It has been a while since my last MetaClockClock, and with the continued shortage of electronics on the market I had no chance to order new parts. But I still had some remaining parts, and with the modular design of the ’round’ clocks I was able to build up another one, but this time with even less than the usual minimum of 24 clocks:

So if you are up to build a MetaClockClock with less clocks, this might be the way for you.

BOM and Build Instructions

The build is basically the same as for the previous clock, only that the clocks are arranged in a different way. Technically this is clock version 5 or V5. You find general instruction in the MetaClockClock Build instructions and on the Wiki on GitHub.

All the files (CNC/Laser/3D Printer) and Software are on GitHub too.

The front plate can be laser cut or cut with a CNC:

The holders for the clocks are laser cut:

The front plate (4 mm birch plywood) has been stained (Walnut stain):

Both the plywood and the frame get the same color:

Then the clocks and the master board get attached with the lasercut mounting points to the back of the front plate and wired together:

In that design I’m using a square outer shape, but it would be interesting to have round outline too.

Software

The clocks share the same software as for all the other builds. All the firmware is using the NXP MCUXpresso IDE and SDK. The only difference is on the master for the ’round’ version and support for it has been added to the GitHub repository.

The ‘master’ project already has a pre-defined setting in platform.h to use the new arrangement of clocks:

This turns on the new module CircleClock which handles the new clock arrangement.

Intermezzos

Most of the animations and intermezzos of the other layouts work very well with the round arrangement. Of course no ‘text writing’ is possible, as it is not a matrix arrangement. But the circular shape allows some very nice patterns.

Below a video of an early version showing the effects:

Below the version completed with the frame:

The intermezzos can be configured not to touch the center clock: that way the current time is shown all the time.

Summary

The ‘circular’ or round arrangement of clocks works very nice. With the modular clock design it was really easy to have a new pattern, and the software was easy to adapt and change. It is possible with that pattern to build a MetaClockClock with less clocks (1 center plus 12 outside), but for sure other arrangements and patterns could be possible. Just be free to experiment and to come up with your own arrangement and custom animations.

Happy circling 🙂

Links

• New MetaClockClock V3 finished with 60 Clocks
• GitHub: https://github.com/ErichStyger/MetaClockClock
• New Round Clock Version
• MetaClockClock Build Instructions
• MetaClockClock GitHub