Process

Published November 27, 2019 © GPL3+

Time By Wind

The sound of the bells would echo for a long time, with a tingling crisp sound, and this was what inspired me to make a wind chime clock.

BeginnerFull instructions provided8 hours545

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Seeed Studio Grove Beginner Kit

Seeed Studio Grove - RGB LED Ring (20 - WS2813 Mini)

Seeed Studio Grove - RTC

Wooden Board

Fibre Optic Cable

Shadowless UV glue

Bell

String

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE

Autodesk Fusion

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Laser cutter (generic)

Story

Sometimes, while I am working at my office table, I would accidentally touch the wind chime hanging on the branches of the round table. The sound of the bells would echo for a long time, with a tingling crisp sound, and this was what inspired me to make a wind chime clock. The wind chime clock makes a beautiful sound when you touch it, yet it can also reminds you of the beautiful time that has passed.

When there is no one around or no wind, the wind chime clock will show the current time, lighting up with coloured light. When the wind blows the bell to trigger the tilt sensor, the display of the wind chime clock will start from the moment that it is touched, recording and displaying the number of seconds in a minute. At this time, the lights will start to light one by one until the end of one minute. After all 20 light strips are lit, the clock wind chimes will return to normal.

Process

1. Refer to the BOXES.PY website to find a reference for the laser-cut boxes you want. It is super easy and convenient to use: https://www.festi.info/boxes.py/index.html?language=zh_CN At first, I wanted to make a box with 4 prisms, but after cutting I found that the cut is too small to hide all the sensors. However, I accidentally discovered an empty coconut shell in the office, which happen to be just the right size for the LED. Hence, I just had to design a casing to hold the LED display in place.

Designing the casing with AutoCAD

Operating the laser cutter

Using the laser cutter to cut out the wooden pieces

Attaching the LED display into the wooden casing

2. Next, I needed to program the LED display to show the current time. The programming bead will be illuminated in many colours when the time is normal. Use the tilt sensor inside the grove kit, once touched, it will trigger a one minute of relaxation time where the LED lights will be lit one by one in a red firewood colour.

Coding on Arduino IDE

3. Grind the optic fiber cable into a flat contact plane, and then cut it into a proper length. The fiber that we initially bought was too thin, but we later found that our company's storeroom had the correct fiber thickness required. After polishing with a sander, I used UV glue to stick the beads on to the light. The overall effect was quite good, and does not affect the brightness of the light at all. However, I found that it was too long and always became loose and dropping off, so I halved the length later on.

Polishing the optic fibre cable edges

Optic fibre after polishing

Attaching the optic fibre to the LED ring

7 strands completed

Testing out the LED effect

4. Finally, insert the corresponding side (I inserted it in the wrong direction once and the fibre could not light up), then fix the LED display and the coconut shell with a glue gun. Using a glue gun, stick the the LED ring into the hole of the coconut shell, connect the bell to near the tilt sensor, and you're done!

The final completed product!

alice-demo.ino

#include <FlexiTimer2.h>
#include "Adafruit_NeoPixel.h"
#include <Wire.h>
#include "rgb_lcd.h"
#include <DS1307.h>
#include <rgb_lcd.h>

#define BUTTON_PIN   2  
#define PIXEL_PIN    6    // Digital IO pin connected to the NeoPixels.
#define PIXEL_COUNT 20

#define T 60000

int touch_flag = 0;
long Time = 0;
int i = 0;

int frist_time = 0;

DS1307 clock;
rgb_lcd lcd;
Adafruit_NeoPixel strip = Adafruit_NeoPixel(PIXEL_COUNT, PIXEL_PIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);
 
uint32_t Wheel(byte WheelPos) {
  WheelPos = 255 - WheelPos;
  if(WheelPos < 85) {
    return strip.Color(255 - WheelPos * 3, 0, WheelPos * 3);
  }
  if(WheelPos < 170) {
    WheelPos -= 85;
    return strip.Color(0, WheelPos * 3, 255 - WheelPos * 3);
  }
  WheelPos -= 170;
  return strip.Color(WheelPos * 3, 255 - WheelPos * 3, 0);
}

void rainbowCycle(uint8_t wait) {
  uint16_t i, j;

  for(j=0; j<256*5; j++) { // 5 cycles of all colors on wheel
    if(touch_flag != 1)
    {
    for(i=0; i< strip.numPixels(); i++) {
      if(touch_flag != 1)
      {
      strip.setPixelColor(i, Wheel(((i * 256 / strip.numPixels()) + j) & 255));
      }else{break;}
      Serial.println();
    }
    }else{break;}
    strip.show();
    clock.getTime();
    lcd.setCursor(4, 1);
    lcd.print(clock.hour, DEC);
    lcd.print(":");
    lcd.print(clock.minute, DEC);
    lcd.print(":");
    if(clock.second < 10)
    {
      lcd.print(0,DEC);
      lcd.print(clock.second, DEC); 
    }else
    {
      lcd.print(clock.second, DEC);
    }
    delay(wait);
  }
}

void scan()
{
  if(digitalRead(5)==HIGH)
  {
    delay(10);
    if(digitalRead(5)==HIGH)
    touch_flag = 1;
    Serial.println("iii");
  }
}

void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(115200);
  pinMode(5,INPUT);
  pinMode(BUTTON_PIN, INPUT_PULLUP);
  strip.setBrightness(255);
  strip.begin();
  strip.show(); // Initialize all pixels to 'off'
  FlexiTimer2::set(5, 1.0/1000, scan);
  FlexiTimer2::start();
  lcd.begin(16, 2);
  lcd.setCursor(1, 0);
  lcd.print("hello, beauty!");
  clock.begin();
 }

void loop()
{
   if(touch_flag == 1)
   {
      if(frist_time == 0)
      {
        for(int i = 0;i<20;++i)
        {
          strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(0,0,0));
          strip.show();
        }
        lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
        lcd.print("                ");
        frist_time = 1;
        ++i;
        strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(255,59,70));
        Time = millis();
      }
      if(i < 20 && millis()-Time >= T/20)
      {
        strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(255,59,70));
        strip.show();
        Time = millis();
        ++i;
      }else if(i>=20)
      {
        i = 0;
        frist_time = 0;
        Time = 0;
        touch_flag = 0;
      }
   }else
   {
    rainbowCycle(0);
   }
   clock.getTime();
    lcd.setCursor(7, 1);
    if(clock.second < 10)
    {
      lcd.print(0,DEC);
      lcd.print(clock.second, DEC); 
    }else
    {
      lcd.print(clock.second, DEC);
    }
}

Time By Wind

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Process

Code

alice-demo.ino

Credits

Alison Yang

Comments

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Time By Wind

Time By Wind

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Process

Code

alice-demo.ino

Credits

Alison Yang

Comments

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