Our hacker [glgorman] sent in their submission for the One Hertz Challenge: an analog software clock for Microsoft Windows. I guess we’d have to say that this particular project is a work-in-progress. There is no final clock, yet. But a number of yak’s have been shaved. For instance, we have code for computing geometric objects […]
Do you like buses, or do you just like the flippy-flappy displays they use to show route information? Either way, you’ll probably love the flip-disc clock created by [David Plass]. The build is based around four seven-segment flip disc displays. The modules in question are from Flipo.io. They use a hefty 0.5 amp pulse to […]
Sometimes, there are too many choices in this world. My benchtop function generator can output a sine, square, or saw wave anywhere from 0.01 Hz up to 60 MHz? Way too many choices. At least, that’s what we suspect [Phil Weasel] was thinking when he built this Analog 1 Hz Sinewave Generator. A KiCad rendering […]
Our hacker [Wil Carver] has sent in his submission for the One Hertz Challenge: Precise Time Ref via 1 Pulse-Per-Second GPS Signal. This GPS Disciplined Oscillator (GPSDO) project uses a Piezo 2940210 10 MHz crystal oscillator which is both oven-controlled (OCXO) and voltage-controlled (VCXO). The GPSDO takes the precision 1 Pulse-Per-Second (PPS) GPS signal and […]
The HP 115BR is not one of the most well-known products from Hewlett-Packard. And yet, it was remarkably important nonetheless. This hardware once synced time around the world. Now, for our 2025 One-Hertz Challenge, [curiousmarc] has taken on the job of restoring it. The HP 115BR itself was not used alone, but in concert with […]
Mankind has been using water to mark the passage of time for thousands of years. From dripping stone pots in Ancient Egypt to the more mechanically-complicated Greco-Roman Clepsydrae, the history of timekeeping is a wet one — and it makes sense. As an incompressible fluid, water flows in very predictable patterns. If you fill a […]
Wall clocks! Are they very accurate? Well, sometimes they are, and sometimes they lose minutes a day. If you’ve got one that needs calibrating, you might like this device from [Lauri Pirttiaho]. Most cheap wall clocks use very similar mechanisms based around the Lavet-type stepper motor. These are usually driven by a chip-on-board oscillator that […]
You can buy all kinds of conventional clocks that have hands and numbers for easy reading. Or, like [Fabio Ricci], you could build yourself something a little more esoteric, like this neat shadow clock. The heart of the build is an ESP8266 microcontroller, which gets the current time via Wi-Fi by querying an NTP time […]
Just about every electronic device has some silicon semiconductors inside these days—from transistors to diodes to integrated circuits. [Charles] is trying to build a “No-Silicon digital clock” that used none of these parts. It looks like [Charles] is on the way to success, but one might like to point out an amusing technicality. Let’s dive […]
Most of us know that a quartz clock uses a higher frequency crystal oscillator and a chain of divider circuits to generate a 1 Hz pulse train. It’s usual to have a 32.768 kHz crystal and a 15-stage divider chain, which in turn normally sits inside an integrated circuit. Not so for [Bobricius], who’s created […]