This Illuminating Desk Clock Calculates the Sun and Moon's Positions on a Raspberry Pi Pico
Calculating positions on-device, this desk toy uses an ePaper screen and the Raspberry Pi Pico's sleep mode to prolong battery life.
Ukrainian maker Dmytro Panin has put together a little self-contained clock designed to keep track of the sun's position, using an ePaper display and a Raspberry Pi Pico.
"This device calculates the Sun’s position based on the spectators longitude and latitude," Panin explains of his desk accessory build. "It is built on a Raspberry Pi Pico and powered by a Li-Po battery. To reduce the battery usage I make use of the Pico's deep sleep mode."
The full bill of materials includes the aforementioned battery and Raspberry Pi Pico alongside a Pimoroni Li-Pi Shim add-on for charging the 2,000mAh battery, a RS3231-based real-time clock (RTC) module to keep track of the time, and a 3.7" Waveshare ePaper display.
While Panin has indicated a desire to increase its functionality, the present version of the clock displays the current time alongside an image of the angle of the sun relative to the user's position, sunrise and sunset times, the position of the Earth around the sun, and the position of the moon relative to the Earth.
"While the project is not finished I decided to share it with you as it is on hold," Panin writes. "The pictures were made over a month ago, currently I don't have access to my home lab or hardware to finish it due to the war in Ukraine. But feel free to give it a try if you would like to build one for yourself."
Source code for the project has been published to GitHub under the reciprocal GNU General Public License 3, with a 3D-printable frame for the build to follow when Panin regains access to his lab.