3D-Printed Stepper Motor Clock Goes Up and Down with the Time
Luuk Esselbrugge's device shows hours and minutes using four sliding digits, and reveals the temperature throughout the day as well.
While time progresses only in one direction, it seems there is no shortage of innovative ways to express this phenomenon. Take for instance, Luuk Esselbrugge, who has created a clock using a series of four 3D-printed number plates that move up and down in their fixtures to show the hours and minutes.
Underneath each of these plates is a 28BYJ-48-style stepper motor, powered by a ULN2003 driver. This pulls the number plate to produce time readings, employing a rack system that's printed on the back of the plates and a pinion gear attached to the stepper. A WS2812B LED shines red through each digit when in time mode to make it clear which digit is active, and it's also capable of indicating the temperature with the LED shining green.
Time settings are produced via a NEO-6M GPS module, so it should theoretically keep the time perfectly as long as satellites are in range. Everything is controlled by an Arduino Nano, and code as well as STL files for the build are available here on GitHub.
The backing for this clock is simply a cutting board, which sets things off nicely. It's a nice low-effort technique that would be good to keep in mind for other display projects that need to look nicely finished!