Software user

Some time ago I received, as a gift, this smart and very useful stand from fellow clock enthusiast Nicholas in San Diego. He designed it and made it specifically for ClockTHREE . Simple yet elegant, this is essential if you want your C3 on the desk or table. I did not have the chance to appreciate it until now, with an older  ClockTHREE  borrowed from a friend (I gave it to him as a gift). Here is the C3 on the stand, a perfect fit! Thank you Nicholas! Keep up the great work!

I just finished assembling another ClockTHREE v2 and I realized that there are details that need a bit of clarification (and not captured in the original building instructions ). These are related to the orientation of the RGB LEDs and the battery holder for RTC. Not a lot of info, but I felt I have to record these, since I will have to go through the exercise of figuring it out again next time I assemble another C3 . Here are the pictures worth a thousand words. First the LEDs, shown laying down in the correct orientation. The longest pin, the common node, is closer to the bottom of the PCB (where the ATmega328 is). Because the LED pins are only 0.05" apart (as opposed to 0.1" in a normal LED, or most other components for that matter), special attention must be paid when soldering these RGB LEDs. There is a tendency of shorting two adjacent pins, so make sure that doesn't happen, by checking with a magnifying glass (or with the ohmmeter). To avoid the possible shorts, I...

Do you want the best deal on C3Jr ? Here it is, on kickstarter . Already exceeded the goal of $2,500, it will be a sure thing in 21 days from now. I am guessing that the Wyolum team is already busy assembling them :) The Doomsday clock (pledge $500) looks especially interesting, made of 3 adjacent C3Jr s. Lots of possibilities with this very large display, check out the video.

Although ClockTHREE v2 is yet to be officially introduced by the Wyolum team, I could not resist the temptation of showing off this beautiful new board. Compared with v1 , v2 has a few new features worth mentioning: it can accommodate both piranha RGB LEDs and 10mm RGB LEDs (common anode); as real time clock, supports DS1307 , DS3231 and ChronoDot and wyolum's own rtcBob ; three kinds of different coin battery holders (for RTC backup battery) are supported; the power socket can be mounted in 3 different places; no more  tweaking of the terminals is required when using the 10mm RGB LEDs. The other great features are intact: - relatively easy to build for such a large and complex kit, with well-written documentation, both on-line and on PCB's silkscreen; - Arduino (ATmega328)-compatible: uses Arduino IDE for sketch upload; - display consists of 16x10 RGB LEDs + 16x2 single-colour LEDs; - on-board speaker/buzzer for the alarm; - word-clock functionality, user-s...

Updated Sep 15, 2012 This kit is sold now by wyolum . Here you can buy a complete C3Jr kit , that will make a wonderful word clock once assembled (assembly instructions here ). All you need is a soldering iron and some (almost trivial) soldering skills. The kit comes with the ATmega328 processor already loaded with the latest sketch (no need for you to program it). Please contact me if you want an assembled and tested  C3Jr . Related posts: Other kits offered in the store

Assembling C3Jr kit is a medium-challenge project: all components except the RTC chip DS3231 (which comes soldered to the board) are through-hole; the spot and orientation of each component are printed on the board very clearly; sockets are provided for each integrated circuit; placing and soldering the components takes a few hours; it is very important to pay attention to the correct orientation of the polarized components (LEDs, electrolytic capacitors, transistors, ICs), since any mistake takes time and effort to repair; double check every time before soldering any component, even resistors. The C3Jr kit you received includes (as shown in the photo): large (18cm x 23cm) PCB; ATmega328 with 28-pin socket; 16MHz crystal + two 22pF capacitors; 74LS154 and 24-pin socket; STP08DP05 and socket; DS3231, pre-soldered to the board; CR2032 (3V) coin battery and battery holder; 130 diffused white (or blue, on request) 5mm LEDs; 17 PNP transistors 2N5401; 4 decoupling capacitor...

Although I posted about ClockTHREE Junior (aka C3Jr ) here , this is its formal introduction in my blog. C3Jr is an Arduino-compatible, open-source alarm "word clock", which displays the time in words, similar to the original QlockTWO (*). It is the result of numerous hours of electronic design, mechanical engineering and programming by the Wyolum team . The goal of this effort was to develop a kit that would be affordable, easy to assemble and stand out aesthetically. The content of the C3Jr kit is shown below (click for a larger picture). It includes all the electronic components and mechanical parts to build the C3Jr clock shown in the next photo (on Justin's workbench). The large display is based on a matrix of 16x8, individually addressable, white (or blue) LEDs. Beside lighting up small letters (one letter per LED) that make up words, the display can also be seen as a matrix of 16x8 pixels, which can show scrolling characters or animated sprites. The time-keepin...