Sleek word clock

Inspired by drj113's great instructable on making a word clock, I wanted to make my own.  After seeing the (extremely overpriced) commercial "qlocktwo" word clock, I decided to borrow its smooth glossy black design while basing the innards of my clock on drj113's design.

In the end, I managed to stuff the arduino and LED's inside an IKEA shadow box, and used printed transparencies to create the black letter mask.

Step 1: The materials

This is what you need:

1 Ikea RIBBA shadow box - $10
98 white LEDs - $7-10 (buy in bulk on ebay)
98 1KOhm resistors - $3
1 Arduino (or an ATMega168/ATMega328 and extra hardware - 5V regulator, crystal, etc) - $7 (for standalone chip and extra hardware) or $30 for arduino USB board
3 ULN2003A Driver ICs - $1.89 at Digikey
3 HCF4094 shift registers - $1.44 at Digikey
1 Barrel-plug connector - $0.38 at Digikey
2 Buttons - scavenged from old electronics
1 6V or 7V DC wall wart - scavenged from old electronics, or ~$4 online
1 sheet colored paper (used for a hint of color around the border)
1 9" square piece of cardboard (used to hold LEDs in place)
1 cereal box (cut up to make light baffles - see step 3)
1 black garbage bag
2 printed transparencies (see attached pdf on step 2) - $1
1 protoboard for microcontroller, driver ICs, etc. - $5

Total cost: around $44 (using standalone ATMega168) or $67 (if you buy a full Arduino)

optionally a breadboard is useful for prototyping the circuit

Comments

[ritzanab]

two things, can you send me a better schematic to my email [e-mail]?
and two, can you make a list with links to all the materials? thank you.

[asterixandobelix]

Hi, I am attempting to do this project. I have soldered the LED's in place, but i am using an arduino microcontroller instead of the standalone ATMega168 mentioned in the tutorial. Is it possible to include the next steps if you are not making your own microcontroller? I am just a bit confused about what to do without your expert guidance! I have no previous electronics experience.

[ch4r3l]

I'm almost done with the clock, but I can't download the .pde
When I click on it, it downloads a .tmp file.

[Malicah]

I'm still wondering about my first question, what range of resistance the photoresistor should be if I get one, or if it even matters.

I am also wondering one other thing, I don't have an IKEA here, and can't buy the exact frame listed (It's not offered online). So should any 9X9 Shadow box frame work? What are the most important dimensions I need to try and match up? Depth?

[Malicah]

I'm gathering all the parts for this project, I am hoping to add the photoresistor to it, but I am curious if anyone has suggestions on what range of resistance I should get

[wojciechowict]

I just finished building my first word clock. Next I want to create a Polish version. I could not find a PDF with the letter array created however. Do you have any idea how I might make my own easily? I could try doing it in photoshop but I'm not sure what dimensions to use and such. How did you go about creating yours?

[neosprockets]

We're you able to successfully hide all the electronics inside the frame? Or did you have to mount them on the backside?

[raritan01]

If I'm using the Arduino Uno instead of the ATMega, how is the wiring diagram changed? What should I hook up to what?

[jlavalley1]

I used the schematic here. Easier for me to follow:

http://www.highonsolder.com/blog/2011/1/8/arduino-word-clock.html

The pins you should wire to on your Arduino UNO are shown below:
Strobe - Digital 8
Data - Digital 7
Clear - Digital 6
PWM - Digital 9
Minute Pushbutton - Digital 2
Hours Pushbutton - Digital 3

quoting Joe from "http://www.highonsolder.com"

that worked for mine : )

[The.Sniper]

Ok as promised My Qlocks are done I still need to do a final clean up and inspection But they have been running for over 100 hours now Im happy with their turnout. each clock has 2 lens 1 black and 1 white. I will add that Since I decided to go with Mid output LED's I underestimated the the load this would have on an arduino. and had to add a PS/regulator setup at the last minute. It was an unexpected addition and had I known I would have already added it to the PCB's I built.

A full pic gallery can be seen here.
http://gallery.me.com/thesniper#100122

Its been a long 6 months!
-TheSniper-

[Miho16]

Hi I suck at making stuff and would love to buy one from u of either white or black white is better though thanks!!!!!!!

[bjarrett2]

OHHH! I want a white one!!! Would you consider selling me a white one? :)

[remedix]

Hey all,
I've decided to copy this project but I'm new to arduino and electronics in general. I started gathering all the materials needed for this and before making any purchases I would like to know if it's possible to get a full schematics for this! Your drawing seems to be missing some parts - Is it possible to get the whole schematics ? Thank you in advance!

[JXplicits]

Scottebez, each OE should be connected to PWM or just the first register?

[scottbez1]

The OE of all shift registers should be connected to PWM.

[cvaast]

Scottbez, in what did you make your template & what are the font and size of your text? Because I am trying to make a dutch one and I already have my lettertemplate, I just need to pour it into a printable form like yours...

[jwestenberg]

Same question here!
cvaast got an answer yet?

[gigsgtox]

Alls well and good on mine (Thanks for an awesome instruction set and information). I have a potentiometer hooked up, and adjusted the code line and it dims everything EXCEPT the "IT IS" line of code. I currently have this attached to the HIGH as it is always on, however the high is of course, not effected by the PWM. Where should I hook up the "IT IS" LED's to utilize the dimming?

[scottbez1]

If you have an NPN transistor laying around, you can hook the collector to the cathode side of the IT IS string, connect the base though a 1K resistor to pin 15 of the ATMega (which is also connected to the OE pins on the shift registers), and connect the emitter to ground. kawsOne drew up a pretty nice schematic that has the transistor: http://i55.tinypic.com/o6b2tc.png

[Regnillif]

Hi Scott,

Great tutorial and because of your tutorial I am just finishing up a clock which is my first electronics project. Everything is working correctly except my photo resister dimmer. I adjusted the Arduino code and the lights will dim when it gets dark but after about 7-10seconds the whole clock goes dark. Turn room lights back on and the clock lights up again. Any tips or ideas on what I need to do? I tried a couple different photo resisters but same results.

Thank you

[pmck]

I hope this isnt too late you can limit the minimum value of the dimmer in the code like this:

lightLevel = analogRead(**your analog pin IN here**);
mappedlevel = map(lightLevel,0,1000,0,255);

if(mappedlevel<40) mappedlevel =40 ;

analogWrite(**your analog OUT pin here** , mappedlevel);

[Regnillif]

Thanks pmck. I did manage to figure it out on my own. Looks like I did something similar to what you suggested. I actually made the clock as a gift so I want to make one for myself now so I will try your suggestion.

Thanks again.

[Dude Man]

I used a 12V DC Wall Wart and smoked my 5V Regulator. DOH!!! Wait...There's more! I then proceeded to burn my finger on the smoking regulator as I pulled it from the circuit! It's ok, I didn't need that section of my finger prints anyways, ha ha.
So anyways, Is 12V too much to come down from?

[Dude Man]

Would there be anything wrong with using a 5V wall wart and forget the Voltage Regulator?

[pmck]

for this it would be fine, but wall warts typically have a lot of noise in the output, especially if they are cheap. You could juts use a capacitor and a diode to smooth the current

[Dude Man]

Beuller?

[gigsgtox]

Everything should run fine off the 5V wall wart as it has a 5V voltage regulator built into it. I'm not a circuits guru however so I'm not promising anything.

[purpulhaze]

I don't understand the power part. What is the regulator for? Couldn't I just use a 5 volt wall wart? Is the regulator used only if I going to make a standalone with the atmega 168?

[pmck]

yes, if you use the arduino board it is built in

[TheGeebs]

Do I just take out the ATmega chip from the arduino and put in the ATMega128 to program?

[jenny0122]

Is there any way to add the minutes like on the original (the dot in each corner)?

[pmck]

I'm new to electronics will any 8bit shift register work with this? I'm having trouble sourcing the HCF4049 ones above where I live.

[arego]

I loved your clock, and am currently purchasing all the materials to build my own. I was wondering if these materials will work, as I am not experienced at all in electronics (as in I've soldered once) so please excuse my ignorance. I am looking at these items : ULN2003AG ULN2003A SOP16 DRIVER IC a, as well as HCF4094BE DIP-16 HCF4094 STORE BUS REGISTER ST. Will these work for me? In addition, what size barrel plug connector do I need? I bought the Arduino Duemilanove ATmega328.

[Dude Man]

Troubleshooting Help: I got the clock up and running but it flashes between words every second. Is my clock off? Wires crossed somewhere? What would be causing this to happen?

[Moab]

Hello,

I find it hard to prevent the light from bleeding between lit words and unlit words. I think my light baffles are not evenly cut enough. Does someone have a tip about that ?

Also Scottbez, i wonder if you kept the original glass screen of the ikea frame or removed it. I have kept it, and it is not bad

[Cello62]

I personally do not have this problem, the separation must touch the layer of acetate sheet so that the light does not spread by side.

I have kept the glass

http://www.instructables.com/id/My-Arduino-WordClock/

[Cello62]

Hello
Can you post pls any photo of the back clock to see how you are mounted the board and settled the wire?
Thanks

[robear00]

I'm extremely new to this and haven't touched electronics since my Digital Logic class back in 1994 (which I didn't do very well). Anyway, I am having a hell of a time trying to find the parts to put this together. Notably, the ICs and the shift registers. I tried finding them on Digikey, but searching by the model numbers do not come up. Someone asked this question before, but I didn't see an answer. Does anyone have a link or links to the parts themselves, that way I don't buy the wrong things? As much as I like drj113's kit, it's too pricey and I want to build this on my own from scratch. I planned on going with the arduino USB board, so no need for the extra things on the standard board.

Thanks.

[squishface]

To find the part numbers for the ICs and shift registers, I just grabbed the part numbers from the full-size versions of the photos in step 7.

Driver IC: ULN2003APG
Shift Register: HCF4094BE

Search these on DigiKey and you should get what you need

[robear00]

Thanks, I was able to figure most of it out thanks to Mouser Electronics. The one gripe I have about this Instructable is that the parts list is not consistent with the instructions. For those of us that are electrically illiterate, it would be nice to see every component used, including tools. I still have to get the wiring (which I'm wondering if there is a specification on those), circuit board (I got the protoboard, but didn't process the fact that I need this to test and an actual board for the final product), and a 7-pin header (or headers; not sure how many I need and if there is a specification on these either).

The only thing that I'm wary about now is the wiring itself. It would be nice if the schematic had all of the registers and ICs so I had more detail on where to solder. Thankfully, I have a friend that went to school for electrical engineering, so I may (will) have to get some help from him.