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 ...
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 used in many classic Arduino-style boards. If a USB host library mentions AVR support, it suggests the examples or compatibility may be aimed at those older microcontroller boards.
- 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
- An image signal processor is hardware that helps process raw camera data into usable images or video. It matters for vision projects because it can improve camera handling and reduce the processing load on the main CPU.
- LED
- A light-emitting diode is a small electronic component that lights up when current flows through it in the correct direction. In this kit, LEDs create the flashing effect, so polarity and correct soldering matter for the project to work.
- microcontroller
- A microcontroller is a small computer on a chip that runs your program and controls connected inputs and outputs. For this product, it is the part that reads buttons and sensors, drives the display and speaker, and communicates over Bluetooth.
- 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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STEM & Education
Related Tutorials
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