February 2012

ClockOS Optical Disk Clock

I happen to have some old 12 inch optical disks made of glass. So when I saw Terry and Adam Clarkson's ClockOS project on Kickstarter, I recognized the potential for an awesome clock!
The ClockOS board is Arduino compatible and hosts a ring of 180 surface mount RGB LEDs (in 3 concentric rings of 60).  Modes can be set through 3 buttons on the back side of the board.  The onboard Atmel168 can be programmed by attaching an FTDI cable.  An onboard PIC18F25K22, which helps drive the LEDs, can also be reprogrammed through an ICSP header.
As you can see from the photos below, the ClockOS board matches up nicely with the optical disk.
The video below shows several of the clock faces (and the ClockOS board) in action (the LED flicker is only an artifact of the video).