Arduino WordClock

[Riva]

I'm not really much of an exhibitionist but here are some pics of my second arduino project. The first project was an almost identical clock that I built as a prototype to learn about the arduino. This second clock was built because the stripboard I had to buy was big enough to build a second more refined model. The first clock has been going strong for several months now and this second one has been finished and working well for about 2 months.

[Riva]

More pics

The large PCB was tending to warp so used a piece of acrylic as a backing frame.
I was also hoping there would not be to much bleed between LEDs but had to put some baffles in. Ended up using black plastic straws for this.

[Riva]

and yet more...

After thinking about how to do the letter mask for several days I hit upon the idea of just inverse & backward laser printing them on a piece of white paper and sandwiching this between a piece of 3mm thick dark tinted acrylic and a 2mm thick clear acrylic. The dark tint works well to hide any detail when viewed from the front of the clock so you don't see the letters. The 2mm clear backing sits directly on the LED's as I had calculated the LED spread so it lit the entire letter and not just the middle of it.

[Riva]

and more...

[Riva]

and finally...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAZMbW-Vpqw

[Pauly]

Very nice job, I want one.

[saturno]

Hi Everyone, Riva Specially.

Congratulations for your nice job; well done!
It looks really, really nice indeed.

If you don't mind, I would like to ask you two things:
- The list of materials;
- the real size of the display itself (letter to letter, diagonal)

I will definitly build at least one for myself.

Thanks

[Riva]

If you don't mind, I would like to ask you two things:
- The list of materials;
- the real size of the display itself (letter to letter, diagonal)

I have not done a bill of materials. Some parts I already had laying around. Give me a few days to compile a list.
The overall size of the clock frame (in millimetres) is 232 high x 232 wide x 42 deep.
The acrylic clock face is 200 x 200.
The active text area where the LED's sit is approx 114 wide x 107 high.
Each LED is spaced 7.62mm apart horizontally (16 LED's) x 15.24mm vertically (8 LED's) that works out about 17 diagonally letter to letter. 

[saturno]

Riva,

Thank you for the details.
As for the bill of materials, I was only referring the electronic components.
Would it be too much work to get it? It is not a hurry; when your time and will permits ....
Thank you for sharing.

[Riva]

Attached is a list of components/materials used to build this clock. Unfortunately I will probably have missed a couple of sundry items as it took me months to find/build all the bits I needed.
I have also attached the InkScape http://inkscape.org/ clock face should people need to change the wording. When you have it right you need to convert to paths and vertical mirror it ready for printing on laser printer.

[saturno]

Hello Riva,

Sorry if I took you time from your rest in the weekend...
Thank you very much for all your valuable information

The clock face is also very appreciated as I would like to translate it to Portuguese, though I know that will not be easy, mainly because the Portuguese translation will increase the size of the words. I'll see what I can get.

Thank you very much.

Luís

[Riva]

The clock face is also very appreciated as I would like to translate it to Portuguese, though I know that will not be easy, mainly because the Portuguese translation will increase the size of the words. I'll see what I can get.

There are few spare characters and some even double up sharing last character of one word as first character of next so it may be tight. Good luck

[DillyDog]

Hi Riva

Would you consider releasing the source code for your clock?

[Riva]

Would you consider releasing the source code for your clock?

The source code is attached to post #4

[liudr]

I didn't catch this until today. Awesome! Definitely a huge step up from the original word clock, especially with the scrolling text thing!