technabob » clock

super mario bros. furniture would make any fan jump for joy

lambert v. — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:20:16 +0000

Neatoramanaut Dennis shared pics of Super Mario-themed shelves that he and his girlfriend Judith put together for their apartment. Actually Judith did almost everything. And Mama Mia, what a piece of woodwork:

The shelves and cloud are all made of wood, while the mushroom, Mario and Luigi figures were store bought; naturally, the princess is missing. The question mark covers on the shelves swing open, so you can easily conceal stuff like flowers, stars, mushrooms, or spare coins in them. The warp pipe is made from a garbage can and transports Judith and Dennis to the World Wide Web, among other things: the pipe hides their Internet, phone and power cables.

Judith surely put a lot of work to make their room awesome, but Dennis also contributed to the Mario look: he designed a sweet sweet sweet looking Game Boy Super Mario clock that I would definitely steal from them if given the slightest chance.

Note that I said “designed”. That’s what Dennis said, so I take it Super Judith was the one who actually made the clock as well. She’s not done either – Dennis says she’s currently working on a Koopa shelf. Have fun with that Judith! May your apartment be safe from harm. I was just joking about stealing your clock. Actually no I’m not. The rest of you can drool at the Super Mushroomized pics of Judith and Dennis’ Mario furniture over at Neatorama.

strobeshnik hard drive clock tells time perfectly once it spins up to speed

technabob — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:10:07 +0000

Check out this cool clock made from an old hard drive. Built by modder Svofski, the clock tells time on the face of the hard drive’s rapidly spinning platter.

The Strobeshnik hard drive clock uses a stroboscopic effect to make it look like the numbers of the clock are persistent on the face of the drive platter – which Svofski galvanically etched to make the cool cutout numbers.

A set of LEDs is positioned behind the platter, and a custom controller circuit automatically coordinates the rapidly blinking LEDs to illuminate precisely when the appropriate number window in the platter is lined up in the right location.

Here’s a video clip of the Strobeshnik clock in action. When it’s first spinning up, it just looks like a bunch of jibbrerish. But wait for it… wait for it… when the drive hits the right speed, the time is there – just as perfect as any other clock.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

For a full build log, schematics and source code for the Strobeshnik, head on over to Svofski’s website.

[via Hacked Gadgets]

segmentus is neither a roman torture device nor a transformer

shane m. — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:19:40 +0000

When I was a kid, my grandmother had this matchstick plaque hanging in her kitchen. I looked at the thing for a while once trying to figure out what exactly it said. As it turns out the thing said “Jesus” you just had to look really hard to see the word in with the pattern the matchsticks made. This new clock from Art Lebedev Studios reminds me of that plaque.

The thing is a bit of an oxymoron in that it is an analog digital clock with hands that shows numbers like a digital clock from the 1970s. The little hands are a marvel as they move to make each number, watching the seconds tick by with the hands moving in unison is very cool.

I will say that the numbers a hard to read for my eyes. Segmentus appears to be a concept device right now and it is shown in black with white arms and clear with black arms. I could certainly see hanging this thing on my wall; it would fit perfectly in the futuristic but old-fashioned world on Caprica.

monochron pong clock is a lot geekier than it looks like

lambert v. — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:54:40 +0000

Sander Mulder made a Pong Clock way back in 2005, but Limor Fried of Adafruit Industries ups the ante with the Monochron, a Pong-themed clock for tinkerers. If you want to have one you better know how to solder, because the Monochron will be delivered to you unassembled, and by that I mean you’ll have to install all the resistors and capacitors yourself.

By default, the Monochron can not only display the time – and a game of Pong that will literally go on until the end of time – but the date and year as well. It can also be used as an alarm clock, and the contrast of the LCD is adjustable. If your modding and hacking skills go way beyond basic soldering, you’ll be happy to know that it’s made to be “easily hackable”.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

You can get the Monochron kit at Adafruit Industries’ online store for $80 (USD).

[via Retro Thing]

redundant clock: match the big hands with the little hands

lambert v. — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:51:47 +0000

Made by Ji Lee, the Redundant Clock is the exact opposite of math clocks:

When the big hand is pointing there and the little hand is pointing there, it’s big hand pointing there and little hand pointing there o’clock.

[via The Presurfer]

sleep remaining indicator: neither an alarm nor a clock, but it involves legos and a laser so who cares?

lambert v. — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:31:43 +0000

So what is it really? It is exactly what it says it is. Made by Nirav Patel, the Sleep Remaining Indicator is a homemade gadget that indicates how long you have to sleep by shining a laser beam on the ceiling (or I guess wherever you want it to shine). As the preset wake-up time draws near, the laser beam grows shorter and shorter. It’s a nerd’s hourglass, if you will.

Patel uses a potentiometer dial in the number of hours he wants to sleep, then hits the reset switch to kick things off for the night. The laser is attached to a servo, which aims the beam towards the roof of Lego pieces you see on the upper right. In effect, the Lego pieces shorten the laser beam as time goes by. Mr. Patel, a video of your creation in action would be nice.

So why make a Sleep Remaining Indicator? Patel explains: “If… like me you wear glasses or contacts, the world when you are in bed turns into a blurry mess. Normally I reach over and unlock my phone or lean over and squint at my Chumby One, but those actions make it harder to get back to sleep. What I wanted was a way to instantly know how much longer I could sleep before my alarm would go off.”

I think he just wanted to build something using Lego blocks and lasers. Masters of Arduino can check out the code at Patel’s blog.

[via Make:]

marc newson’s atmos 566 clock could run forever

range — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:55:18 +0000

Granted, this isn’t a perpetual motion machine, but it is expensive and pretty close, so there ya go! This Jaeger-LeCoultre Atmos clock will stand the test of time without ever losing a beat!

Just a quick thought, doesn’t this contradict the second law of thermodynamics? The one that states that all closed systems will succumb to entropy over time?

Anyway, science aside, this clock was created by Australian aircraft designer Marc Newson and it’s an Atmos clock, meaning that it’s powered by minuscule changes in temperature, which could mean that it could run for a very long time on basically nothing but air and at least 1 degree of temperature change (Celsius) every 2 days.

This limited-edition Atmos 566 clock is encased in a Baccarat crystal to make it just that much more special. There is also a sky chart in the middle, which will indicate the astronomical details of the sky in the Northern Hemisphere.

There will be only 48 of the clear models built and 28 of the blue crystals. They’ll set you back a large amount of money. How much? You’ll have to inquire for the price, but the cheapest and most basic Atmos clocks out there cost $2,600 (USD), and I imagine this one will be much more expensive. Yikes!

[via DVice]

real time grandfather clock made by a man who’s gone cuckoo

lambert v. — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:25:23 +0000

Nah, just kidding. Maarten Baas isn’t crazy, just an artist. Baas made this weird, funny, and hypnotizing grandfather clock as part of his REAL TIME exhibit shown last year in Milan, Italy. The clock has no clockwork, no clock guts whatsoever. So how does it tell the time?

Yes, that’s man a behind the clock face, and he erases and re-writes the minute hands every freakin’ minute. But the man isn’t really inside the grandfather clock – because that wouldn’t be imaginative or creative at all, just creepy – the clock face is an LCD screen that’s playing a 12-hour loop of a man behind a makeshift clock face, erasing and re-writing clock hands every minute. And that is an artist’s interpretation of hard work. I think.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

All of Baas’ clocks have the same theme: instead of machines (analog or digital), humans are used to tell the time – one is a top down view of two people who change the time by sweeping the minute hands, which are made of trash. Then there’s the “digital” version of the grandfather clock. There’s also a “world clock” that shows rooms where everyday objects for the minute hands to tell the time. All striking reminders of how precious each second is. And all of the clocks in Baas’ REAL TIME series will soon be released on Blu-ray, so you can spend your precious seconds watching your precious seconds being spent. Check out Baas’ website for more of his unusual work.

[via The Presurfer]

arduino weather clock tells the temperature, not the time

range — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:58:10 +0000

This kind of reminds me of the Weasley clock that was in Harry Potter, but there’s actually more to it than just the time. It can actually show you what the weather is like outside.

I love how this display is retro and analog. You’d never expect a clock like this to show you the weather. What’s even more surprising is the technology that’s behind the clock. There’s actually a computer that drives this analog display!

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Sean Carney built this display using an old clock and removed the mechanism. He replaced it with a mechanism controlled by an Arduino chipset, which checks the weather on the Environment Canada website, since he’s in Winnipeg. The Arduino checks up on the website every 15 minutes and updates the hands of the clock accordingly.

Check out the full project worklog over at his Sean’s blog.

[via Make:]

ryan mclhinney: the human katamari prince

lambert v. — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:44:22 +0000

Designer Ryan McElhinney must be a fan of Katamari Damacy; some of his lovely creations are basically huge mishmashes of toys that form what would mundane or traditional household fixtures, like this grandfather clock.

McElhinney uses recycled toys for his creations, bonded together (with a katamari?) and then coats them in a high gloss polyurethane lacquer. While the design each piece is similar, the overall look of each finished product is unique because they’re made of a different bunch of toys; look at the lamps below for example.

McElhinney also makes what may be the world’s most distracting mirror frames:

Visit McElhinney’s website and have a look at his other toy collage creations. You can contact him via email to place orders and inquire about pricing.

[via MoCo Loco via Gearfuse]

magnetic tape clock: timeless and attractive

lambert v. — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:00:41 +0000

Etsy seller/green craftster pixelthis uses recycled parts to make timepieces. While he mostly uses discarded hard disk drives, this gem of a clock features a 7″ magnetic tape reel, giving it a simple yet classy look. As pixelthis says, it’s a perfect gift for “that geek or audiophile you know who is so hard to shop for”, especially since magnetic tapes have been around for at least 75 years, and although they’re being phased out in favor of digital systems magnetic tapes are still known for their high quality and low cost. So this is one timeless timekeeper.

Like real magnetic tape, the magnetic tape reel clock is also cheap: you can get it for only $28 (USD) at pixelthis’ Etsy shop. The clock hands are also available in black; if you want him to swap the hands with the ones he uses on his other clocks, just let him know and he’ll gladly customize your order. He’s also a junk junkie and is willing to trade his creations for mechanical or electronic parts, especially Apple ones. I bet he gets a buttload of Mighty Mice.

jason von nieda’s tube clock tells time in a vacuum

range — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 21:05:49 +0000

This awesome clock was put together by Jason von Nieda, and I have to say that it looks great. It’s definitely one of the best vacuum tube clocks out there!

Jason put together this clock in about 4 months. He built it around a retro Russian IV-18 Nixie tube. As inspiration, he cites Adafruit’s Ice Tube Clock, but didn’t like its acrylic enclosure. He decided to improve upon it and credits John Pfeiffer for the design of the enclosure.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The enclosure itself is great. It reminds me of some Apple computers, because of the perforated metal grills that are used in it.

I think that this clock simply look amazing. I’d love to have one in my bedroom or near my workstation.

[via Make]

seiko’s pyramidtalk makes a comeback

range — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:25:37 +0000

For some reason, Seiko decided to reissue this clock, which was last popular when Ronald Reagan was President. You got to admit though, there is something about it.

This talking pyramid clock was all the rage back in 1984 when it was released. It was the first talking quartz clock. At its peak, it was selling about 200,000 units a year.

Updates to the PyramidTalk clock include blue LED lighting, spoken date, as well as weather and temperature data, in Japanese and English. I’m kind of wondering why they needed to release it again. It looks definitely retro, and I do have to say that I have a bit of a weakness for talking clocks, especially ones that talk in Japanese.

For now, this clock is only available in Japan for approximately $120 (USD), but if you want to get it now, you should try contacting exporters like Japan Trend Shop, Geek Stuff 4 U or Rinkya.

[Seiko via Crunchgear]

bulbdial clock: sundial 2.0

lambert v. — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 13:54:50 +0000

The evil & mad scientists at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories built upon the idea of a certain David Friedman for a digital sundial. A normal sundial relies on the sun and only displays the hour. The Bulbdial clock is lit up by three layers or rings of LEDs that cause the gnomon (the object in the center of the clock that casts the shadow) to have three shadows. So aside from the hour hand, there’s a minute and a second hand as well.

The Bulbdial comes in one of four available case designs. The cases are laser-cut acrylic, and come in Tortoiseshell, Abalone Pearl, Black Granite, or Granite back/Clear front. Fancy names, but if you ask me I like the clock better when it’s naked:

The Bulbdial is Arduino-based, and both it’s hardware and software are open-source, which means that the clock is hacker-friendly. Makes you wonder why these nerds insist on calling themselves Evil Mad Scientists, what with their harmless products and open source philosophy. You can get the Bulbdial Clock Kit at Evil Mad Science for $65 (USD). Yes, I said “kit”; basic soldering skills are required to assemble the whole thing together. Still doesn’t make you evil mad scientists, Evil Mad Scientists. Visit the Evil Mad Scientists’ website for more information on how to make your own Bulbdial clock.

[via Boing Boing]

harry potter clock shows family’s whereabouts through the magic of twitter

lambert v. — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:55:39 +0000

Harry Potter fans will no doubt remember the Weasley’s strange but practical clock. Instead of telling the time, the clock showed the location or status of each Weasley, including “mortal peril” at the 12 o’clock position. A software version of the clock would be awesome enough, but someone with mad workshop skills went ahead and made a physical version of the clock that relies on good ol’ muggle technology to work. Behold the Magic Clock:

A friendly family debate between an old nerd versus his geek offspring resulted in a real version of the useful but fictional device. The nerd in question goes by the Picasa Web name Slip, and his two sons the geeks, who love the Harry Potter series. After championing science and engineering over magic, the ultimate argument being “they actually work” (like that’ll convince kids), Slip felt that he needed to show his kids something tangible to drive his point home, so he made the Magic Clock.

While the outside of the clock – an old clock body with brass plate face and hands – looks handsomely aged, any self-respecting nerd will tell you that it’s the innards that count. The clock is powered by a Seeeduino microcontroller board; a wireless router allows it to move the four servos to position the each of the clock’s hands to the appropriate status or location based on Slip’s Twitter updates. The clock will look for keywords that correspond to the ones on the clock face. If no match is found, then the hand will point to “Read Me” at the 4 o’clock position.

Messy muggle magic:

It took an insane amount of imagination and effort to make this clock. If you’re interested in the details check out the Magic Clock’s website for Slip’s exhaustive how-to. I’d like to think that while working on the clock, Slip – in a moment of weakness – wished that he could just whip out a wand and poof the damned thing into existence.

[via Coolest Gadgets]

taskwatch magnetic white board with clock: write on time

lambert v. — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:53:09 +0000

When I first saw this gadget’s name I instantly wished that it referred to an industrious monster instead. Wouldn’t you rather hire a hardworking Yeti than buy a magnetic board with a clock on it? But actually the TaskWatch isn’t so bad. It’s a magnetic white board (Appx. 35″ w x 24″ h)with a clock on it: simple and practical. The clock is in the middle of the white board, so it’s perfect for planning your day. It comes in two versions, one with a whole clock face:

and one that only shows (normal) office hours:

You can order the TaskWatch at Art Lebedev Studio’s online store for approx. $240 (USD). If you ask me I think they should make a third version which has removable/readjustable hour- and minute markers, so if your office or project hours are erratic or not the usual 9-6 you can adjust the clock accordingly. And if you ask me one more time, I still want to work with a diligent Bigfoot.

[via Holycool]

mario through time, in convenient (and sorta ironic) clock form

alisha k. — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:37:45 +0000

So many Marios, and so little time… or all the time in the world. Really, it’s a kind of point-of-view issue here. Are you a half-full kinda person? Then you’re looking at all the Marios and all the time. Way to be positive. Go you.

But before you really start patting yourself on the back, ask yourself this one vastly important question: could you rock the same pair of overalls for two decades? Because at some point, I would have to change, and I’m not talking about depending on the Tanooki Suit. Sometimes you just need some variety.

Luckily, you can get it with this clock, albeit in a form of variety limited to visions of Mario. He’s certainly changed a lot, eh? And yet still charming and rotund as ever. Pick up this clock for $30 at Etsy. Nostalgia? That, my friend, is free.

catena wall clock tells time with bike chain

technabob — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:03:49 +0000

Here’s an unusual concept for a wall clock. Instead of telling the time with hands or a digital display, the Catena clock tells time along the perimeter of a bicycle chain.

Designed by Andreas Dober for Germany’s Anthologie Quartett, the Catena (Latin for “chain”) has a certain retro-steampunk look about it. Time is told using copper digits mounted on the outside of a bike chain that rotates around a single motorized gear. Now don’t bother trying to tell the exact time with this. The only numbers on the chain are the hours, so any attempt to figure out minutes is a crap-shoot.

While I dig the grungy minimalism of the clock, I don’t dig the $2300+ (USD) price tag. But I suppose if you’ve got really deep pockets, you can order one over at Unica Home.

On the other hand, I won’t tell anyone if you decide to make your own out of $20 worth of junk you find at a flea market.

[via Incredible Things]

london’s big ben clock on twitter: it’s about time. or is it?

lambert v. — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:16:21 +0000

You read it right: the iconic clock tower is on Twitter. Guess what it tweets?

It is a clock after all. Although I think it could also be looking to get high. It looks like it’s getting more and more desperate by the hour too.

[via The Presurfer]

manual digital clock makes you change the time by hand every minute

technabob — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:59:13 +0000

When I first saw this clock design, I was scratching my head wondering why you’d want a clock that doesn’t keep time at all. After all, who wants a clock that you have to manually change the time on every time the minute changes?

Then I realized that this clever LED-lookalike clock isn’t a clock at all. It’s an educational puzzle for teaching your kids how to read digital clocks. After all, analog clocks aren’t the norm these days, so why would you need to teach your children to read time on a more modern display?

I guess the only problem I have with the whole concept is that Digits‘ Jumbo LED clock trainer comes with a bunch of tiny little pieces that are easy to lose (and possibly swallow). And it’s not cheap either. At $100 bucks, I could probably buy myself a whole roomful of cheap digital alarm clocks and set them all to different times. The Digits Jumbo LED clock trainer is available over at Ponoko.