My partner and I just got engaged and we have booked our wedding, therefore I wanted to make her a little gift for a surprise on the anniversary of when we first met.
I have an idea of a countdown timer like those seen in movies ticking on a device, all enclosed in a wooden box so that looks in a way like an alarm clock. Like one of these
I wrote a very simple couple lines of code in python to have a think about how it would work as I have a little background in python.
Firstly do you think the clock I linked uses veneer on an underlying box? I can't work out how else you could get a 7 segment to show through wood.
Is it fairly simple to do this project in C with a RTC? or would it be better to use a connection to a PC (rPi) to connect through something like pyserial
I guess I also was wondering if anyone had any comments on if they think this will look cool and how best to give it the Fiance (Wife) Acceptance Factor?
I have attached my initial Idea, but I also have comntemplated other options including two rows to split the date and the time or a pyramid style, with years at top then months and days followed by a time row at the bottom.
Any ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Edit: Forgot to say it is 1 year and 8 months until the big day so thats why I would like to keep the years format, I prefer not to go for a 3 digit number of days or over 12 months if possible.
This is easily doable without a PC or Python. Any Arduino plus an RTC would work. Adding a GPS is one way to keep time. A bluetooth module or the built-in USB port could also be used to set the time from a smart phone or a PC. Or buttons like on any alarm clock. Aaaannd ditch the milliseconds.
The secret to the illusion are LEDs placed behind a thinly cut wood veneer.
How good are your woodworking skills? What kind of tools do you have? Power or hand tools? Have you ever veneered anything?
Have you thought about what form you'd like to make? Incorporating a heart shape, linked rings or other romantic symbol could change this from an electronic gizmo ("gee, you shouldn't have. Really.") to a thoughtful gesture ("Awww...").
How will it be powered? USB port? If battery only, you'll have to be careful about when and how long the LEDs are turned on. You will also have to use the lowest-power sleep modes.
Are the LEDs always on? If not, how does the user turn them on: button? capacitive touch? vibration sensor? IMU? PIR?
If you made it count up, starting from negative days before the wedding, it could be useful after the wedding, showing how many days you have enduredput up withbeen blessed by her company.
You should prototype this one piece at a time:
RTC with Serial output
time-setting technique: button handling? Serial commands?
7-segment driving and multiplexingYou need to get several of these basic projects under your belt before you throw them all together.
Firstly do you think the clock I linked uses veneer on an underlying box? I can't work out how else you could get a 7 segment to show through wood.
The "wood" is probably medium density fiberboard.
With LED's inserted into slots, made by a router.
The grain is fake.
The LED's shine through the translucent plastic film.
rwattstci:
Any ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Edit: Forgot to say it is 1 year and 8 months until the big day
If your countdown timer has to be more accurate than one day and you live in a country which has summertime switching during summer months (i.e. Europe, USA or other), you possibly will have to consider that 12:00 h local time today (November) and 12:00h local time in July are not within the same timezone, so perhaps the countdown time is not to be calculated:
number of days *24 + time difference in local time
but if you have summertime active in July and not in November the countdown time in local time is:
number of days *24 + time difference in local time - 1 hour
It might be interesting to use a number of these 7219-modules, in combination with the Parola-library. There's a lot of support for this type of module/library.
Besides showing year/month/day/... only, it gives you the chance to add text and display the time in other formats as well. "Still free for 47336400 seconds :P" as an example.
It is a wedding-timer, but it would imo be a pity if you stopped using such a clock, once you're married.
If you'd like, you could configure it to enter/show multiple events like "still x seconds until the holidays",
"Still legally responsible for kid x for y days" and other reminders as well.
Interested in woodworking I wonder how hard/easy it is to use veneer as shown. I wouldn't mind to read more if you succeed.
Simpson_Jr:
Interested in woodworking I wonder how hard/easy it is to use veneer as shown. I wouldn't mind to read more if you succeed.
I think if the countdown timer reaches zero, it can automatically become a count up timer, showing the time since marriage. Or maybe next countdown starts and shows the time left until next wedding day.
Unfortunately, it's always the husbands forgetting about wedding day, and not their wives, so possibly a wife doen't need a countdown timer for remembering wedding day.
