Arduino Digital(LED) Word Clock [Proof of Concept]

[NateMac]

I've been really interest in making a Word Clock, but just didn't have the time to do one of the many elaborate builds on the internet, and they sell for WAY to much online as well.

I have been using Digital LEDs for another project I had been working on and thought that this might be a simpler (or at least less wires) way of going about doing this.

I strapped some LED onto a board with some buttons, and what do you know, it worked.
This is currently all being powered off the USB port with only 6 wires controlling everything, 1 voltage wire for the LEDs and a ground wire for the buttons and another for the LEDs.

As far as the code goes, I'm just a novice... But with piecing together code from Adafruit's NeoPixel code and Doug Jacksons The Word Clock code. I was able to come up with what you see.

As far as the Clock part of this, right now it is just a very fast counter to change the time at the end of the loop. This is just a dump clock to be sure everything is working and that the correct things change. I've ordered a ChronoDot - Ultra-precise Real Time Clock from Adafruit to add to this as a "real" clock, so that's my next step.

I'd really appreciate any feed back about this, especially about the code, I might understand it, but don't know how to really troubleshoot it to make it more optimized or even if I did something that could of been done a lot easier.
Thanks for any feed back guys.

Link to Code and other materials: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5itmx47aezqi ... JhDbuqf2Wa

Video Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B73R50X886I

[jigsawnz]

While you wait for the RTC to arrive, you can implement a timer for the main loop to do the rollover every second.

[NateMac]

While you wait for the RTC to arrive, you can implement a timer for the main loop to do the rollover every second.

Thanks Jig, I'll give that a try, that will be nice to see close to real world movment, everything is speed around right now without any kind of main control.
What I did for the time being is a Millisecond++ Timer, where if MilliSecond = 1000, add one(1)second and so on...minutes, hours...
What this allows me to do though, is change that "1000" to say 10. Now 1 second is actually only a 1/100 of a second, so I can speed up going threw all 12 hour to see if everything is working.

[jigsawnz]

I must say I am impressed by how tidy your prototype is. Nice work.

[NateMac]

I must say I am impressed by how tidy your prototype is. Nice work.

Well thanks, but that's only because I left out the photo of the FIRST prototype.


Why yes, those are LED bulb leads taking the place of proper jumpers.

[NateMac]

We are into the build phase...

The code has been refined and check, I'm sure I'll find more things to tinker with but the USB will be accessible for any updates.

Here is all the clock materials other then the LED connectors.


Here is the "clock face" cut out on a vinyl cutter using Matte Vinyl, so that if their are any imperfections in the vinyl, they shouldn't show up as much as glossy vinyl.
I have not transferred it yet to a other material such as sign-white polycarb, I haven't decided what the best material is to use yet.


This is the gutter between the face and the spacers...


Here is the back-board for the LEDs to lay on to match the face and to line-up the spacers.


These are the spacers to go in-between the back-board and the gutter, this separates all the words to the LEDs don't shine into the other words.


WS2811 Digital LEDs. The important part of all this, uses only a single Digital wire to control every LED, this is the largest difference to all the other Arduino Word Clocks I've seen out there. no need to wire each individual LED/Word. These are also able to run off the 5v supply from the Arduino board.


And finally a 12"x12" Frame I picked up at Michaels

[jigsawnz]

You state in your post that you can run the pixels from the 5v of the arduino board. I would think you have to many pixels for that and you will need to power them with a dedicated 5v power source. Did your prototype get all the piwer through the arduino board?

[NateMac]

You state in your post that you can run the pixels from the 5v of the arduino board. I would think you have to many pixels for that and you will need to power them with a dedicated 5v power source. Did your prototype get all the piwer through the arduino board?

Yup, running completely off the board with 135 Pixels/LEDs

Here's a video I took. http://youtu.be/ONhBRVsavh4

[NateMac]

Just put it on the meter...
The highest it ever hit at 5v was .43AMP

[jigsawnz]

That looks pretty darn good already. Whats up with the funny pixel in the third and fourth photo, it's also noticeable in the video.

[NateMac]

That looks pretty darn good already. Whats up with the funny pixel in the third and fourth photo, it's also noticeable in the video.

Thanks Jig.
...135 LEDs, and it's not even just one LED out, it's just the Green part of the one LED that is out, haha. you can see it when it does the R,G,B cycle, that it lights up all but when it cycles threw the green.
I'll replace that row of LEDs when I get into work on Monday.
Not a big deal, just annoying.

[dannyandmal]

Can you post the code again, the link seems to be dead. I have been trying to find somebody else using Neopixels and I have been having trouble wrapping my head around the code. Thanks, Danny.

[Ratki]

I, too, would love to see the code. This is very similar to a project I am doing. The dropbox link does not appear to work.