Rick Astley Clock

by degroof

4.0K308

Intro: Rick Astley Clock

Yes, it's a clock shaped like Rick Astley and it chimes "Never Gonna Give You Up" on the hour.

Note: This is a scaled-down prototype / proof of concept. The intended size is about 20" tall. This one's only 13".

STEP 1: Materials

NOTE: The clock mechanism comes with a pendulum mechanism but it turned out to be too weak to move the arms. I pulled it off and used servos instead.

STEP 2: Print Images

Split up the image (rick-sticker.pdf) into 2 letter-sized images.

Print the two images full size on full-sheet labels.

There's enough overlap that you can play with the exact cut marks. The line's just there to aid in orienting the two sheets.

Note: With a bit of fiddling, you could scale up the image by 40%, print on 3 sheets and do a full-sized model.

STEP 3: Layout

Peel off the backing and place the labels on the ilustration board, taking care to line them up.

STEP 4: Cut Out

Cut the body and arms out of the board. Cut the two oblong elbow holes and the circular hole in the torso.

Note: The hole marks are intended for the full-size model, so they'll needed to be enlarged to accommodate the scaled-down version.

STEP 5: Wiring and Programming

Wire up the servos as shown. (brown=gnd, orange=+5V, yellow=pin #0)

Program the Trinket using the attached Arduino code (trinket-rick.ino).

When powered up, the servos should start ticking back and forth about once per second.

NOTE: The Trinket is a pain in the butt to program but it's small. You could use different servos and Arduino, but you'll probably need to alter the code to suit it.

STEP 6: Recording the Chime

The mp3 here has the chime sound on it. It was created using a stripped-down midi file, with the instrument changed to glockenspiel. You should be able to fit it on the chime box, as long as you hit Record as soon as the mp3 starts playing. Might take a couple tries.

STEP 7: Mount Servos and Clock

I just used some double-sided tape for this. I also had to put a lot of padding (6 layers of illustration board) under the clock mechanism to keep the clock shaft from sticking out too much. Everything just barely fits on the scaled-down version.

NOTE: I'm using a USB power pack to power the Trinket and servos. A 6V battery pack would work just as well but may require tapping into a different power source for the servos.

STEP 8: Clock Hands

Cut and paint the clock hands.

Advance the clock time until the chime starts.

Mount the hands so they're both pointing straight up (midnight).

Advance the clock time to the current time.

STEP 9: Mounting the Arms

Again, just some double-sided tape to stick the cutouts onto the servo arms. Arrange them however you want, as long as they don't run into the clock shaft.

The servo arms can be popped off and reset as needed - no need to screw them on.

STEP 10: Possible Refinements

There are three power sources for this thing. It might be possible to power everything off a 6V battery pack with taps for 1.5V and 3V, assuming they can all use a common ground.

It might be nice to build this using a laser-cut piece of plywood. I've attached 3 different svg files (cutout, cutout with lines, cutout with filled areas) in case someone wants to experiment with that.

The clock mechanism has wires coming off of it that (presumably) trigger the chime. It might be possible to remove the chime box altogether and feed the wires into a more powerful microcontroller that could both control the servos and play the tune. That'd make for a muck cleaner design and possibly allow the arms to move in time with the tune.

Update: I've added rick-stickers-1.pdf, rick-stickers-2.pdf and rick-stickers-3.pdf. These are big enough to print a full-size clock. The black square on each image should measure 1"x1" when printed and should line up with the svg cutout.

Update: I just posted an Instructable for a full-sized, laser-cut version.

7 Comments

MikB 8 years ago

In step 9: "Arrange [the arms] however you want, as long as they don't run into the clock shaft."

Yes, it's important that the arms keep missing the clock shaft ...

MikB 8 years ago

I could've said "Rick Around The Clock" ... :)