Word Clock - overview, recommendations, picture build process

Incomplete notes on building the new clock: imgur.com/a/Cj8c1
Build process photos: (invalid link removed)
- 30x30cm x 3/4" MDF
- 5mm glass
- 2mil colour + 3mil blackout vinyl
- 3M Fasara Interior Design Film
- black and white paint
- white wood trim
Electrical components:
- DS3231N (real time clock)
- PIC18F2525 (microcontroller)
- 28 serial to parallel shift registers (STPIC6D595, avoid for reliability issues)
- 192 3.4V 5mm diffuse (7-9k MCD) LEDs
- AT42QT1070 dedicated capacitive IC
- photoresistor (160 - 700k Ohm)
- 5.1V zener 'protection' diode
- filtering capacitors
- 1A (only 0.5A required) USB charger + cable

[@justingillespie7885]

Best design I have seen by far. Well done.

[@casparbaczynski254]

UPDATE: The campaign is over. It's a shame I couldn't get the word out but the feedback has been great. Thank you to everyone who helped get it as far as it did. So it has been just over a year and a lot has changed. After all the emails and personal requests, I decided that (for the past 6 months) I would not only make a new clock that's significantly better, but start a crowdfunding campaign. If you liked this clock, you'll absolutely love the new one! Campaign: www.indiegogo.com/projects/word-clock-squared Video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aKWTcqaFm5aieZY Facebook page: facebook.com/pages/Word-Clock-Squared/1421210098187854 Please LIKE and share with your friends. And of course, as always, if you're still designing your own clock, you can always contact me directly.

[@donvukovic]

Thank You for your detailed description. The videos do not give a true to life picture of the dimensions.

[@grimmheart]

This is incredible. Very cool. Would love to build one!

[@casparbaczynski254]

+Rusty DeVorse My exact words when I first saw one

[@JUANTORRES-oy6uh]

@@casparbaczynski254 can I order one custom make.

[@buggzsh4522]

I need this 😩

[@sportstraveling]

Nice video, Its a pity the indiegogo campaign did not go through . I am home for the next 6 months due ato a heavy cancer operation/.treatment.i wonder whether you could share the schematics of the electronics. time opr me is tht most precious asset and wanted to spend the time as i am home to build a similar one.

[@firefoxik75]

Awsome project! Made something similar and can't get rid of the feeling that use of addressable LEDs will be way easier to program and wire it...

[@casparbaczynski254]

Thanks! Using addressable LEDs is certainly simpler assembly wise but there are some tradeoffs: PROs 1) Significantly quicker assembly. Easier to scale up. 2) Significantly more compact if you want multiple colours. CONs 1) Cost. $0.40-1.90 per addressable LED may be harder for some to justify. 2) Refresh rate. It is much quicker to refresh a display if you can do so row by row (parallel) than LED by LED (serial). 3) Brightness. For the same size footprint stronger LEDs can be acquired. Important when combating the sun. 2+3) Animation. If you wish to fade a single LED in and out you must repeatedly send it a new brightness. Being able to update only one LED at a time MAY be a bottle neck. With that said, programming wise both are simple enough. If considering addressable LEDs I'd also consider some of the 4x4, 16x16, etc. LED arrays/matrices.. Regardless of how you go about it there will be quite a bit of work, but it's rewarding in itself :)

[@firefoxik75]

Thanx for reply... Few notes... 1. Cost is not bad, strip 300 addressable LEDs is cca €16 2. Wouldnt think about it - as long as you send new data to a strip, it is keeping it until you send new data - so only changes needs to be sent, no need to loop cycle ;-) 3. Brigtness is ok... depends on LEDs, anyway I agree 4. If you need to fade, you keep all LED data in matrix anyway for refreshing, so send it via FastLed library takes microseconds :-/

[@casparbaczynski254]

That price is great, and I'd have to agree with everything else. Fortunately we're not building televisions where it would be laughable, but for this application we can certainly get away with more.

[@slahsamet8722]

great .. can you please send me code and schematics .. I'm trying to create a word clock.. but your code is awesome .. I don't think I can do that much ..

[@isamattos321]

Congrats! It's amazing!

[@casparbaczynski254]

Thank you!

[@tubeDude48]

Is there a link where I can get this Blue Plexiglas/Plastic? BTW- The link above does not work.

[@casparbaczynski254]

+Ted Mieske The glass is from a local glass company (which I ordered and picked up for $15-60, depending on your size and finish; completely transparent), which I took to a local sign shop who cut/printed the letters from/on vinyl (in the colour of choice) and applied it to the glass. I'm sure you can find a business online that can provide a similar service, but since these types of shops are typically more abundant than hardware stores it's worth calling around. Plexiglass or acrylic can be purchased at hardware stores such as HomeDepot, but must be purchased by the sheet. It too is typically transparent like glass. You can probably find a shop locally that deals with plastics (if you have trouble ask a sign or glass shop for a reference) and have them cut you a piece, which will ultimately cost less than an entire sheet.

[@Bratzt3r]

Hi Casper, It's brilliant. Would you mind sharing the schematics & the Code? Would appreciate it if you could. Wanna try aking it. Thanks

[@marcosarmiento1220]

I'm very interested in your project, could you help me to present it as a final project in the university where I study? I would greatly appreciate it

[@tablatronix]

wow and now you just use programmable leds. Great engineering on this.

[@casparbaczynski254]

Thank you!

[@annchase8968]

very nice, would work as a create wall piece in the home

[@casparbaczynski254]

That's what caught my eye about these clocks: they show you an interesting alternative to the way you 'see' time and remain useful after the fact. Bonus: it doubles as a dim nightlight when walking around in the dark. These should be advertised as #toeSavers

[@andreaso3316]

Dear Caspar. Congratulations on the project and detailed explanation. This is impressive and inspiring. With literally no experience in electronics, do you think it would be wise to give such a project a try? Thanks!

[@casparbaczynski254]

Thank you Andreas. I do feel this is a project anyone can take on, even as one of their first projects, no matter their experience level, but if you don't have an electronics background and want to make the most you can from scratch, I'd expect this project to take 6-12 months of your free time. Less if you use readily available parts (Arduino compatible parts, an LED array (random example: www.adafruit.com/categories/100), etc.). Take a look at this website to give you a better understanding of what level of effort is required to achieve the product you want: www.instructables.com/howto/word+clock/ There is quite a bit of work involved and I'd consider this a good 'stepping' project if you want to pursue your interest in electronics. There's no better way to learn anything and keep you motivated than to choose a project you're genuinely interested in.

[@apoorvamistry]

awesome work!!

[@casparbaczynski254]

Thank you!

[@MrPkmonster]

This is really cool project

[@casparbaczynski254]

+Hưng Lê That's great to hear. Best of luck!

[@donvukovic]

Hello Caspar, What is the LED spacing for your display ?

[@casparbaczynski254]

Thanks for the email. I'll reply here just so the information is open to everyone. When deciding on the size/spacing of my letters I started by narrowing down the range of font sizes I liked, chose a standard bit size that fit letters in that font range, then chose a spacing that gave an adequate wall thickness between holes. 1) Letter size I recommend printing a few font sizes on paper and sticking them to the wall. Walk around the room and see what size is the easiest to read at different distances. If you're not making this for yourself but for someone older I'd recommend larger fonts. For this clock I drew the layout In Adobe Illustrator and used a 36 pt. Arial (regular) font. That works out to a letter outline height of 0.9091 cm. 2) Hole size Holes in the MDF were drilled using a 1/2" bit. Wider letters such as 'W' won't be illuminated at their outer tips but in reality this was barley noticeable because words with 'W' are only lit for 1 minute at a time and the clock is viewed at a distance. 3) LED spacing The wall thickness between holes I used was ~3.6 mm. I decided on this intuitively/visually by drawing different spacings on paper; actual testing would have been the proper way to do it. This wall thickness gave a letter center to center offset of 1.63 cm. The frame was rigid but I'd contribute this mostly to the wider boarder. Slightly tighter spacing would work if you used wood but you would have to experiment yourself. In Illustrator to ensure each letter was aligned vertically and horizontally I created a grid of 14 x 14 squares and diagonal lines then centered each letter with the center of each block. ------------------------------ 4) Boarder thickness To determine the boarder thickness (between holes and frame edge) you'll first have to decide which components you're going to use and their board layout. Ultimately I settled on the 30 x 30 cm frame which gave a hole to frame (edge to edge) thickness of ~3.66 cm. This was very tight for the components I used. I don't recall the depth of the cavities/channels which the boards rested in but the outer routed wall thickness is approximately 1/4". 5) AT42QT1070 breakout board I didn't technically use a breakout board for this IC but instead an already assembled board designed around it: solarbotics.com/product/19020/ After long term use my friend found that the auto-sensitivity calibration of this IC became too sensitive from long periods of discontinued use and would initially trigger well before touching the clock. The auto-calibration feature will self correct rather quickly after the first touch but the issue continues to arise after long periods of disuse. This isn't a deal breaker but if you can get a sensor with programmable sensitivity it will make the user experience just that little bit better. Alternatively, some microcontrollers have built in capacitive hardware features (I don't have any personal experience with them though) that you can exploit.

[@SamuelCarreira]

Nice video, I've learned a lot with your conclusions. It's very useful for someone that want to build one word clock. Do you have any recommendation for the angle of the holes. The default countersink angle (60 degrees) is not ideal?

[@casparbaczynski254]

That's good to hear, and thank you. I don't recall my reasoning, but believe it was related to wanting the frame to be one piece and as thin as possible. Whatever spacing and hole diameter I used though, I was never once worried about the structural integrity of the frame. Consider the following for countersunk holes: - they taper towards the top and as such diminish the amount of light that reaches the outer edges of your letters. Ensure you slightly oversize your holes or decrease the countersink angle so the center of your letters don't appear brighter (hot spotting). - a countersunk hole removes less material than a straight hole, making your frame inherently more rigid. - the bottom of a countersunk hole is not flat and won't keep your LEDs square. Either 1) drill the centre flat or 2) start with thinner material, drill/countersink through the bottom till the inner [hole] diameter is equal to or greater than your LEDs, and attach a flat board to the back to act as your LED base. With that said, I feel 60/90/120 degree countersunk holes are better, but not significantly so. If you experiment you'll find that the most significant factor in achieving proper light diffusion is 1) the distance between the light source and diffusion material (further being better) and 2) the diffusion material itself. I have no preference to the countersink angle.

[@SamuelCarreira]

Thank you very much for your considerations. Nice explanation on your reply. I will follow your advice! I will try to buy a 3M light diffuser film (it's very expensive to buy a full package and it's hard to find a local shop that sell a small piece to a non professional individual). Regards

[@eochoa3279]

Do you sell these clocks as i would be interested in one.

[@casparbaczynski254]

+pimpy79 Unfortunately no (see my indiegogo comment), but I'd highly recommend you take a look at Doug's Word Clocks (www.dougswordclocks.com/) and Flowza (www.flowza-clocks.com/). Doug and Mark put quite a bit of thought into their designs and it's reflected in all the positive reviews their clocks are getting.

[@Forevalive]

this is awesome dude! thumps up

[@casparbaczynski254]

Forevalive Always good to hear. Thanks!

[@ronbrouwer3135]

Hello Casper, is it possible that you would share the code, I really want to build it my self but writting the code isn't my strongest point. I like those extra fields for programming and the captivity switches. I hope you share the code with me. Thanks.

[@casparbaczynski254]

Not a problem. Most of the code I found online was a little daunting, but with myself being very new to microcontrollers, I needed to write something simpler. Send me an email ([e-mail]) and I'll reply with the code. Commenting is scarce, but the logic flow is easy to understand if you keep in mind what tasks need to be done. Better yet, start writing your own and make references to mine/others as you need to. Don't forget this code will be specific to the wiring I used. Post any general questions on this page (to help others). Anything code specific we'll keep in email. If something seems unclear, check the datasheets first. If you're just getting started with microcontrollers (as I was) and will be using a PIC from Microchip Technology I strongly recommend taking a look at "Gooligum tutorials". Although not all tutorials are free (yet very reasonably priced), the commentary and step-by-step helped me pick up new concepts quickly.

[@ivorylobster]

Caspar Baczynski Great Work! would you mind also sharing the code with me? and possibly a schematic diagram if you have one? Thanks.

[@casparbaczynski254]

ivorylobster send me an email and it's yours. Unfortunately the only wiring diagram I have that survived is the photobucket one of the PICs pinout. Fortunately though, if you pull up the pin diagram of each component from their datasheet it's straightforward enough to see how it's all connected. Just keep in mind that there are 2 shift registers for each row, thus the Serial Data Out of one is daisy-chained to the Serial Data In of the other.

[@rich1051414]

1:25 Finally, someone admits it.

[@casparbaczynski254]

Haha

[@arendum]

What type of touch sensors are you using?

[@casparbaczynski254]

I've seen people use bananas, but I had some thin copper sheet which I ran a wire to from the dedicated IC (see description). Alternatively many microcontrollers today can be purchased with this functionality built in.

[@andreasbach9793]

Is it possible to get some code and schematics for this awesome project? :-)

[@casparbaczynski254]

+Andreas Bach Not a problem. Send me an e-mail, let me know a bit about where you stand electronics wise (your most recent project), and I'll get back to you this weekend.

[@abhijeet2426]

any tutorial or circuit diagram and code thank you

[@casparbaczynski254]

I don't have a tutorial or circuit diagram available, but the [incomplete] imgur (link) write up I created in the description should be a good start. As the next starting point I'd recommend looking into the following topics: shift registers, multiplexing, current (not voltage) driving, and PWM. They can all be used to control the brightness of an LED and an understanding of those areas (pros and cons) will ultimately dictate your circuit layout. The majority of the information you requite can be found online... but asking the right questions is key ;). If after looking into the above areas you still require a bit of guidance send me an email ([e-mail]) with more specific questions and I'll help where I can. As far as coding goes, your circuit will dictate it. The integrated requirements of your microcontroller and external driving hardware will be dictated by the performance/features you want out of your clock (how bright you wish your display to be, battery or wall powered, reactive to ambient lighting, input capacitive buttons, etc..). Using a precision oscillator vs. a battery back-up real time clock is something else that will also dictate your code. I'd recommend starting simple with a small array of LEDs on a breadboard, and build up your code as you require more features. You'd be surprised by the number of existing libraries and tutorials online that already exist which are applicable to this project.

[@emmanuelagboghoroma965]

good day I like your work can I get the instructions sent to my mail I am new to this

[@casparbaczynski254]

Depending on how new this is for you, I would start with the links in the description and what others have posted here and on youtube. After which it won't be a problem to get into the little details, just let me know.

[@pawjeppesen-ifttttricks605]

Looks great. To me, it's a bit to technical.

[@GeorgePetrache]

Hello! I wrote you an email. I want you to help me make this watch! Thanks

[@stotlex]

I'm in a KZbin VIDEO and I didn't even know it!

[@casparbaczynski254]

stotlex Those skydiving videos of yours are way cooler, don't worry.

[@tazdotcom]

RIP_OFF!!!! QLOCK!!!!

[@casparbaczynski254]

If you look a little closer you'll find QLOCK wasn't first either. Great project to get people interested nonetheless.