Slide Clock

Description

I enjoy designing and building interesting clocks and am always looking at unique ways to display the time. This clock uses 4 vertical slides that contain the numbers. Four stepper motors position the slides so that correct time is shown in the display area of the clock.

The steppers are controlled using an Arduino Uno with a CNC Shield. It uses an Adafruit PCF8523 RTC board to keep the time. The case and mechanical aspects are all 3D printed and the slides displaying the numbers are made of wood with laser engraved numbers.

Details

Here is a video of the clock in action

3D Printed Parts

There are a total of 14 - 3D printed parts. I printed them using PLA on a Prusa i3 Mk3 printer.

Motor Carrier
Pinion Gears (qty 4)
Rack Gears (qty 7)
Back Cover
Bezel

The STL files for the Slide Clock can be found at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4627764

Wood Slides

For the wood slides I used Birdseye Maple and laser engraved the numbers onto the wood. The rack gear portion of the rack and pinon system is mounted to the back of the wood slides.

Electronics

The stepper motors are controlled using a CNC Motor Shield with A4988 Stepper Drivers. Mounted on an Arduino Uno. The stepper motors are driven at 12V (even though they are 5V steppers).

The RTC is an Adafruit PFC8523

Files

IMG_5238.jpg

JPEG Image - 421.37 kB - 10/19/2020 at 22:21

Preview

IMG_5188.jpg

JPEG Image - 288.86 kB - 10/19/2020 at 22:21

Preview

IMG_5181.jpg

JPEG Image - 224.29 kB - 10/19/2020 at 22:21

Preview

IMG_5221.jpg

JPEG Image - 281.17 kB - 10/19/2020 at 22:21

Preview

IMG_5169.jpg

JPEG Image - 215.22 kB - 10/19/2020 at 22:21

Preview

Components

1 × Ardunio Uno

1 × CNC Motor Shield

4 × A4988 Motor Driver

1 × Adafruit PCF8523 RTC

4 × Steppers 28BYJ 5V

Discussions

Arc wrote 11/26/2020 at 09:52

Your project is very interesting but when I tried to do this, the stepper motors are not working and in serial monitor time is showing 00:00. Can anyone help me with this.

Are you sure? yes | no

Dan Maloney wrote 10/22/2020 at 20:25

Ditto. I just wrote up another clock that's very similar, I like them both but they got me thinking if there's a way t do this with just one motor. Some kind of ratchet and pawl mechanism to keep the display stable and reset it at the top, and a geartrain to drive the slides.

Sorry, just idle curiosity here. Like the build as it is, nice job.

Are you sure? yes | no

Craig Colvin wrote 10/22/2020 at 21:04

I came up with a concept of using a single stepper motor and a clutch system for each column to move them either up or down. The clutch needed 4 servos to engage disengage them so it actually increases the number of overall motors.

The issue I see with the gear train is how to roll over from 9 to 0 or 5 to 0.

Are you sure? yes | no

Craig Colvin wrote 10/22/2020 at 21:13

I missed the ratchet pawl system comment. That might allow you to reset back to 0.

Would probably require the numbers to be in order instead of the out of order they are here.

Are you sure? yes | no

Gerben wrote 10/20/2020 at 15:57

Nice.
I like the fact that you scrambled the numbers.

Are you sure? yes | no

Mike Szczys wrote 10/26/2020 at 18:29

I also like this! Was wondering if there was a reason for the number scramble like move in opposite direction at the change of each number or makes sure the four slats are never all at the same horizontal?

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Slide Clock

Description

Details