DustinSeeing as I drive my truck a lot, and work full time, I need to check the time while I am driving. My truck has no radio, so there is no clock in it. I hate using my phone as it is dangerous while driving, and I do not want to risk losing my beloved truck to an accident. I have decided to build a clock for my rusty old friend. Having the exact parts needed to complete it, I re-created This project. It is a simple clock, with time, date, and alarm. I already have this working, minus the RTC chip and the alarm. I plan on adding an alarm as I take naps in my truck and need woken up at times.
The biggest problem I face is with a lack of reliable and safe power for my Arduino Pro Mini. This will be solved by adding two of These to my truck, with an inline fuse for each. One will be mounted on the front of the dash for me and passengers to use, while the other will be mounted behind the dash for use as a power supply for microcontrollers and such. I have easy access to Summit Racing Equipment and found that it is quite easy to get everything I need for my truck there. I am waiting on those USB sockets to ship as they are back ordered. I already have the wiring, connectors, and fuse holders needed to wire them up. Just sitting around, waiting...
The clock itself is going to be an Arduino Pro Mini solely used to run the LCD clock. It will not have any other functions. This is to keep it as simple and reliable as possible. I stock pile the Pro Mini for stuff like this, as they are cheap and disposable. I will be using other Arduinos, like my Arduino Mega for other functions, such as creating a simple radio, and monitoring engine functions, lights, voltages, and other metrics. My goal is to create everything I need myself, forcing me to learn the skills needed to monitor a vehicle and make my truck as reliable and care free as possible. It's already served 33 years and going strong. I want to see how long I can keep it alive, and how modern it can be using all home brew technology. More updates to come soon as I have a 3 day weekend coming up.
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Update on the clock:
The buttons used to set the time on the clock have not been wired up yet, and I am going to solder everything to a piece of proto board as it is wired with jumper wires now. I will be adding some rechargeable AA batteries to power it so I can take it out and use it as a portable alarm clock when I travel. Not using Lithium Ion batteries as the winter temperatures would destroy them if they died while left in my truck over night. Just need to create or find charging circuit for the batteries and cram it into the clock case, and power it from USB. Need to put in a speaker or buzzer for the alarm.
It will be mounted to the steel dash panel with rare earth magnets when done.
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