Stand for ClockTHREE

Some time ago I received, as a gift, this smart and very useful stand from fellow clock enthusiast Nicholas in San Diego. He designed it and made it specifically for ClockTHREE. Simple yet elegant, this is essential if you want your C3 on the desk or table.

I did not have the chance to appreciate it until now, with an older ClockTHREE borrowed from a friend (I gave it to him as a gift). Here is the C3 on the stand, a perfect fit!

Thank you Nicholas! Keep up the great work!

Wise Clock 4 - "Time Lived" menu option

At the request of AlexT, I implemented a new feature in Wise Clock 4, which allows the display of time lived (since birth) in different formats (years/months/days/hours/minutes/seconds, days only, hours only, minutes only).

The above photo shows the year/month/day on the top row and the hours/minutes/seconds on the bottom row.


Lifetime in Wise Clock 4 from florinc on Vimeo.

The birth date and time are read from the file message.txt on the SD card.

I was inclined to use the Time library, but I found it a little bulky for my needs and also unsuitable for dates before 1970. Then, I copied and modified the function makeTime() to convert a datetime to seconds, and I wrote my own diffTime() function to calculate the difference (in years, months, days etc) between two dates.

Alternating between display modes is done by pressing the SET (middle) button.

This code will be included in the next release of Wise Clock 4 software.

Wise Clock 4 Dual screen chronometer

Update (June 30, 2014): This chronometer clock is complete now. It is also available in the two-sided (two-faced) version, aka "Kandinsky", as shown in these photos.

This chronometer, inspired by the Doomsday clock by Wyolum, is made with a Wise Clock 4 board (available for sale here) and two 3216 displays from Sure Electronics.



Its main feature is the odometer-style rolling of the digits when they change.
The time is updated once a second, based on the 1Hz interrupt signal from DS3231, as described here.

As shown in the video, one button is used to change the display brightness, another button is used for changing the font, and the third is used for switching between rolling style and static style.

By using the bigger (5mm) 3216 displays with the same setup and software, this clock can be easily read from a distance of at least 100 feet (30 meters).

Source code is available here. The current version does not allow setting up the time and date from buttons.

Details on assembling ClockTHREE v2

I just finished assembling another ClockTHREE v2 and I realized that there are details that need a bit of clarification (and not captured in the original building instructions). These are related to the orientation of the RGB LEDs and the battery holder for RTC. Not a lot of info, but I felt I have to record these, since I will have to go through the exercise of figuring it out again next time I assemble another C3.

Here are the pictures worth a thousand words.

First the LEDs, shown laying down in the correct orientation. The longest pin, the common node, is closer to the bottom of the PCB (where the ATmega328 is).

Because the LED pins are only 0.05" apart (as opposed to 0.1" in a normal LED, or most other components for that matter), special attention must be paid when soldering these RGB LEDs. There is a tendency of shorting two adjacent pins, so make sure that doesn't happen, by checking with a magnifying glass (or with the ohmmeter). To avoid the possible shorts, I bend the pins outwards, away from each other, as shown below.

Note: One of the advantages of C3 v2 over C3 v1 is that the RGB LEDs can be inserted directly, all the way through, without the need to use the bending tool (as shown in the tutorial for v1).

Second, the battery holder. If you use one like mine, here is how it should be placed.

Note that the board was smartly designed to allow the use of many types of battery holders, including those all-metal ones (either SMD or through-hole).

Also shown are the pull-up resistors required if you solder the DS3231 RTC chip directly to the (back of the) board (and not use the ChronoDot).

Another detail worth mentioning is that the buzzer I am currently using in Wise Clock 3/4 gives a very faint sound when used in C3/C3Jr.

C3Jr on Kickstarter

Do you want the best deal on C3Jr?
Here it is, on kickstarter.



Already exceeded the goal of $2,500, it will be a sure thing in 21 days from now. I am guessing that the Wyolum team is already busy assembling them :)

The Doomsday clock (pledge $500) looks especially interesting, made of 3 adjacent C3Jrs. Lots of possibilities with this very large display, check out the video.