Propeller clock 1

The Scan display project was too large and noisy to put in the living room (or anywhere else where you want it to be quiet for that matter). Therefor, I started on a smaller one, and I hoped it would be quiet enough to use it as any other stationary clock. Here's what happened:

Click thumbnails to zoom in. Click again to zoom out, or use cursor keys to walk through all images.

1. First, you take a VCR capstan motor
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1. First, you take a VCR capstan motor
2. Then you put a ball bearing on the axis, so you can have the positive supply terminal routed to the moving part. The negative supply terminal is conducted by the motor's own bearings.
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2. Then you put a ball bearing on the axis, so you can have the positive supply terminal routed to the moving part. The negative supply terminal is conducted by the motor's own bearings.
3. Here's a close-up of how it's done
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3. Here's a close-up of how it's done
4. Then you assemble a circuit board with leds, a microcontroller and some other scrap and junk such as an LDR, buttons, etc.
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4. Then you assemble a circuit board with leds, a microcontroller and some other scrap and junk such as an LDR, buttons, etc.
5. Put the motor in an enclosure to make it look nice. I took a 3,5" diskette carrier case. It fits very nicely. The hole in the lid is there because the motor has a protrusion, which would have slightly scraped the lid.
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5. Put the motor in an enclosure to make it look nice. I took a 3,5" diskette carrier case. It fits very nicely. The hole in the lid is there because the motor has a protrusion, which would have slightly scraped the lid.
6. The circuit board is supplied with a counterbalance and synchronization light shaft, the "plus" bearing is covered in heat shrink tubing, the rotor is fixed with a small bolt in a threaded hole in the side of the counterweight.
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6. The circuit board is supplied with a counterbalance and synchronization light shaft, the "plus" bearing is covered in heat shrink tubing, the rotor is fixed with a small bolt in a threaded hole in the side of the counterweight.
7. This is how the pcb is mounted with a pre-threaded metal strip
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7. This is how the pcb is mounted with a pre-threaded metal strip
8. The finished clock
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8. The finished clock
9. And....... ACTION! (heavily boosted and denoised picture)
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9. And....... ACTION! (heavily boosted and denoised picture)

The source code can be downloaded here:

I'm sorry, there's no schematic. However, the source files contain a pin definition, so if you really want to build this clock, work your way through the assembly source files, and you should be able to get most of the info. And how hard can it be to come up with a plan for a power supply? Put 12 Volts DC on the bearing, use a huge noise filter (10 Ω resistor, 4700 μF capacitor), then a 7805 stabilizer, 100 nF decoupling caps, yadda, yadda. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I seriously suggest you start with something a lot simpler than this.



© Joris van den Heuvel, Fuzzcraft.com