Wood Block Clock

Inspired by a clock at IKEA with a 7-segment dispaly behind a solid wood front , I wanted to build something like that myself.

And with a led matrix from ebay, a microcontroller and a few more components this sort of different clock was created.

Video and pictures of the finished creation:

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The process

Hardware

First we created the main box by gluing three pieces of pine together:

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The backplate is made of teak.

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Because we lacked the right tools at the moment, the most difficult part with the main blocks was cutting out the hole in the middle.

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With backplate and “depth-aligning” pieces glued on:

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To create the nice finish we used Liberon Finishing Oil:

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Electronics

The main board consist of an AVR ATmega128, a MAX232, a buzzer and connections for buttons, led matrix, alarm led, power and the serial connector.

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The front is a 1mm balsa plate.

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The finished clocks

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Software

The main goal on the software side was making it user friendly. I tried to implement that with mechanisms as such as a menu system where the text scrolls up when selecting main topics, and to the left when entering a sub-menu.

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