Three-panel analog meter clock

Arduino

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. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

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May 27th, 2008 2

We’ve blogged about analog meter clocks before. This one uses three meters (for hours, minutes, and seconds) and is powered by Adafruit Arduino and an Ethernet Shield.

A month or so ago, a friend of mine introduced me to the Arduino Board. It’s an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on a simple microcontroller. Add various peripheral boards called “Shields” and you have a very flexible, very capable, easy to program development platform. I ordered one from Adafruit Industries, along with their Ethernet Shield, and Proto Shield. Together, these modules would be able to log on to a SNTP time server, get the correct time, and display the HOURS digit on one analog panel meter, the MINUTES digit on the next, and the SECONDS digit on the last. What a cool way to display the correct time!

3Meter Clock

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