Pong Clock

This clock uses the classic video game Pong to tell the time. The 2 players automatically win and lose so their scores show the hours and minutes. It's not too hard to build and should cost less than $100. All the parts are easily available on eBay and the software code is free to download!

The clock can also show the time written in words such as "Ten Past Twelve", or with large or small digits. The date pops up every now and again too, printed out with a retro flashing cursor effect. A menu screen lets you choose the display mode, or you can have the clock pick a random mode every few hours.

The project uses 2 bright LED matrix panels from Sure Electronics (you can choose between red and green). An Arduino runs the main code and a DS1307 clock chip  keeps time, even when the power is off.

Step 1: Parts List & Cost

So here's what you need...

2 x Model 2416 Red or Green LED Matrix Displays from Sure Electronics

You can get these from Sure's eBay store for $15 each: http://www.sure-electronics.net/  Make sure you get the new version of the display which is based on the Holtek HT1632C chip. You can tell the new displays as they have the controller chip and DIP switches on the back. (See pic). My clock is made with the 3mm LED display, but they also make a larger 5mm one.

1 x Arduino Uno / Duemilanove with ATmega 328 CPU 

Th Arduino is the brains of the clock. It has a microprocessor that runs the main clock software, plus inputs and outputs we connect to the displays and other components. Ensure you get an Arduino with the ATmega 328 CPU. (Some older boards come with the ATmega 168 with doesn't  have enough RAM). You can get Arduino's for about $30. Try Sparkfun Electronics or eBay.

1 x DS1307 Real Time Clock chip (RTC) and IC socket.
1 x Crystal Oscillator for the DS1307  
1x 3.3v Coin Cell and holder - battery backup for the DS1307  

I found all these bits on eBay bundled as a kit for $10.

1x Arduino Prototyping Shield

The prototyping board or ‘shield’ plugs onto the top of  the Arduino making it easy to add components. It brings all the Arduino's input and output pins onto a circuit board that you can solder components to. Get a board which is designed for a chip to go on, i.e. one that brings each pin of the IC out to a solder pad you can connect wires to (see pic). Again places like Sparkfun or eBay are good sources for them. You should be able to pick one up for $15 - $20. If you don't like the idea of soldering, you could get a breadboard and jumper wire to build the circuit on temporarily instead.

1x 16 Pin IDC Socket 
We solder this socket to the prototype board so we can plug the display ribbon cable in. They are a couple of dollars on eBay. If you aren't planning to solder, you don't need this. 

2x ‘Push to Make’ Buttons.
These are used to set the time / change the display mode. You can get them for a few dollars.

1x USB Lead - Type "A to B" 
This is needed to to program the Arduino, and then as a power lead for the clock.

1x Mains to USB Power Adapter
This is used to power the clock and you can pick them up for less than $10. Look for one with an output of 150mA or above.

Comments

[jashan510]

Instead of an arduino can we use a pic micro controller.. Because i wanna make this clock for someone but i really dont want to give away my arduino

[mrnick1234567]

Very hard to say.. depends on the PIC, what outputs / inputs / what code it runs etc etc...

[jashan510]

im new to the microcontroller world dont know much about em...
if not pic then any microcontroller with which i dont have to use my arduino board
cz u get the microcontrollers for like 3-4 dollars but the arduino i have was quite expensive..
is there a way to use the arduino boot loader without the arduino board?

P.s thanks for replying man im in love with your clock best iv ever seen.

[SuperTech-IT]

Just get an Atmega328 chip. Program the bootloader and firmware into the chip, then remove and breadboard it or make a PC Board for it and put your original atmega328 back into your arduino. Simply swap the chips any time you need to update it. Personally I have a USB to TTL Serial adapter which cost about 2 bucks on ebay. I put a 3 pin TTL Serial in on my clock board (GND, RX, TX) hooked to ground, and pins 2 and 3 on the atmega328. When I want to update the code, I choose the com port the adapter is on (COM2: for example) and as soon as I see the "Binary sketch size" message in the Arduino information window, I hit RESET on the clock. Sounds like a lot of work, but it updates really fast. Faster than using a 6 or 10 pin ICSP connector - but that's also an option. The problem I ran into there is Arduino ISP 0023 doesn't see my ATTiny as a programming option. I would like to offer some general advice here too. POWER THE DISPLAY, NOT THE ARDUINO. If you have a reliable 5V source, power the display, and the arduino or Atmega328 will draw it's power from the display, and you don't have to modify any connections.

[mischka]

You could buy the ATMEGA preprogrammed with the arduino bootloader, program it with your arduino board and wire it like this: http://www.instructables.com/id/Standalone-Arduino-ATMega-chip-on-breadboard/

[mrnick1234567]

I think using any other microcontroller or pic would need a lot of work and re-coding to get the clock going.

If you look at in terms of how much time you would spend on trying to get it working, and how much you value your time, it's probably a cheaper option of you just bite the bullet and get another arduino. They are a bit cheaper on eBay if you search.

[jashan510]

Yes u probably right man itll take a lot to rewrite the codes and redesign everything..

[Ugifer]

The way to go is definitely as mischka says - use an ATMeag-328 and program it in your Arduino but then pull out the chip and put it into a socket on a piece of perf-board made up as indicated in the bread-board arduino tutorial. You need almost none of the gubbins on an Arduino board to make the chip run - that's mostly for development. Once you have it running you only need the chip, crystal and a few capacitors. You don't really even need a reset switch unless you are wanting to re-program it in place. With this project you are only using a few pins so it would be very easy to make up a '328 board. The '328 chips themselves only contribute about £3-£4 to the cost of the project.

[Djandco]

Hi,

First off thanks for the idea and the ible ;-)

I built one and I have a little question if you don't mind;
The clock works perfectly but it freezes up. If you do the IT repair (power off, power on) it works perfectly again.
Any ideas?

Oh, one more thing, for some reason the Uno is only pumping 3.4V DC from the 5V output, I found that I had to use the 5V supply to power the clock chip otherwise I got random code on the display and if your tried to change the clock time the number goes up and you can not select anything.
Put the 5V on and bob is your next door neighbour!

Thanks

Darren

[mrnick1234567]

Hi Darren,

Someone else had the same with the time freezing, he fixed it by replacing the DS1307, but it could be the power if your board is only outputting 3.4v. You might also have a bad connection to the clock chip. The LED on the arduino pin 13 should flash every second to let you know the clock chip is being read and ticking.

Make sure you are not powering the Uno from the round power jack and check the voltage from the 5v pin without anything plugged into the Uno. If it still reads low, maybe there is something up with your Arduino or power supply. If not maybe you have a short somewhere. Good luck!

Nick

[SuperTech-IT]

This can happen if you are using a standard USB cable - they drop voltage like crazy. A beefier USB cable may solve this, OR you can use a power adapter. If you use a power adapter (don't go over 9V) and your regulator on the arduino is getting hot, see my instructable on beefing up your arduino. If the clock gets less than 3.4V the clock stops sending data, and the program freezes. This was the entire reason (and project) I made that instructable for.

[Djandco]

Thanks Nick,

In your ible you do state to use the USB to power it and not the round power socket, I had been told that you only had to worry about this on older ones where you had to select the power source? not sure about that but I had also been told that on the new model UNO it did not matter which way you power it.
Turns out it does :-)
I cut down a USB lead and powered the unit from that and so far we have no issues.

Should have done what you said in the first place!

Thanks for coming back to me on this.

Kind regards

Darren

[SuperTech-IT]

I have modified the code to:
1) Allow switching from 24 hour to 12 hour time
2) Returns to whatever mode it was running before you change the time
3) I preferred a solid line down the middle of the pong "court".
4) sped up the ball a bit.

[SuperTech-IT]

I have now added a brightness function too.

[sarahline]

(removed by author or community request)

[mrnick1234567]

Hey, so I use a 5 volt Mains to USB power supply to supply the Arduino - i.e plugged into the USB port on the Arduino. Then I use the 5v pin on the Arduino as an output of 5v, this is split to go to the RTC and the first display. (The second display gets it's power through the ribbon cable from the first so nothing else is needed there.)

I split the power using the proto shield, but you could also do the same with a breadboard for testing - this lets you plug things like the RTC chip and wires in. They are really simple to use and cost only a few pounds / dollars from eBay.

Hope this helps.
Nick

[SuperTech-IT]

If you use an RTC module, see my instructable on making your RTC into a mini shield eliminating wires. This assumes you have a pre-made RTC board.
I power mine off A2 and A3, so the tiny board plugs directly onto the arduino from A2 to A5.

[tboultwood1]

Thanks for the reply! I got the board working eventually, For some reason trying multiple sketches, this was the only demo code I could get running! I have edited your code to create my self a library, Luckily you included a plot point, which was precisely what I was looking for, I have done all kinds of stuff! My main project so far was to create a graph generator! I also attempted to make a sin/cos and also a tan graph! Thank you ever so much for your code. http://gyazo.com/4f4ac264ef1829e4828f1415e2598408

[SuperTech-IT]

If you include math.h and know how to use sin and cos, you shouldn't have any problems plotting a circle.
By the way, this isn't my code - I think the author may have moved to bigger and better things ages ago. I got my Arduino about 6 weeks ago I guess, and got my book on C language on the 24th of last month. I'm a pretty quick study though, and I will probably port many arduino projects to the Commodore VIC-20 or C64. It's funny how people are just starting to do stuff with these microcontrollers that I was doing back in the 80's...LOL. I may take some of the stuff I used to do on the Commodore computers and port it to the Arduino too.

[tboultwood1]

I am having a little problem, uploading the sketch, I can see nothing on my board :/

[SuperTech-IT]

I would need more information to know what you mean.
1) by "board" do you mean the LED panels, or do you mean the arduino isn't receiving data?
2) What version of the IDE are you running? (You need to be running the older 0023)
3) are you uploading using the Arduino, or by an ICSP (ISP) programmer board?

[SuperTech-IT]

See my instructable on "Beefing Up Your Arduino Power".
http://www.instructables.com/contest/fixit2013/ (please VOTE if you can)
http://www.instructables.com/id/Beef-up-your-Arduino-power/ (direct link)

[SuperTech-IT]

Also see my Instructable on eliminating the wires from your clock module
(this is the project I use it with)

http://www.instructables.com/id/Turn-your-Real-Time-Clock-module-into-a-mini-shiel/

[sarahline]

If I wanted to rework the code a bit to where on the "jumble" section it changes to words instead of the time, how would I do that? I'm having a hard time seeing which code is drawing from the clock and which is creating the jumble. Thanks for your help.

[mrnick1234567]

In the Jumble function, remove the code from under the bit that says

//set final characters

all they way up until the bit that says:

byte x = 0;
byte y = 0;

//until all counters are 0

Then replace it with lines that set the endchar array to the letters you wanted. E.g. if you did

endchar[1] = 'H';
endchar[2] = 'E';
endchar[3] = 'L';
endchar[4] = 'L';
endchar[5] = 'O';
endchar[6] = '!';
endchar[7] = '!';
endchar[8] = '!';

You should see the top line say "HELLO!!!" You can set the bottom line by setting endchar[9] to [15]

Hope this helps.
Nick

[mrnick1234567]

Sorry that should be:

endchar[0] = 'H';
endchar[1] = 'E';
endchar[2] = 'L';
endchar[3] = 'L';
endchar[4] = 'O';
endchar[5] = '!';
endchar[6] = '!';
endchar[7] = '!';

[ddpdpdp]

Sorry again, here is the image of the chip.Please help!

[mrnick1234567]

Hey, I Can't see an image. Is it this breakout board?

http://www.ladyada.net/learn/breakoutplus/ds1307rtc.html


Nick

[ddpdpdp]

It's called the DS1307 RTC breakout chip.

[ddpdpdp]

Hi, Please help! I am a total newbie. I bought most/all of the parts but am confused on how to hook them up. I bought a DS1307 clock chip kit, but this came with a small chip attached to it. in your example you used the Proto shield to attach the clock , but since mine has a small chip with it, where do i place that at? Do i even need the proto shield anymore? Please help!

[Genzo]

Nice job.
I had few compilation fails, but Google helped me (about round which has already defined).

Thanks for your tutorial.

[cyoung_mi]

Any suggestions on mounting the project?

I'd like something that holds all the parts together and allows it to stand alone on a desk or something.

[mrnick1234567]

Hey,

A couple of people have used 2 bit of acrylic with holes in the corners, then long threaded screws through them and the displays.

Nick

[cyoung_mi]

Any mounting suggestions?
I'd like to connect everything together and allow it to stand on it's own like on a desk or something.

[J-Five]

COOL I WANT ONE!!!!!

[bassplayer1015]

Could you possibly upload a picture of the other side of this completed board? I am a complete beginner with circuitry/wiring and have never done anything like this before. I have an Arduino board from a project I gave up on a year ago, but would like to give this one a try. Thanks, BC

[mrnick1234567]

Hey, I will try when I get time. There's not much to see apart from my messy soldering!

If you're not sure I'd suggest getting a breadboard and building it on there first.

Nick

[027842715]

salvation
I speak french
I live in Belgium
I'm a beginner in electronics and computer
I have a clock like this
I do not know how but you can maybe help me
If you still have a list of all the components needed to do (clock) for you send it to me please! and maybe the code lists which also needs

thank you very much

[mrnick1234567]

hi, the list of components and the code are all in the instructable... I'm not sure what else I can give you!

[027842715]

salvation
I speak french
I live in Belgium
I'm a beginner in electronics and computer
I have a clock like this
I do not know how but you can maybe help me
If you still have a list of all the components needed to do (clock) for you send it to me please! and maybe the code lists which also needs

thank you very much