LCD Clock Syncs via Network

Technology
LCD Clock Syncs via Network


David Moisan wanted to outfit his local cable access station with a network-synchronized clock, but since an off-the-shelf NTP clock made for television stations would have cost around $1,000, purchasing even a single clock was out of the question. Not one to be deterred, he hacked up his own from a #Twatch, the ethernet-enabled LCD backpack from our friends at Dangerous Prototypes. Head over to David’s blog to check out the code and the incredibly thorough manual he wrote for the project. While this is is the first embedded microcontroller project David has ever finished, he assures us it won’t be his last. [via Dangerous Prototypes]

6 thoughts on “LCD Clock Syncs via Network

  1. ka1axy says:

    I bought this one a year or so ago for under $100. I put it in a nice extruded aluminum case. It sits in my wiring closet.
    http://shop.tuxgraphics.org/electronic/detail_ntp_clock.html

  2. David Moisan (@dmoisan) says:

    ka1axy, nice link. The device I based this on is out of production, so I am looking for alternatives to recommend to others. There are a *lot* of ways to implement an NTP display nowadays.

    My using the #Twatch was happenstance–I’d bought a Netduino Plus earlier and was going to try it out–with a nearly-identical LCD display I’d gotten at the MIT Flea! The Netduino will work for this use for about the same parts cost and size.

    Next step is a bigger display. Unless someone makes a tablet-sized HD44780-based LCD, :) I’ll use regular seven-segment LED’s.

  3. Leo Jodoin says:

    Ya congratulations to you David Moisan for great work in TIME!! :)

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Matt Richardson is a San Francisco-based creative technologist and Contributing Editor at MAKE. He’s the co-author of Getting Started with Raspberry Pi and the author of Getting Started with BeagleBone.

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