wooden led clock - analog style

This is a wooden LED clock in analog style.
I don\'t know why I haven\'t seen these before. .
Although digital types are very common.
We\'re gone!
The plywood clock project was originally a simple start-up project for the CNC router.
I looked at the simple project online and found the light (image above).
I have also seen digital clocks glowing through wooden finishes (image above).
Therefore, it is an obvious idea to combine these two projects.
In order to challenge myself, I decided not to use single boards, using only one piece of wood for this project.
I designed the clock in Inkscape (image above).
The design is very simple by choice.
I decided not to route for the wires because at this point I am not sure if I would like to use radial or Perimeter wiring. (
I finally decided to use the surrounding line. )
A neopixel enters each small circular hole, showing the time of minutes and hours, with five-
Minute accuracy.
The circle in the middle will be routed out to accommodate the electronic device.
I designed the toolpath on MasterCAM and used the router to grind out the clock from the plywood of 3/4.
For this I used 15 \"x 15\" pieces with little waste.
The trick is to route the wood as much as possible without going through the wood. Leaving 0. 05\"-0.
1 \"is a good choice for light wood.
If you\'re not sure, it\'s better to leave more wood in because you can always polish the other face into sand.
I ended up removing too much wood from some places, but thankfully it didn\'t end up suffering so much.
For users who do not have access to CNC, please note: This project can be done easily with drilling machine.
All you need to do is set to stop where you leave about 0.
The remaining wood of the base 1 \".
You must be precise, but not too precise.
After all, ideally no one will see all the LEDs light up at the same time, so you can leave with a little bit of sewage.
Electronic equipment is quite simple.
There are 24 neopixels, 12 for display hours, 12 for display minutes, 5-
Minute accuracy.
Arduino pro mini controls neopixels and gets accurate time via DS3231 real time clock (RTC)module.
The RTC module has a coin battery as a backup, so it will not waste time even if it is powered off.
Material: Arduino pro mini (
Or any other Arduino)
Neopixels in the DS3231 splitter board use 2 to connect neopixels in a string.
5 \"wires for the first 12 LEDs and 4 LEDs
The next twelve inch wire
I can use a slightly smaller wire length.
After making the string, I tested it to make sure the solder joints are good.
To show off, I added a short switch to turn on all LEDs.
After the experiment I put the LEDs in the holes and turned them all on and I was happy with the results.
So I polished my front face and applied a PU coat.
I polished my coat off later, but if you don\'t think it\'s aesthetically unattractive, it\'s better not to wear it.
After some testing of the led position inside the hole, I think I will get the best discussion when the led is around 0.
2 \"away from the end of the hole.
When you try it yourself, the brightness of the LEDs for each hole will be very different.
Don\'t worry about this;
We will fix it in the code.
This is because of the type of drill I use.
If I do this again, I will drill holes with a ball head drill.
But, in any case, to get the distance, I mixed some epoxy and put a little bit in each hole.
The Led will be placed from 12 points, moving the reverse
Go through all hour pointer positions clockwise, then reach the minute pointer and move back again from the 60 minute markclockwise.
This way, the LED pattern looks clockwise when we look from the front.
After curing the epoxy for an hour, I added some more epoxy.
This time I put the LEDs in the holes and make sure to cover the wires and solder joints with epoxy.
This makes good light diffusion and fixing wires.
The code is on GitHub and can be modified at will for you to use.
When you turn all LEDs on to the same level, the luminous brightness of each hole will be very different.
This is because the thickness of the wood in the hole is different and the shade of the wood is different, because you can see that the wood color in my work is very different.
To make up for this brightness difference, I made an led brightness level matrix.
Reduces the brightness of brighter LEDs.
This is a trial-and-error process that can take a few minutes, but the results are well worth it.
In this project, I consciously chose not to use single boards.
If so, the thickness of the wood in front of all LEDs is the same.
However, because I have different thickness of wood in front of each LED, and because the wood color is also very different, the LED brightness of each LED is different.
To make all LEDs look the same brightness, I designed a beautiful trick.
I wrote some processing code (on GitHub)
It takes pictures of the clock and analyzes the brightness of each LED in turn.
It then changes the power of each LED, trying to make them all have the same brightness as the dimest LED.
I know it\'s too much, but the image processing is fun!
Also, I would like to develop the calibration code as a library.
You can see the LED brightness before and after calibration in the photo above.
Trap to avoid: * with wood you will get what you pay.
Therefore, there should be high-quality wood.
Birch plywood is a good choice;
Any light Solid Wood will also do well.
I regret my decision.
* It\'s better to drill less than drill more.
A few holes are too deep for my work.
Epoxy is displayed on the front.
It is very noticeable once you notice it.
* Use the ball end bit instead of the straight end bit.
I haven\'t tried the ball end bit, but I\'m pretty sure the result will be much better.
I am considering selling these products on Etsy or tindie.
If you can comment below, I would really appreciate it if you think it makes sense :)