Tiny Word Clock

Word clocks spell out the current time (usually to the nearest 5 minutes) in actual words. They look great but are usually they're pretty big and require quite a lot of cutting and wiring to make.

This instructable shows you how to make a tiny, desk-sized word clock that looks good, only takes a few minutes and costs very little.

Step 1: Parts and Assembly

You'll need

• An 8x8 LED Matrix
• A MDBT42Q Breakout board
• A JST connector and Battery (or other way of powering your board)
• A label printed with the 8x8 pattern of letters (pdf file attached)

Wiring

It's best to position the MDBT42Q board over the very top pins on one side, and then push inwards. After a few attempts on each side you should have bent the pins enough that both sides will fit onto the MDBT42Q, and you can then solder them on.

The orientation of the display and pins used don't matter (as long as they're all GPIO pins). Just feed them into the LED Matrix pin finder tool and it'll give you the row/columns you need.

Step 2: Software

Now your clock is all together, it's time to add the software.

• Start the Espruino IDE from https://www.espruino.com/ide/ (in the Chrome web browser)
• Click settings up the top right, go to 'Communications' and ensure that 'Set current time' is checked.
• Copy the Clock software from http://www.espruino.com/Tiny+Word+Clock#software and paste it into the right-hand side of the IDE
• If you had used a different display, make sure the ROWS and COLUMNS variables are set to the values you got after running the LED Matrix Pin Finder code.
• Click 'Upload' - and you should now have a clock!

Comments

[tattooistmattallen2017]

Any chance you could use the esp8266 board with same code and just change the pins in the code?? Thanks

[GSVNoFixedAbode]

Did you get that going? Using an ESP8266 would mean being able to use Time servers to set time automatically.

[gfwilliams]

Someone asked this on YouTube yesterday? I guess it was you? But yes, it should be ok - it might just flicker more

[kiwigrinder]

I love the idea of using a single 8x8 LED matrix. Unfortunately a 30x30mm 8x8 LED matrix is too small to print the letters on my 3D FDM printer. So my variant uses a 60x60mm LED matrix powered by a ATtiny1614 microprocessor. See https://www.hackster.io/john-bradnam/tiny-word-clock-ea4d19

[oldegrieze]

Nice clock you made!
I would like the 3 words in different colors using RGB 8x8 Led matrix.
Is that possible? I asume you need some code changing, but I am not used to code......

[gfwilliams]

Hi, It's definitely possible, yes. It depends on what RGB led matrix you're using really. If you're using a WS2812 style matrix (3 wire) then you'll need to send data a different (easier) way as you don't need to 'scan' out the data to make it work. There's actually code for doing exactly that on http://www.espruino.com/Word+Clock

[oldegrieze]

Thanks

[vighnesh.vembaar]

Can I use an arduino for this

[gfwilliams]

Probably, yes - but obviously you'd have to rewrite the code, as well as figuring a way to set the time because you couldn't then update it wirelessly

[Kappa3008]

Hi ! Nice clock! I'd like to use the same board but with a different display..I have 5 mini 7 segment displays is it still possible to make it?

[gfwilliams]

If your 7 segments are wired directly (with no controller) then yes - you can use the same scanning method. If you have any questions about how to handle the code/wiring just post up on the forum - it'll be easier to post code in there.