Pimoroni
Bulbdial Clock Kit
LED desk/mantle shadow clock soldering kit The Bulbdial Clock kit is based on an original design concept from IronicSans.com and developed at ...
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LED desk/mantle shadow clock soldering kit
The Bulbdial Clock kit is based on an original design concept from IronicSans.com and developed at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. It works like an indoor sundial, but with three shadows of different length. You tell the time just like you do on a normal clock, by reading the positions of the hour, minute, and second hands.
The Bulbdial clock kit comes complete with
- three custom circuit boards
- 72 ultrabright LEDs
- pre-programmed ATmega328p microcontroller with Arduino bootloader
- tactile button switches
- aluminum standoffs
- 20 ppm quartz crystal
- custom clock face
- gnomon spike
- universal-input plug-in power supply
- stainless mounting hardware
- plus the resistors, capacitors and other little parts needed to build the Bulbdial clock.
The Bulbdial clock is designed to be mounted in an included handsome, laser-cut Black back/Smoke front acrylic case that makes it suitable for desk or mantle use. The case is 8.75" wide, 4.6" tall, and just over 2" deep
Some soldering is required to put the kit together and you'll need to download the detailed assembly guide.
The Bulbdial clock kit is open-source in both hardware and software, and is designed to be user friendly and hacker friendly. The on-board microcontroller is an ATmega328p, running a program atop the Arduino bootloader.
FTDI USB-TTL and AVR-ISP programming header locations are provided on the circuit board.
The circuit board also features alternate mounting hole locations-- in case you're building a different case, and a location for a 5 V regulator.
An extended introduction to the project and its design is available here. The schematic diagrams and source code are posted and available for download on the documentation site.
Power supply
The Bulbdial clock kit includes a universal-input power supply that will work with worldwide voltages. The plug is a power-strip-friendly US type, so you may need an inexpensive "grocery store" plug adapter to fit the wall socket in your country.
Jargon buster
Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used above.
- ATmega328P
- An 8-bit microcontroller chip used on many Arduino Uno-compatible boards. Knowing the controller uses an ATmega328P helps you understand its memory, speed, pin compatibility, and the Arduino sketches it can run.
- AVR
- AVR is a family of 8-bit microcontrollers (made by Microchip, formerly Atmel) used in many classic Arduino-style boards such as the Uno and Nano. They are widely supported but older, which can be a limit for memory- or speed-intensive tasks.
- Bootloader
- Small starter software on a microcontroller that lets new code be uploaded before the main program runs. Knowing how to enter bootloader mode matters when you need to program the board or recover it after a faulty sketch.
- ISP
- In electronics, ISP usually means In-System Programming, a way to load firmware onto a microcontroller while it stays on the board (often via an ICSP header), or an Image Signal Processor, hardware that turns raw camera sensor data into usable images and offloads the main CPU. The surrounding context shows which meaning applies.
- LED
- A light-emitting diode (LED) is a small electronic component that emits light when current flows through it in the correct direction. Because it only conducts one way, its polarity matters, and a through-hole LED must be soldered the correct way around to light up.
- microcontroller
- A microcontroller is a small computer on a single chip that runs a stored program and controls connected inputs and outputs such as buttons, sensors, displays and communication interfaces. In a device built around one, it is the part that executes the code and coordinates the device's behaviour.
- ppm
- ppm means parts per million, a common way to express very small gas concentrations in air. For CO₂ sensors, the ppm range tells you what levels the sensor can measure, such as normal indoor air through to poorly ventilated spaces.
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Resources & Downloads
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Related Tutorials
Free guides on learn.littlebird.com.au
