Spotted in the MAKE Flickr pool, a nifty laser “sundial,” controlled by an ATtiny24 MCU and a servo:
An Atmel ATtiny24 microcontroller drives an R/C servo which in turn rotates a line LASER taken from a LASER level.
The microcontroller runs a software real time clock and turns the servo and the line LASER to mimic the shadow cast from the style of a sundial as the time goes.
XXI century sundial – Now for Arduino also!
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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.
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This is not a sundial. This is a clock. I wonder whether they know what the word “sun” means.
I bet they do know what the word sun means. They are using a laser and some hackery to recreate it’s path indoors.
No, thy are not recreating the sun’s path indoors, unless I missed something unsaid in the write-up. The sun’s path is a complex two-sinusoidal function forced by the Earth’s orbital motion, not a straight-forward 24 equal hours clock.
That certainly could be coded into the Arduino, though…
For some real sundials, you might want to check out this huge collection of photos and info:
http://StainedGlassSundials.com
Dave
you know, that’s why the word “sundial” is in quotes, it means that it is being taken out of the vernacular.