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Showing posts with the label dual LED matrix

GPS-synchronized Mondrian clock

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The challenge was to add GPS to this "basic LED matrix clock". Since I don't see the point of a GPS clock that does not show seconds, I had to figure out how to fit 6 digits on the 8x16 LED matrix. One way to do it is this: as used by the " Matrix Clock V1.0 ". Kind of hard to distinguish between 0 and 8 though. Another way is based on MixiClock , where 4 digits are crammed in a 8x8 (tri-color) matrix. (This was more than 4 years ago. Incredible how little progress I made since.) As for the name, I settled for "Mondrian" because  Kandinsky  was already taken :) The hours are shown in red, the minutes in green and the seconds in orange. After power up, the seconds blink until the GPS time is received (less than 5 minutes in my house, more than 3 meters away from the nearest window). Only the minutes and the seconds are synchronized (but not the hours). The Mondrian clock is made of 2 boards: the wsduino with the GPS Bee plugged in (and the antenna aff...

CubeClock

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This would make a nice replacement for the original glass-domed WiseClock . I named it CubeClock for the simple reason that it is encased in a baseball display case, found on ebay for about $5. It includes Wiseduino (with on-board RTC), a LiPo battery shield (I used the one from seeedstudio, but others should work too), a prototype shield with the cheap "orientation sensor" introduced here , and the bi-color LED mini-display shield . The bottom board is the Wiseduino , secured to the box with 2 screws. The other shields are just stacked on top of each other. The battery shield from seeedstudio, discussed here , uses a 1,000mAh LiPo battery (did not come with the shield), attached to the shield itself with plastic ties. The clock can be turned on or off (to save the battery) from the power switch on the Wiseduino . CubeClock can also be powered through the USB cable plugged into the battery shield (which also charges the LiPo battery), as shown below. A closer look is shown...

From the "fan club" - LindorClock

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Fellow Arduino enthusiast Anjan sent me these photos of his own interpretation of IllyClock , encased in a "compatible" Lindor chocolate case. I think it looks great. From the email: I put this one in a Lindor chocolate case and so the name. I had to cut the Lindor case to almost 2/3 rd the height to make it fit and look nice. The front design is still not complete, as you can see the  components and wires inside. He used his own LED matrices with my Dual bi-color LED matrix shield , hence the wires and the prototyping board in the next two photos. Keep up the great job Anjan. You are an inspiration to others.

New in store: Bi-color LED mini-display shield

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This is my third and newest LED display shield for Arduino. It features two 8x8 RG (red/green/orange) 3mm LED matrices and it has the Arduino form factor, so it stacks perfectly on top of an Arduino 2009/Uno. This Bi-color LED mini-display shield uses a similar schematic as my other Dual LED matrix shield , based on four 595 shift registers and a driver, in SMD package. The two 8x8 RG LED matrices plug into the machined (round) female headers. The photo below shows all 3 LED shields together for size comparison, along with an Wiseduino . The " LED mini-display shield " introduced here is in the top-right corner. (All other shields in the photo are sold out.) This LED mini-display shield  also features 2 right-angle micro push buttons. The LED mini-display shield comes fully assembled and tested.   (US$35, free shipping to North America)   (US$40, free shipping outside North America) The LED mini-display shield can be seen in this video, plugged into an Arduino running ...

IllyClock revisited - the minimalist look

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Remember IllyClock , the Arduino-alarm-clock-in-a-coffee-can ( featured on Instructables.com )? We now have a new streamlined version, featuring rechargeable battery shield, tilt switches, infrared receiver, buzzer. Although some of the "cool factor" is lost, this version is easier to build, a bit more practical (it is "portable") and smarter (with new, extended, software). It was just a matter of time until someone would prefix the name IllyClock  with an S. I wanted to be the first one on the record to do that; so from now on, we'll name this new version SillyClock . NOTE: One more reason to call it "silly". I wrongly assumed that the previous IllyClock sketch, referencing a rotary encoder, would work without modifications with the new dualRG LED matrix shield , which has the rotary encoder replaced by two buttons. My apologies to anyone whom I misled with my assumption. The modified code can be downloaded from here . This file contains the sketches...