Announcing Release of BTFClock

Greetings smoke-eaters. It has been a while since ol’ Sopwith published a blog post. That is because I have been working hard on another clock project.

For those of you who do not want to read the rest of this post, here is the datasheet.

A while ago, I came across a very cool Thingiverse project by a French Maker comrade named jeje95. He created a replica of the time-circuit in the Delorean filmed in the classic movie Back to the Future.  Certainly one of the best movies ever produced, with a near cult-like following to this day.

jeje95 also produced a pretty funny video of his creation, that I highly recommend you watch.

I produced one of these clocks, and as all Makers are obligated to do, I decided to make it better. I ditched the Arduino for a Raspberry Pi Zero, added a much better real-time hardware clock (RTC), and a whole lot more.

Here is the list of changes I made to jeje95’s design.

  • Dumped the Arduino for a Pi Zero

  • Accurate RTC with rechargeable battery

  • Hosts a wireless access point (AP)

  • Hosts a configuration web server

  • Acts as a managed WiFi client

  • Synchronized time with Internet NTP

  • Programmable time settings

  • AM & PM LED’s are active

  • Brightness controls

  • Sleep mode to blank display at night

  • Hackable (SSH)

  • Installation script included

  • Detailed documentation

Now, this very cool clock is programmable and hosts a web service. Here is a screen shot of the web service Status page.

The user-interface is responsive (mostly) and it works on most devices including smart phones. As you can see in the above screen-shot, the red led’s show the “Destination Time”, the green led’s show the current time, and the yellow led’s show the “Departure time. The destination and departure times are programmable.

The build and programming are done. I have several working prototypes. I am now finishing up the detailed documentation that shows you how to build one of these very cool gadgets.

If you do build one, I promise you it will attract a lot of attention .

Stay tuned.

Sopwith

 

 

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