Then you need to bend or roll the flat length into the curved circle. The diameter of this circle is set to be 30" so we need to first cut a length of 30" x Pi = 94.25". To create a guide for when it comes to welding the tubes together, we want to make a circle out of a bent piece of steel rod (1/8" or 1/4" thick) (1" wide). I would not attempt this without a bandsaw or other power tool as there are a lot of cuts to make. While this step takes the most time, it isn't that challenging. I used a horizontal bandsaw with a block clamped down at the 3" mark to cut as quickly as possibly. You need to cut 144 three-inch tubes (1" diameter). Here are the metal-work steps: Step 1: Cut the tubes.
I am not going to get into all the how-to-weld topics (there are plenty of other ibles and opportunities to learn this elsewhere).
#LED CLOCK MINI CIRCULAR HOW TO#
The metalwork, although tedious, is fairly simply (assuming you already know how to weld). Also, try to get black wire to blend in better.Īrduino MEGA (you could work to put it onto regular arduino but we need 24 I/O pins in this build) Needlenose pliers, helper hands, and safety-wear go a long way to aid you though!ġ20 tubes 3" long (60 sec + 60 min) = 360" of tubing = 30 feet of 1" steel tubing (this is the hardest part to get just because you need so much)Ģ4 tubes 2" long (24 hours) = 48" = 4 ft 3" diameter tubing (I used a broken table support for this)ġ00-200 ft of as thin of wire as you can find (magnet wire is a good option). The only other major tool I used was a soldering iron for the LEDs. This used a curler, but can be done without. I also incorporated a curved piece of 1/8" bar to form a circle 30" in diameter.
I used a horizontal bandsaw to cut all the tubes to their appropriate length and then used a MIG welder to weld them all together. I took this video after a few months of this sitting in the cellar and didn't bother to go through the long debugging process of ensuring all proper connections.įor this project you will need access to welding equipment and metal cutting tools. The ghosting can probably be solved with just using a slightly higher resistor? the glitches are just because some of the wires are loose. Anyways! enjoy this fantastic piece of art and technology! Here is video. It actually stands on its own surprisingly well by balancing between two of the seconds rods. This makes it difficult to mount to wall (I havn't tried yet). It is approximately 30" tall and about 30 lbs? (hard to tell since it is awkward to hold). However, it is missing a home since I do not have space where I live for it :( so it is staying con mis padres at the moment. I have been very excited to get this up since I think it is sooooo cool :) It functions as a very pretty piece of functional art. I finished making this clock months ago but did not bring it with me to school so I wasn't able to take pictures and all until now. Here's the catch, despite being a digital media (LED's) it is still displaying using an analog method (circles!).
A 24-hour clock with hour, minute, and second indicators.
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