Mad Scientist is probably the coolest clock idea I’ve ever seen. Even cooler are my parents, who got the kit for my birthday.  The basic idea is that three rings of LEDs cast shadows onto a clock face to form H/M/S hands, somewhat like a sundial, with the hands slowly animating around. A lot of thought clearly went into making this kit, and it’s very nicely done, but there’s a major drawback: I want to use it on my bed side table, where I usually keep a clock, but it’s too bright for me to fall asleep! Of course, that’s been thought of too: in the normal view mode, the three buttons at the bottom of the clock are brightness up, down, and “mute,” which turns off the LEDs entirely. But they’re hard to get to buried underneath the frame of the clock, and it makes muting the display cumbersome in the dark. Let’s fix that!

The Bulbdial Clock kit is based on an original design concept from IronicSans.com and developed at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. It works like an indoor sundial, but with three shadows of different length. You tell the time just like you do on a normal clock, by reading the positions of the hour, minute, and second hands.

The Bulbdial we are carrying comes with red, green and blue LEDs for the ‘hands’, a black/smoke laser-cut enclosure and a wall adapter. When finished, it looks like the picture shown above!

The Bulbdial Clock is sold as a soldering kit [?]. Basic electronic soldering skill is required, and you provide basic soldering tools: a soldering iron + solder and small wire clippers. You will also need internet access to read or download our detailed assembly guide. No additional knowledge of electronics is presumed or required. Easy “through-hole” construction and clear, photo-heavy instructions are provided. Assembly time: 1-3 hours, depending on your level of experience with soldering.

Get one now in the Adafruit store!

Dataman writes in (and sends a video!)…

MonoChron-Beta-0-6. That was only yesterday at 3:30, And we’re already a couple more revs down the road. The code is stable, We’re just bug hunting. MonoChron is an OpenSource Hardware solution from LadyAda of AdaFruit.Com.  I created the IntruderChron variant of the clock, and LadyAda has created 3 additional variants.  The firmware is difficult to load, and only one could be loaded at a time. The MultiChron solution is to combine all 4 variants into one firmware load, and allow the user to select, randomize, or rotate through the variants. This project is documented on the Clock forum at Adafruit.Com with the full knowledge of LadyAda and AdaFruit.  This software is distributed under Creative Commons, and extended as such.  My involvement has been to design and implement the software effort.  I have been aided by CaithSith2 and have credited such in the About screen. Music is Tropic of Capri by Vladimir Jan Rebek (BMI) of freeroyaltyfreemusic.net.  Thank you for the use of your music.

jwz built the Hardware Dali Clock! (XDALICHRON) we sent him!

Phillip and Limor of Adafruit and MAKE were kind enough to send me one of their Monochron clock kits, because they ported Dali Clock to it! I just finished building it, so now I have a hardware Dali Clock. It is sweet.

Fun hack for the Ice Tube clock! Who doesn’t want satellite-precise timing? This firmware mod allows you to add any 4800 TTL NMEA GPS module. Check that the module can run from 5V power, and has a wire that outputs NMEA 4800 baud at TTL levels. Do NOT use any RS-232 level outputs, they can easily damage your clock!

Devlin writes -

Our favorite Soviet-Era display that found its way into a present-day kit now displays time from orbiting satellites. A GPS module patched into an Ice Tube Clock with modified firmware will be able to provide a satellite-synced time. The firmware, modified by yours truly, parses the GPS module’s NMEA RMC sentences for the time and date information and then updates the clock’s time and date. Fun was had making sure the alarm went off at the correct times when the time was updated by the GPS. Overall, it was a fun project and we look forward to seeing additional Ice Tube Clock hacks.

We picked up a few of these now-discontinued GPS modules specifically for those that want to use them for time-keeping purposes. They use an older chipset and our testing determined that while they function perfectly fine as a GPS, they are not as accurate as the EM-406 modules we carry for location applications. For that reason, we don’t suggest them for location logging.

However! They will still get you precision time, can get a fix while near a window, and have a built in RTC. Great for hacking your Ice Tube Clock (as seen in our tutorial) or other DIY clocks.

• SONY CXD2951GA-4 chipset
• 12 parallel satellite-tracking channels for fast acquisition and reacquisition
• Built-in rechargeable battery for memory and RTC backup
• Supports NMEA0183 V2.2 data protocol
• Includes cable for power, TTL and RS-232 connections
• Power requirements: 3.3V – 5V DC @ 80mA
• Communications: TTL or RS-232 asynchronous serial @ 4800 bps
• Dimensions: 1.25 x 1.25 x .35 in (32 x 32 x 9 mm)
• Operating temp range: 32 to +158 F (0 to +70 C)

This is a great battery-backed real time clock (RTC) that allows your microcontroller project to keep track of time even if it is reprogrammed, or if the power is lost. Perfect for datalogging, clock-building, time stamping, timers and alarms, etc. The DS1307 is the most popular RTC, and works best with 5V-based chips such as the Arduino.

• All parts including PCB, header and battery are included
• Quick to assemble and use
• Plugs into any breadboard, or you can use wires
• We have example code and library for Arduino with a walkthrough on our documentation page
• Two mounting holes
• Will keep time for 5 years or more

This breakout board is a kit and requires some light soldering which should only take about 15 minutes. Please check the documentation page for a list of parts and assembly instructions
Only $9.00 !

The DS1307 is simple and inexpensive but not a high precision device. It may lose or gain up to 2 seconds a day. For a high-precision, temperature compensated alternative, please check out the ChronoDot.

Available now and shipping in the Adafruit store!

TubeClock spotted a sweet clock…

Dekatron clock with IN-18 nixies. No logic and No Microcontroller. John found a great dekatron based Nixie clock on YouTube that I wanted to re-post here.  All of the timing is derived from the mains line at 50Hz.  The dekatrons divide the time base in to seconds, minutes, and hours.  I’ve contacted owner and others have as well to see how he performs the “divide by 5″ function to get 1pps and the “divide by 6″ to convert 60 seconds in to a minute.  You can see the jump/division happen at 1:20 seconds in the video.  I am not sure if this is simply a matter of wiring the dekatrons differently or there are other components in use that are not visible.

Parts 1 through 3 of the Ice Tube VFD Clock Kit assembly by Jeri Ellsworth.

Nice scope clock…

Reader Albert Y. from Seattle, Washington sent in his latest creation. It is a scope clock based off of the Thiem-Work components.  He was helped by Eric C. both in vision and execution.  It has a similar styling with the exposed CRT and the (what appears to be) aluminum base.  Nice work!

• Cool glowing blue tube with 8 digits, PM dot and alarm on/off indicator
• Adjustable brightness
• Alarm with volume adjust
• Precision watch crystal keeps time with under 20ppm (0.0002%) error (< 2 seconds a day)
• Clear acrylic enclosure protects clock from you and you from clock
• Battery backup will let the clock keep the time for up to 2 weeks without power
• Selectable 12h or 24h display
• Displays day and date on button press
• 10 minute snooze
• Integrated boost converter so it can run off of standard DC wall adapters, works in any country regardless of mains power
• Great for desk or night table use, the clock measures 4.9″ x 2.9″ x 1.3″ (12.5cm x 7.4cm x 3.3cm)
• Completely open source hardware and software, ready to be hacked and modded!

Complete kit comes with a 110/220V 9VDC power supply (a $1 plug adapter from your local hardware store will allow it to be used worldwide), all components including PCB, vacuum fluorescent tube, backup battery and a clear acrylic enclosure. Assembly is required! This kit is made of through-hole components but is best built by someone with previous soldering experience as there are many parts and steps.

For assembly instructions, user manual, code, schematics, and more, please visit the Ice Tube Clock webpage!

**Note: This kit is super popular, and the supply of tubes is harder to get. Thus the price is going to increase slowly but surely until the tubes are unavailable & the kit is discontinued. Thanks for your understanding!

In the Adafruit store $85.

Just wanted to share the enclosure I just designed for my Icetube! You can check it out here. I love the kit, by the way -nathan

The bulbdial we are carrying comes with red, green and blue LEDs for the ‘hands’, a black/smoke laser-cut enclosure and a wall adapter. When finished, it looks like the picture shown above!

The Bulbdial Clock is sold as a soldering kit [?]. Basic electronic soldering skill is required, and you provide basic soldering tools: a soldering iron + solder and small wire clippers. You will also need internet access to read or download our detailed assembly guide. No additional knowledge of electronics is presumed or required. Easy “through-hole” construction and clear, photo-heavy instructions are provided. Assembly time: 1-3 hours, depending on your level of experience with soldering.

Get one now in the Adafruit store!