Binary Clock

thingiverse

Update Dec 16, 2013: Updated the Arduino code with a new option called BLINK_TEST. The blink test is a debugging option that will blink all lights in sequence from top-left to bottom-right, column by column. Each light should activate for one second, turn off, and then the next light in the sequence should continue the pattern. This is intended to debug and ensure that all wiring is correctly assembled. If a light fails to blink, or the wrong light activates when it shouldn't, you most likely have a wiring issue with either the LED that should have been lit, or the LED that was lit out of sequence. Update May 21, 2012: I've uploaded a Fritzing file that illustrates the schematic for the Binary Clock. Download Fritzing here http://fritzing.org/. I'm not alltogether sure how the schematic and PCB views are supposed to look, so I mainly paid attention to the breadboard view. If anyone feels inclined to update it, please send it my way! I decided that I wanted to learn how circuit boards worked, so I picked up an Arduino UNO starter kit and went to work. As my first project, I thought it would be neat to have a little home made binary clock on my desk at work, so I decided this would be my first project. The white light represents Am, yellow show the current hour, green are minutes, and red are seconds. If you are familiar with binary, you'll understand what the lights mean, otherwise check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_numeral_system. Here is a small video showing it in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXBh5Zqhoss&list=FLSD1-_SkYPcnzfSHYnXrqcw&feature=mh_lolz This is still a work in progress because I plan to also design a 3D printable case for it. Instructions If you're at all interested in making this, I've included my Arduino source code. I'm going to assume, if you have an Arduino board, that you know at least the basics of how to program on it, so I'm going to leave that out. In order to wire the LED's, I'm using a method called Charlieplexing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlieplexing) which is using 5 digital pins to handle the function of all 19 timer lights. Each of the 5 pin wires are color coded in my pictures (8=Black, 9=Orange, 10=Green, 11=Yellow, 12=Blue) so you should be able to trace exactly how each of the 5 wires connect to each of the LED's. I have taken out all of the LED's on one of the pictures to better show the wiring (Where the LEDs are supposed to be are marked in black sharpie marks). All of the LEDs are oriented, from top to bottom, cathode then anode. If you're not familiar with this, LED's are polarized so they have to be plugged in correctly to work. Typically, cathode (negative) represents the shorter lead while anode (positive) represents the longer lead. There are also three buttons programmed into the system on pins 2, 3, and 4. These represent the "Hour", "Minute", and "Second Reset" buttons respectively. These will allow you to set the current time by incrementing the current hour or minute, or by resetting the current seconds timer back to 0. The button board also has an LED that lights up to signify whenever any of the buttons are pressed (to provide a small response that a button has been pressed). My plans for the near future are to design a 3D printable case to carry this assembly and make it look at least a little professional.