The frame for the housing was constructed on 12mm chipboard and the back panel was made from thin plywood. In order to keep stray light from unintentionally illuminating neighboring words in the stencil, baffles were constructed on the backside of the stencil using PCB pieces. The Word Clock uses etched printed circuit boards for the word stencil, controller, and display boards. Most are custom made, but the controller board includes an Arduino. The key components have been described above. The Word Clock is housed in a rectangular box that is described in length, width, and depth.
Shape is a visual language, so a simple sketch is the best way to communicate the idea. The Shape & Size section describes the overall physical form of the project. All of these are relatively low power and no thermal issues were anticipated. The primary heat sources in the project are the Arduino, LED drivers, and the LEDs. The prototype is intended to be used in the fairly benign environment of a desktop (except for coffee spills…). If the project had an alarm, there would be patterns of setting and dismissing the alarm. In the case of a clock, the primary user interaction is reading the time displayed. The Use Patterns section addresses how the project will be used. Copyright is a complex area, and while I can easily stop sales here in Australia, I have to hire legal representation in the USA - And that’s nigh on impossible for a single person running a hobby. To say that is disappointing is an understatement, but at least I have people still believing in what I do. Today, I have a small business running - I make and export clocks worldwide, and have in the past employed 3 part time people to help ‘turn the wheels’ - Sadly, I am fighting a copyright infringement where a Chinese company has taken my Instructables project, and core from one of my kits (including the copyright notice in the firmware). Q: What is the status of the project today? It’s disappointing to see the number of times I have rediscovered something. I’m fortunate that my family understands in that respect.ĭocumentation - I can’t emphasize how critical that is. Time is just a management issue - I devote time to my projects, and try to break development down into manageable chunks. A far cry from 24 Transistors attached to a PIC micro. To be completely honest, the current design is built on a double sided, surface mount board, using an AtMegs165 as the CPU, and with a modified Arduino IDE to allow that chip to work. A case in point was winning the Instructables contest that got me a couple of LED matrix game boards (Meggy Jr RGB’s) - that allowed me to see a better way of programming the Arduino (using a 6 pin programing cable) - so I rolled that into my design. Project development is iterative - as I learn new things, I discover better ways of working.
The importance of allowing ideas to develop can’t be over emphasized. to find time to devote to the project, and 3( yes… I know) to correctly document the project as it is being developed. to remain open to ideas that will allow the project to be simplified, and 2.
The biggest challenges I face on projects are two fold 1. Q: What are some of the biggest challenges you face on projects and what advice can you give for handling them? Eventually, I purchased my own laser cutter and experimented with making faces using heavy card - and that’s where I am now. As the project became more and more successfully, people wanted me to make clocks for them, so I experimented with using sign writing vinyl, which was a good outcome.
#Word for clockmaker Pc
The stencil was originally a piece of copper clad PCB - I had already been making lots of amateur radio and other projects using my own hand etched boards, and it made sense to use PC to create the face. Q: What gave you the idea for the stencil? I have inspired a number of Kickstarter and Instructables projects - all of whom credited my code, so I couldn’t be happier with the success of my original vision.
One of the things that has been important to me is not to simply duplicate the Qclock2, but to develop that idea and provide others with a vehicle that they can use themselves. I built on the concept with three articles - firstly with a PIC micro, then with an Arduino (because there was a contest), and finally, with a massively updated face design. I have always been an educator (being a part time teacher for 15 years), and it just made sense to roll the Instructables article. I was also aware of a screen saver for Linux that displayed the time in words, so I combined those ideas. I really loved the clock, and decided to make my own version of it. My motivation in creating the WordClock came about when I saw an Hack-A-Day article that mentioned the QClock2.
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