Peter writes “I took an antique clock, and replaced the gearwork with a computer controlled servo, hooked it to the internet to get the weather forcast, and replaced the numbers on the face of the clock with icons, so now it tells the weather instead of the time! I used a fake antique (replica) that I picked up for cheep on ebay. I took out the clock work, and replaced it with a servo and used a phidgets USB – servo controller so I could control the servo from my computer. I had to use some gears so that the needle shaft would turn 360 degrees, since the servo only turns about 180. I also re-designed the face of the clock keeping a similar look to the original time piece. Once that was all set I created a little flash application that would connect to yahoo! weather service, and update the servo. I made it so it could toggle between current condition and the local forecast, and also made it so I could enter another zip code to see what the weather is in other places. Their weather service reports something like 40 different conditions, so I had to condense some of them, I combined some things, and ended up with 14 ‘conditions'” – Link.
10 thoughts on “Antique Weather Clock”
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Kick ass. I wish I had more engineering aptitude so I could do stuff like this.
Wow. Somebody should combine this with the DIY GPS tracking article (http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/10/diy_gps_tracking.html) to create the Weasley’s clock from Harry Potter.
What kind of weather triggers the death icon?
i love this!
can you post more details on your site?
what kind of servo, etc…
dolomite:
2 things get the death icon: no internet connection, or no weather code available for the zip code that was entered.. I needed something that said ‘error’, but though it would be funny / ominous to have a skull.
sfgabe:
its a hitec servo, here’s the kit with the servo, and control board : link
-pete