A Word Clock

Step 2 Make the Stencil

In this version of the clock, I made the stencil using another fiberglass PCB.

Just etch the board using the same method you used for the controller and display PCB, and lacquer it to protect the front of the display.

In order to reduce light breakthrough to adjacent words, I used 30mm baffels made from spare PCB stock. These were held in place using hot melt glue.

Comments

[rvigil]

thinking of an acryllic face and vinyl print... just think it's easier, i'll let you know how it goes :)

[drj113]

it is much simpler :-)

Have a look at my latest clock http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Wordclock-Grew-Up/ or www.dougswordclock.com

[billygreen1973]

Like the 'Hidden' words in there Doug. ;-)

[deolmstead]

Thank you for posting all this, Doug - it's an extremely cool project, and you're open-source attitude towards it is really great. I'm considering trying one of these on my own, but while I have some carpentry skills, I am a completely newbie at electronics. I looked around for an answer to this in your instructions and comments, but couldn't find it: What do you use to cut the PCB word template? Do you do it by hand with a dremel or something? or is it a chemical process, like etching glass?

[ytumer]

Do you mean etching the letters or actually cutting the PCB stock to size?

[zenarts]

it sounds great BUT I live in Belgium and we have of course other words. For instance "quarter" will be "kwartier".
I wonder if the above mentioned method can be adapted to another language?

kind regards,
rogel

[drj113]

HI,

This method most certainly can be used.  I have helped a person in France with a french version.  The words are just words that light up.  We need to make a new matrix.

email me a set of words from one to twelve, o'clock, quarter, half, past, to and some examples of how they are used, and I will have a look at extending it for you.  My email is [e-mail]

Doug

[SameGuy]

Are the extra "words" there for a further extension of this project? ;) How would I go about changing them to something more, uh, personal to me?

[drj113]

If you like, I would be happy to email you a PDF of a more personalised stencil - replacing "Megan" and "Doug" It does make my life easier if the words were 5letters, and 4 letters respectibly)

[drj113]

There are many words that appear unintentionally due to the random nature of the extra letters I added. You can create your own stencil in a PCB package of your choice.

[TheBashar]

The random nature? You mean your name isn't Doug and your wife isn't Megan?

[drj113]

Ahhh- The words Doug and Megan were not random - the randon words are words like Ian - Which is vertical.

[LasVegas]

 So… You're saying "WOZ" was unintentional? :)

[drj113]

The placement of the word TWO happened to be almost in the middle.  I needed a letter to seperate the TWO from the THREE, and when I looked at it, the Z just 'wanted' to be there :-P

[clogwog]

 great clock doug !
i'm going to make a copy if you don't mind.

do the baffles still have the copper layer on them ? because i can see a bit of light-bleeding through. have you thought of using a double sided pcb for the face, that way you could solder the baffles to the back of the face and probabbly reduce all light-bleeding.

i could only find a jpg version for the face-mask. do you have a photoshop or illustrator or any other editable format of this mask that you could supply ? great idea !! and i love the copper face-plate. very steampunk

cheers, tom

[drj113]

The baffles still have the copper on them. The bleedthrough is caused by the thickness of the fiberglass board allowing light to be transmitted.   I was surprised by just how much light the 1.5mm worth of PCB actually carries.

In the future, I will put the copper on the inside, preventing any bleedthrough.  your idea of using double sided PCB has merit!

The only editable version of the facemask is in the EasyPCB format. 

I would actually recommend downloading the PDF of the stencil (that will give you an accurate size sample), and making your own in whatever program you choose.

[clogwog]

 i'm trying to find the pdf of the stencil, but i can just see 3 pdf downloads. the copper tracks, the schematics and the silk screen of the the pcb, but no face stencil. only the jpg of that.  

[drj113]

opps,

Step 5 now has the PDF of the Stencil - Thanks for pointing that out :-)