This Casino-Style Clock Is Reel-y Cool
The Time Bandit uses four salvaged slot machine reels to display the hour and minutes.
Unless you actually own a casino, and see a steady stream of customers give you money, slot machines aren't particularly useful. On the other hand, if you were to get four of these gaming reels and set them up with numbers, you could display the time in a 24-hour format. That’s the idea behind the Time Bandit “fruit machine” clock.
The device employs four reels recycled from an old gambling machine, which are each spun using a stepper motor. These are each allowed to spin freely for two seconds, then stopped in the correct position based on four-bit binary codes punched out of a disk on the side of the wheel. These punch codes are read by a custom IR emitter/receiver setup, compared to the actual time, and stopped to show the correct number on the outside.
The system constructed out of a massive amount of perfboard-based circuitry, and a binary clock also reveals the time on the back. According to the Time Bandit's creator, “The challenge was to build something original, using vero board and old school logic for the electronics.” In that respect, the project was a huge success, using a PIC processor and numerous discreet logic components for control.
It looks like a lot of fun to use, spinning numbers and casino-themed icons into the correct position. In addition, there is a colon assembly made out of six LEDs to separate the hours and minutes, as well as blinking internal lights for even more entertainment!
