This is a wall clock in the shape of a Stargate. The main visual elements are a 60-LED ring mounted behind a laser-cut and etched stargate.
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In the end, used and modified code from this project. I just needed to modify it to include daylight savings time and change the colour scheme. Wasted a bit of time remembering what needed to be connected where.
Want to add :-
- a light dependant resistor to adapt LED brightness to the ambient lighting
- a passive infrared sensor to reduce overall power consumption, by switching off LEDs when nobody's around.
I didn't have the requisite parts to could move forward on these aspects, but I'm really happy I got the light clock elements working. As it stands, I could be content with the circuit and code in their current state, as they are minimally functional.
Moved onto the stargate clock face design, and managed to get to something decent, that should be the right size: 60 symbols that should line up witht he 60 LEDs from the link. Mostly need to decide what will be scored / engraved on this design.
Finally found a project where the code runs something legible on the ring: https://www.instructables.com/Introduction-60-LED-Neopixel-Clock/ :D
I'll be able to use this as a functional reference. It'll need some modification, as it's supposed to work with 2 rings.
The Led ring clock in the above project as it's configured draws 90mA. This includes always on hour indicators, whick I'm hoping won't be necessary.
When powering the whole circuit through the ProMicro's BAT pin, the power draw was 84mA. Not sure why it seems to draw less than when the generator was powering only the led ring, but it gives me a general idea of how much the circuit consumes. I'll look into ways to reduce power consumption, but this isn't a priority.
Tried to replicate https://learn.adafruit.com/neopixel-60-ring-clock?view=all but the LED ring display was really wierd. Followed recommendation of powering ring separately, using 6v generator, but didn't change the weirdness. For some reason, Arduino Leonardo setup didn't work at all (ring lighting was static - no movement), whereas using an Adafruit ItsyBitsy (Adruino Pro Micro) got some movement on the ring, but not the expected movement.
Managed to improve somewhat my understanding of libraries and how to use them :D
Managed to set time on the RTC :D
Managed to run "strandtest" from the fastLED library and everything seems to be working on the ring.
So I guess my main objective right now is to get the RTC to provide a signal that will be converted into something legible on the ring. So far the projects I've found have been helpful. I can't make them work, but there are sufficient common points between them that I can start to figure out what I'll need to include, if I want and am able to code something more or less from scratch.
So, I'd say what I need to learn is :
- how to light up different parts of the ring in different ways. Trying out super basic sketches with one or two functions should help.
- how to convert time input into information that will be useful for lighting up the ring.
- linking time info with desired lighting output (functional and pretty) on the ring.
I've put the chassis design (stargate front, container, prospective cable management, battery holders, etc.) on hold, as it doesn't seem to be the right time (haha), and it's hard enough to focus on the one task of coding something functional, when I'm learning how to do so, pretty much from scratch. Maybe if I need a break from not making progress on the code.
It's been months. Caught up on where I got stuck, and connected an RTC to the circuit, using this : https://learn.adafruit.com/neopixel-60-ring-clock/circuit-diagram
What I've done :
What I've done + issues:
What I want to do:
What I've done:
Want to do:
Design questions for later:
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