DIY alarm clock with date, timer, stopwatch and digital speed adjustment

How to build a simple digital alarm clock with an LED display and a lot of useful functions. It has an alarm which can time out, a stopwatch, a countdown (kitchen timer), it shows the date and day of the week, it works with leap years and summer time (daylight saving time) and the speed can be digitally corrected from -120 to +120 ppm in 1ppm steps to make it very accurate. It runs on 5V and it uses ATmega16A Atmel AVR.
The clock on my website:
danyk.cz/avr_h...
Please support my channel on Patreon:
/ diodegonewild
Instagram:
/ savage_danyk

[@trissmerigold7197]

Your website is basically a bible. I have assembled different projects with success, including this clock, modifying the indication of the day in italian. I also recently built the wireless thermomether, changing the program to read a temperature probe on the receveir board and making the wireless transmitter send some useless data at the beginning of the transmission to wake up the crappy receveir i used. Thanks for all your amazing work and for the inspiration.

[@zardyzardy8946]

Nice.

[@অৰি]

How stable is your clock over a wide period of time?

[@daveslomski9612]

DGW getting all philosophical in this one. He's completely right. I'd go back to Win95 if I could.

[@K-Riz314]

I adore your skyscraper metaphor at the end. Very well said.

[@DrHouse-zs9eb]

Great to see that your self made clock has much more functions and more complex programming than commercial ones... I wish every alarm clock had that functions.

[@CuriousScientist]

I came for an electronics lecture, but received philosophy. Niiiiice! :)

[@iamdarkyoshi]

Lovely design! I was just looking into making a clock for work, though I was more looking to do it with logic chips and putting lots of LEDs on lines like the binary counter and whatnot The software design for that clock is excellent though. Definitely agree with you on modern software design... That microwave that bricked itself from a firmware update is really a great example

[@crusaderanimation6967]

@Tiago Ferreira don't be transphobicy, it's 2022 this microwave is whatever it want to be! /j

[@pasikavecpruhovany7777]

Came for the breadboard ratsnest, stayed for philosophical ponderings! Mostly agree, it's silly when a new oven needs to do a firmware update as soon as you buy it. And if some employee copies wrong number, all the ovens suddenly think they are toasters and brick themselves. With growing complexity I think there still is a case for OTA firmware updates, especially if you can't squash all the bugs. Example would be Dalibor Farny's nixie clocks.

[@WagTsX]

I appreciate your thinking of longevity to devices, and I also absolutely disable software updates on all of my devices since the first day I put my hands on it. Reliability to use what is already there is orders of magnitude much more important than possible new features (that will break the existing useful ones).

[@hugoegon8148]

Without updates you will stick with the banana software alpha status. Often error fixes are made while products are already in the field.

[@gilangrahmat9862]

Updated security patch

[@michaelseitz8938]

Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Predator approve of the design and the alarm sound 😁 This is a wonderful piece of work, thanks for the video!

[@BobT36]

Very philosophical this episode. Also wow not only building that, but programming it yourself is bloody impressive!

[@antibrevity]

I'm glad you pointed out the age of your development platform. When developing software, especially for microcontrollers, you are usually better of to stick with the version you started with or to apply only minor "patch" updates and to avoid major version upgrades as they often break your old code or introduce new quirks that you are not familiar with. The result of this is that maintaining old software often requires maintaining old computers with old installed IDE's and build environments. This can be a problem when the operating system become obsolete and is no longer receiving security updates, so these machines are often taken offline. In some situations, you may even need backup motherboards and other hardware to ensure that the machine can keep running ;). I recently bought an old, but good-condition laptop of the same model as the one I'm typing this on simply to have spare parts as the cpu fan on this one now makes odd noises, but the replacement turned out to be in such good condition that I'll probably just switch to using it when this one fails. It's very old, but it's much more rugged than anything I could afford new. New programmers may think some of this seems ridiculous, but I guarantee that they will eventually learn that newer is not always better and is, in fact, usually worse. Proven is better than newer in >90% of cases. New just means untested.

[@adzib1823]

Totally agree on the laptop front. I'm running on a ThinkPad T430 from 2014 or something; everything replaceable, including the CPU which is socketed. Meanwhile, some of my friends are spending £800+ and are having issues just a few months later. When analysing availability (how much of the time you can use your equipment), reliability is only one aspect, serviceability and service support also play important parts. "They don't make them like they used to" usually just means the item is significantly more difficult to repair/maintain.

[@westelaudio943]

@@adzib1823 Are you telling me socketed CPU is not the standard anymore?? I don't know much about modern laptops TBH.

[@rob3125]

@ Rob Allen What about virtual machines? can't they be used as a replacement for an old PC's with an old OS? The reason I'm asking is because, I was an apprentice at an automation company, they had several versions / revisions of their older industrial programming software installed in VMware (Windows 7) on Windows 10, so they could support older industrial PLC's.

[@adzib1823]

@@westelaudio943 Correct, my mum's previous laptop had soldered CPU, soldered RAM and soldered storage (can't remember the exact name of it). Granted, that wasn't a super expensive one but I believe most are like that these days... Basically, if ya don't spec it correctly when you order it, ya can't upgrade it down the line

[@piconano]

I love to see you go through the airport security with this in your carry-on!

[@RavenLuni]

Assembly language is the only way. I also love building my own tools - its the best way to learn something completely.

[@gabest4]

- "Papa, papa, look what I made, a watch!" Father takes off his Apple watch... - "Look what a little Chinese girl of your age made"

[@markwarburton8563]

Very nice, Danny! I've been programming ATMEL AVRs for years, initially for work, but now just for fun. I'm also of the view that assembler is better than a higher level language for these types of devices. For microcontrollers, C libraries can be an opaque nightmare to debug. Most functions on microcontrollers are simply a case of setting a few registers and handling timing. There's no need for a complex, bloated and buggy C library as a result. Also, assembler programming makes you get very familiar with the device you are using. You can't afford to make assumptions, which is good. A colleague laughed at me programming in assember. He wasn't laughing so much a month later, trying to debug some bloated C code that turned out not to be as portable as he assumed.

[@mysterious_czrs]

Meanwhile people are writing code for microcontrollers in python :P

[@markwarburton8563]

@@mysterious_czrs Absolutely. Now requiring 2MB flash to do what you can do with assembler in 20k (RP Pico, I'm looking at you). Also, the increased latency and it is non-deterministic timing, which makes it problematic for anything but the simplest of projects. Ironically, I program in python as part of my day job and I love it, but not for a micro-controller.

[@mysterious_czrs]

@@markwarburton8563 Programming microcontrollers in python sounds almost criminal lol. I am gonna stick to C cuz assembly is to hardcre for me ;) but I would love to master it some day.

[@jstro-hobbytech]

I've just gotten I to pic asm but I always see Ben heck do alot with the attiny line. Which is thr better price to performance in your opinion. The (few but not nearly enough of thrm for my project) ancient pics cost a fortune. C++ is my favorite high level language. I initially learned using the borland C compiler 25 years ago. I learned python recently, if you can call it learning for making macros in freeCad. I was making video games the second day I learned it. Haha. It reminds me of visual basic without the having to start with a grey window box lol

[@jstro-hobbytech]

Just to add. I find assembly adheres to the rules of digital logic alot more rigidly and I love circuits and old books related to the cd4 and 74 logic families. I have a massive collection of logic chips. They're fun for making different types of oscillators and counting for led effects. Not the normal cd4017 and 7447 counters we all know.

[@Geniusinventor]

My man is a pure genius he made such a nice clock with a lot of function. 😃

[@imaginarypoint]

That is the way i make my stuff too. Pure assembly language. Simple and to the point. A simple 1KB or 2KB file.. haha. None of these high level language nonsense unless need some heavy math. Also yes.. once i have it working it is working i leave it alone and very rarely/never have to revisit them. I have many projects around my home/property. Anything from gate openers, to water level sensors to temperature controls to animal water/feeders.

[@Alchemetica]

Excellent work. For me I self taught myself C when it was in its most popular period and used Borland Paradox software. Besides Basic & Basic for applications I never made the jump to C++. I have written some functions in Assembly, only because there was no C library with a function I needed. Now there seems to be an explosion of languages, many for use in website functions. I found it commendable that you like to release software that is well tested and needs no updates. I am a composer & video producer and sometimes I think I spend more time updating video and audio software and their 3rd party plugins and extensions than actually producing work.

[@RODALCO2007]

Very cool clock.

[@RocRizzo]

Thanks Dany! Now I have some projects to do. I like your philosophy. I also like that you re-purposed that diskette box for the case for your clock. Thanks again.

[@technixbul]

I've build that clock a couple of years ago, but in my version I change some pins of the segments, add blinking indicator for timer and chronometer, add indicator for type of menu, made drivers and convert it for fluorescent display from old VCR with similar orientation of segments (the display also have inside - a separate VU meter for witch i use separate soviet IC - КР1534ПП1) and translate language to Bulgarian, it works good but i missed those features you've added to new code, i will edit your new code too! ;) If you want i can send you pictures of my clock, short video and edited code for old and new version, Schematic and PCB - mine is SMD. Thank you for sharing those things, your website is in my favourites for many years.

[@DiodeGoneWild]

of course, show your clock :) you can send the pictures to danyk at centrum dot cz ;)

[@technixbul]

@@DiodeGoneWild I send it to your email as i promised. I did not look at the new code yet but i will eventually. ;)

[@technixbul]

@@DiodeGoneWild I made schematic and PCBs in Proteus 7.10 and edited code in Atmel Studio 7.0

[@jstro-hobbytech]

Assembly language is great. I use direct metal coding whenever I can. On arduino projects I do all operations directly on the ports and internal comparator. I'm making these comments as I watch. Wow sir, you are on another level. You should be working at SpaceX creating life support systems.

[@BlackXeno]

Assembly does not mean writing directly to the registers, that's bare metal, and can be done C.

[@BlackXeno]

Troll? It just seemed you compared assembly against Arduino, and that doing bare metal means assembly (which is not correct as i pointed out). And people tend to compare Arduino to a language, but is just an API system written in C++, and badly. And now who does not use Arduino on an MCU seems a genius since everyone else lowered the development standard to them. Hence my comment, maybe not super accurate, but definitely not trolling anyone, apologies if seemed like that. I'm an automotive EE and FW eng, btw.

[@jstro-hobbytech]

@@BlackXeno my apologies sir. I get defensive sometimes and do not mean to. Personal issues. I'll retract my ignorance. I forget even typing that. Honestly. I knew the difference but I glazed over it without thinking and you rightfully corrected me. Cheers

[@kemi242]

What you're saying is absolutely true for the aviation industry for example. There are planes designed 60 years ago, but still actively manufactured and flying. It's better to have old, but proven technology, when people's lives depend on it. However, that's totally not true for the electronics industry. People are changing their smartphones each year, and want new features, so the software has to be constantly changed as well.

[@Tag-Traeumer]

Very interesting alarm clock! And 13:27 , good crystals are more accurate if they deviate by 20 ppm or less. Then a very good crystal was built into my Swiss wristwatch (not very expensive), 10 seconds plus in 36 days, is 0.28 seconds per day, is only 3.24 ppm, nice.

[@joemadden567]

Love this, so simple but so much functionality

[@jasonvoorhees3282]

7:20 I didn’t know you could use a trash bag as a filter. Definitely a great trick

[@johncoops6897]

red cellophane wrapping paper works a lot better, and no wrinkles!

[@jp040759]

Great job. Nice multi function clock. Nice flattery of your idea. Too bad you don't get some credit and some kind of compensation for your idea.

[@TheSpotify95]

This is absolutely fantastic, and thanks for translating your web page for this into English. I shall take a look later. I really now want to build my own clck kit. :) The only other thing I would possibly do (apart from possibly using 14 segment displays, which are much more complicated) is to add an option for changing the date display, most countries use DD.MM but some countries use MM.DD. Some even use YYYY.MM.DD.

[@djtransnazgrz]

Have you thought about temperature compensating the crystal with capacitors? If you have a trimmer with a opposite tempco to the crystal, you could tune out the variance over reasonable temperature range. I've seen radio ametur projects using this approach, also this should not affect power draw.

[@KeritechElectronics]

Nice project, and I like perfboards too :)

[@MakarovFox]

i love this type of clocks i have one of those old radio alarm clock whit the red digits, 2 years ago i fit it a few copper pad when lift up after the clock fell to the ground, i wwas so happy that the damage was very simple to fix i really like the clock and now a day is no to easy to find

[@petrustefanescu5842]

Writing C code has its advantages, like the possibility of writing code for multiple platforms and C is low level enough for most projects. If you really need assembly for some part, you still can create ASM modules following C conventions (for function calls) and run them from C.

[@7c3c72602f7054696b]

More videos of your own projects! They are more fun :) Also some very wise words...

[@harvoormotors3050]

I really appreciate your interests man Keep making such interesting videos.I might become a patreon soon.

[@jstro-hobbytech]

I am trying to make something similar only with giant homemade digits and cmos logic. Very nice Danny. You never show any of your coding. You should show some of that stuff more often. I've been using pic12 8 pin dip chips lately to make lighting effects on strings of different 2 pin leds.

[@CliveChamberlain946]

Nice! What CMOS pin Expander do you suggest if someone would wanted to recode this for a cheap Nano (I'm not sure about power draw or even if disconnecting the Nano's built-in regulator and LED would make it last longer..)

[@kwpctek9190]

Very nostalgic! Fun Fact: This channel passes 200K viewers in about a month. I wonder if he has anything planned? 🤔

[@shayhsopwagqehghggtfyggty2635]

I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS!! ALSO THANKS FOR EXPLAINING ELECTRONICS!!! I really appreciate you. Im your 17th comment!

[@অৰি]

Please make a video on your weather station too!!

[@-wx-78-]

W/o a microcontroller that'll be a masterpiece. Ah, it's ATmega inside. P. S. For a true steampunk floppy disk case is not enough: wiring should be done with MGTF (Russian: МГТФ) copper flexible/stranded temperature enduring teflon isolated wires. 😉

[@simclardy1]

thanks. love your commentary on skyscrapers. you might like Iain McGilchrist work on brain function. it helps to understand how we're are jumping from the cliff. cheers

[@Gersberms]

What an awesome clock. Have you ever thought of making a black cardboard insert with cutout for the digits, to make it look neater? It's funny too that I just discovered time.is about 4 days ago and it's very useful.

[@SuburbanDon]

I am impressed.

[@Kemi0692]

Hi Danyk, really great work! We also did Assembler in microcontroller class but I prefer C. I still have two SMPS to donate if you are interested.

[@DiodeGoneWild]

Hello. I prefer asm :). Of course I'm interested, contact me: danyk (at) centrum (dot) cz

[@albin6382]

Reminds me of Ahmeds clock. Cool clock though.

[@mranvick3512]

I just love your vision of software programming and software updates

[@imaginarypoint]

D1 for reverse polarity protection. D2 is to protect the battery by not allowing it to charge up to the 5v supply when kit is plugged with wall supply. D2 will turn on and power the kit if no supply from wall.

[@mranvick3512]

@@imaginarypoint Thank you very much for taking the time to answer ! It seems obvious for D2 now, I must have been really tired yesterday evening x)

[@worroSfOretsevraH]

Hi. You should do a video on how you approach writing a more complex program like this in asm. Do you start by drawing flowcharts or how exactly? Thanks.

[@DiodeGoneWild]

I don't draw anything.... I just start writing, often recycling bits of code from my previous clocks, and it turns out somehow... When I write the first half, I have no idea what the second half is going to be. I'm not the best ASM teacher :D The flow chart is about: Starts to write a horrible mess -> miracle happens -> the program works quite nicely :).

[@andymouse]

Great clock and great channel !...cheers.

[@Mark1024MAK]

Only one thing is say… Nice 👍 😊

[@zvpunry1971]

DIY OCXO: Put the crystal and a small lightbulb in a piece of styrofoam.

[@zvpunry1971]

(It helps against large frequency changes, but it can't replace a proper GPS disciplined OCXO)

[@jayeshb7041]

Can you do a video / suggest devices with which I can monitor amps / watts moving into a device ? For example, I plug in two monitors to a power strip and I want to measure how much power is the power strip drawing. Also can that be used for 16amp heavy devices (AC/Refrigerator)

[@অৰি]

13:40 How exactly do you incorporate the ppm correction? Do you change the OCR2 value ? In you asm code I could see you have used /32 prescaler and ocr2=101 32x101/32768 = 0.098 secs...how does this setting help? It would be nice if you could elaborate! Thanks!!

[@অৰি]

How stable is our clock over a wide period of time after adding ppm correction? Also, is it immune to weather conditions?

[@zx8401ztv]

You clever sod lol :-D Yes i think the code has proven itself. I made an eprom programmer millions of years ago and as i realised that i needed it to program other eprom types i added a jungle of wires, switches, and extra 74LSxx chips to the heap. It looked horrible but did the job. Bodge city lol. For sillyness i made a 9 bit binary to 3 digit display in 1990, 3 eproms, each drove its own display, no other chips, no muliplexing. It did the job fine, but the inside looks a mess. What a lazy sod :-D

[@joinedupjon]

Noticed a while ago that some commercial things have stopped getting better or cheaper. Digital clocks and cordless domestic phones. You can still buy them but they won't be better or cheaper than the ones you could have bought 20 years ago.

[@Fabio-ch5jm]

You maybe should add a diode or NTC for measuring ambiente temperature.

[@pranjal3727]

This looks like a bomb

[@beatrute2677]

Hey man, can you do a vid like this about your battery analyser please?

[@alexstone691]

I did not ever use assembly but i usually just use the registers directly inside C and get best of both worlds imo

[@megatronskneecap]

As is traditional, I feel we should make a Chinglish manual PDF.

[@ultraproject2619]

Hi Danyk, RE your websites electronic halogen transformer, I've been wanting to build this for a while, and finally got around to it, I used different fets and a larger Pc Psu transformer it was originally a half bridge supply, and it works well, I might switch the Ic for a Sg3525 as ultimately this is for the wifes pyropen, a bit like a soldering gun, and it needs a variable heat control.

[@sortofsmarter]

if there is ever a missive zombie apocalypse or mass extinction I'm going to find a way to get to this guy...modern day super MacGyver... so simply complicated..lol

[@q12x]

Super cool !

[@sanjikaneki6226]

Nice. Why did you use BJT transistors and not MOSFET? you may have been able to save some energy there. Also for the battery a why not use something rechargeable? Or even a few super capacitors (not sure if they existed back then).

[@westelaudio943]

Super caps certainly existed. I have seen (and replaced) supercaps from the late 80s. And 1F caps since the early 2000s. It doesn't really matter what's used though. A supercap won't necessarily last longer than a good battery. Supercaps can go bad before a battery even runs out. I would have used lithium or at least zinc-carbon batteries though. Not leak-o-matic Alkalines.

[@bayareapianist]

I wish you could program the chip via a port like USB so you don't have to remove the chip to upload your new program. I built a clock then I was 12 using discrete CMOS chips back in 80s. I still have it on my desk!

[@DiodeGoneWild]

you don't have to remove the chip. Just connect it to a PC using some cheap chinese ebay thing (usbasp avrisp...) You could even build it into the clock, so it would have a usb port for update it whenewer you want.

[@josifvissarionovich5320]

I Am wondering about building your battery analyzer. Can i use instead MC33171 op amp the UA741 or TL081?

[@DiodeGoneWild]

Well.... MC33171 turned out to be quite tricky to replace. No chance using a random opamp. It has to run at 5V non symmetrical, the inputs have to work at or near 0V, the output has to swing high enough and low enough, it needs to have offset null,... I was already looking for a possible replacement, but never tested it. It might be AD820ANZ, CA3140A, OPA241, TLE2021, ... maybe even TLC271, but the last one need an artificial middle point for the null offset pot.

[@DiodeGoneWild]

MC33171 can still be obtained, it's on ebay and aliexpress, I'd stick to it if possible.

[@josifvissarionovich5320]

@@DiodeGoneWild Will do. Thank you.

[@josifvissarionovich5320]

@@DiodeGoneWild PS: Maybe I just buy from you Atmel with the program already written on it. Would you spare one 33171 op amp to send my way together with programed CPU? I'll buy both. I already bought from you some digitrons in past and they arrived ok (here in Slovakia) so it shouldn't be a problem.

[@BeetleJuice1980]

Is the analyser on video somewhere?

[@yomboprime]

Glad to see new content types :-)

[@antibrevity]

You mention your website, but the description shows only your Patreon and Intragram channels. Did you intend to list a home site or are you storing your materials at Patreon?

[@DiodeGoneWild]

I forgot the link :). Now I've just added it.

[@pierreuntel1970]

Try bringing this to an airport...

[@justovision]

I wish the code for my nixie clock kit was available. There's a socketed AT328 but I'd need to reverse engineer the entire board and rewrite the software from scratch to fix issues or add features.

[@Clancydaenlightened]

could add a 60khz wwvb receiver and have a sort of diy "atomic clock"

[@Cordiaturbo]

Ever thought about a Mengenlehreuhr clock?

[@DiodeGoneWild]

I've never heard of it before. But how a normal mortal is supposed to read it? :D

[@EasyOne]

nice

[@-.......................-]

If i ever see this device without knowing it is just a clock, i’ll panic real hard. But overall it’s great

[@BeetleJuice1980]

Can it be done with arduino? Please make a pcb and sell it! I will buy it! Maybe use an lcd that's more cheap, and/or with an arduino that easy to buy and program? You can sell your pcbs through various sites that make pcbs. We can support you.

[@nyleshintz69]

@1:00 I read 14.5(V)BAL, reminds me of which BMS has worthwhile charge & discharge balancing?

[@Zek205]

Najs. Televize šílel bys ;)

[@justovision]

That cat rules.

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

Diodegonewhile does that clock have a time save battery inserted into the clock board?

[@celsoneves2368]

Real!.

[@joinedupjon]

Well the frequent software updates seem to go hand in hand with IoT. if it's exposed to the internet there's potential for hacking requiring software security updates. This is a good reason for not putting stuff on the internet.

[@bambumbambu]

i can understand a bit of asm, but the comments are killing me :)

[@gacherumburu9958]

👍👍

[@constantinjitariu1439]

Hi please respond when you can Can you help me with a lowpass filter for a subwoofer wich has the cutoff frequency at 100hz can you help me with a schematic?

[@davey2k12]

That sound is from and old pilot flying game when the 3 or 4 tones end you hold down to take off lol wtf was its name lol It black red buttons and blue dot matrix who can remember this I have it somewhere You can get rechargeable lih2032

[@traxonja]

Great stuff, just don't carry it around with you in public :-)

[@widyahong]

18:41 new display :)

[@Rodney9906]

What program do you use to draw your schematics ?

[@jasonvoorhees3282]

I am confused a little bit. In some DIY projects in your website, there are two code links that is source code assembler (ASM) and hex file. If I want to program a microcontroller using your method (PonyProg), do I only have to upload the hex file?

[@DiodeGoneWild]

The hex file is what goes into the microcontroller. The ASM file is useful if you wanted to modify the program yourself.

[@Mark1024MAK]

Source code is also called assembly language. It’s a human readable language. In order to get the code that the microcontroller understands, software on a PC has to process it. The output of which is the hex file. A hex file is just a list of numbers using the hexadecimal numbering system. The microcontroller only understands numbers. Hence the file that gets programmed into it is the hex file.

[@widyahong]

Today we update the software to fix the bug and adding more bugs :)

[@Spanu96]

Do you know the Assembly language????? MAKE A TUTORIAL SERIES, DETAILED, IN PDF FORMAT ALSO, PLEASE.

[@mariobrother8629]

Please add english subtitles.

[@mikajuurikivi4293]

Thank you. Skyscraper 🤣

[@worroSfOretsevraH]

Would be welcome, if you would comment your source codes in english. Also if you could use english names for variables and such.

[@tienong223]

can you diy UHF microphone :«

[@MakarovFox]

my watch work like this clock

[@change_your_oil_regularly4287]

👍

[@Purple431]

It's my birthday :D (soon)

[@erickvond6825]

You know, that might run and work fairly well on an 18650 cell...

[@aleksandersats9577]

You are not going to bring a table clock to really anywhere. Having it run on battery seems like a waste and a bad idea. Be realistic most of it's life it's going to be connected to an adapter anyways.

[@RobotN001]

it has no time sync by radio reciever.