This is a chronological account of a project I am working on: to design and build my own digital clock. I was inspired by the KABtronics Transisitor Clock. That one is made completely from discrete components, but I wanted to do something less ambitious. I also enjoy the process of figuring things out myself, not just putting something together.
Click here to download the full size of the above Circuit.
My clock will be based on the Arduino open source architecture, using the ATMEGA8 microcontroller. This is an 8-bit, 16MHz computer on a chip, with integrated digital and analog inputs and outputs, 4K of program flash memory, and 1K of RAM. These wonderful chips cost less than US$5 each, and the Arduino software allows you to program them in C+. If you want to build your own clock, I hope this page gives you some ideas. There are also a lot of other clock projects out there. I tried adding another transformer to the circuit above to serve as the power supply as well as the clock signal, but the two transformers are getting awfully hot. It seems dangerous, so it looks like I need to try something else for a power supply. But the good news is that I have finished building the low-order LED display digit. Tonight I printed out a copy of my LED mask (the same one seen glued to the board in the photo above) onto card stock. I chose a pastel blue color, but I glued it to another piece of card stock that is red, which will block a lot of the light from the green LEDs. I am experimenting with using an exacto knife to slice out the hexagonal holes. In hindsight, it is obvious to me now that the result will be very delicate, because there are two squares of paper each hanging by four thin tentrils of paper inside each numeral. I am going to try taping both sides of the result with clear plastic tape to reinforce this mask, and to...
This project fits more for custom made battery casing that can have more space to hide things inside. This switch with few alterations can be used for any other project as well but is designed based on e-bike needs! This project use a clever functionality of....
The circuit described here uses ultrasonic oscillations and operates based on the propagation velocity of these oscillations in the air. Thus, we can easily determine the distance of two points if the time within which the wave travels this distance is....
Sometimes the precious metals are hidden too deep and are not detected except with complicated devices. In many cases, however, small pieces of precious metal buried near the surface can be detected by relatively simple means. Everyone is very attractive to....
Many times for various reasons we forget or can not water the plants that we have in our homes. And many humidity sensors units just notify us with a beeping sound or with a flashing light, that the pot needs watering. But what if we are away from home? This....
The principle behind a metal detector is really very simple. Proof of this is the circuit that follows, in which it proves that the construction of a metal detector can be done in the minute, with few components that we find very easily everywhere. With the....
The sub-harmonic bass generator is a sound producing unit for guitars. The sound it produces looks very much like that of the bass guitar. The octave generator is sometimes quite unusual since it does not produce any of the usual ways of coloring the sound,....
In the past the sounding (sea bottom measurement) was done with the "bullet", that is, with a heavy lead object that the seamen plucked into the sea hung from a calibrated rope. As soon as the "bullet" reached the bottom, the depth appeared directly from the....
This Amplifier was designed to have the following specifications: Distortion less than 0.1% at full power of 100W even at 20KHz. Power has to be attributed to an extended bandwidth. The output transistors must be protected against short circuits. The power....
A series of LEDs serve to alert the gardener when plants need water. Using two conventional digital integrated LEDs and a series of LEDs, we make a very useful device for gardening. The device detects the amount of water in the pot and alerts the grower.....
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