Have a look at this Binary Hard Drive Clock Project that Dave from Dave’s Tech Blog put together. It is using one of my favorite pieces used computer hardware, that is of course the hard drive! Of course he is also using my favorite color of LED, that being the Blue LED! Dave has a schematic and code on his site so that you can make your own.
"I built three small boards to go on the back of the HDD case, onto which the LEDs are mounted, one board for each register. The boards contain 5 or 6 LEDs, an 6 pin single row 90 degree header, and a darlington PNP transistor and base resistor. The header pins are for power, enable and 5 or 6 LED ground wires. The PNP is controlled by the enable line, which is connected to the base via the resistor. When on it provides current to the LEDs. The ground lines are switched on the main board by a row of NPN transistors to turn on or off each LED."
Via: Make
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That looks cool. How do you read the time though? I under the lines with 6 leds, but what does the 5 leds represent?
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good post
http://gadgetguruz.freehostia.com
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I still say that Alan’s is the best!
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From the Article:
Seconds on the bottom
Minutes to the right
Hours on top
Each represents a register in the controller.
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Howdy, glad you liked my clock 🙂
The register with 5 LEDs is for the hours. It only has to go up to 23, so no need for a 6th bit. LSB is to the right or bottom.
I’m still planning to do another one using the spindle motor, voice coil and a design etched on the platter 🙂