wombweller
Member
Hi all
Over the past few months, ok many months I have been putting together an LED. clock circuit.To be very honest Ive not done this quite on my own as I have had much help from a good friend
The main area's of the circuit consists of:
1)A timebase section made up from a HEF4060 ,HEF4013 and a 32.768 watch crystal.
2) A PIC 16f876A the brains of the circuit
3) x2 ULN2003A LED drivers.
4) A LM35 temp sensor.
I wanted to make the digits for this clock and I purchased some bright blue LED's for the project-
x3 per segment= 21 per digit = 21x6=121 + 4 for colons = 125 LED's
For test purposes I have the clock running on some off the shelf digits purchased from ebay-
**broken link removed**
The time came to start the LED enclosure that would make up the final dial with the six digits.
Now I wanted to make this BIG!! each digit being 100x200 with six of these the dial would come out around 900mm long.
I decided to construct the dial using the Sparkfun method as it seems to work for them-
https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutorial_info.php?tutorials_id=47
All went well until I decided to do a test run just to see how the Bright Blue LED's would shine through the Frosted Acrylic sheet I purchased for the front mainly to defuse and spread the light from the LED's-
**broken link removed**
I found that the LED shape was so defined and was clearly seen through the frosted acrylic sheet, even when I moved the Led back away from the acrylic each led could be seen and not the defused light that I expected.
On this forum we have had many threads about constructing the circuit for a clock but not much about the digit housing consruction.Can any give any advice and their own accounts how to overcome my problem with the LED's
Once I have finalised the project I will post this on the forum for all to see.
Lets hope it's not too long!!!!
Looking forward.
Mark
Over the past few months, ok many months I have been putting together an LED. clock circuit.To be very honest Ive not done this quite on my own as I have had much help from a good friend
The main area's of the circuit consists of:
1)A timebase section made up from a HEF4060 ,HEF4013 and a 32.768 watch crystal.
2) A PIC 16f876A the brains of the circuit
3) x2 ULN2003A LED drivers.
4) A LM35 temp sensor.
I wanted to make the digits for this clock and I purchased some bright blue LED's for the project-
x3 per segment= 21 per digit = 21x6=121 + 4 for colons = 125 LED's
For test purposes I have the clock running on some off the shelf digits purchased from ebay-
**broken link removed**
The time came to start the LED enclosure that would make up the final dial with the six digits.
Now I wanted to make this BIG!! each digit being 100x200 with six of these the dial would come out around 900mm long.
I decided to construct the dial using the Sparkfun method as it seems to work for them-
https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutorial_info.php?tutorials_id=47
All went well until I decided to do a test run just to see how the Bright Blue LED's would shine through the Frosted Acrylic sheet I purchased for the front mainly to defuse and spread the light from the LED's-
**broken link removed**
I found that the LED shape was so defined and was clearly seen through the frosted acrylic sheet, even when I moved the Led back away from the acrylic each led could be seen and not the defused light that I expected.
On this forum we have had many threads about constructing the circuit for a clock but not much about the digit housing consruction.Can any give any advice and their own accounts how to overcome my problem with the LED's
Once I have finalised the project I will post this on the forum for all to see.
Lets hope it's not too long!!!!
Looking forward.
Mark