Next in the line of interesting and different clock projects is a functional replica of the "Berlin Clock". The Mengenlehreuhr as it is know in German is the first clock in the world to display the time using set theory. The lamp at the top blinks for seconds, then the next two rows down denote the hours, then the following two rows for minutes.
This is certainly a different way of displaying the time, and once fitted inside an enclosure would make an interesting talking point for any home or office. Constructing your own is easy thanks to the creator Marc Deloor, who also simplified the LED control by using a MAX7219 LED display driver. Although only in prototype form below, you can see how unique it is:
To make your own version, check out the project page. And to learn about the original Berlin clock, visit Wikipedia. And for more, we're on facebook, twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.
The most important part of any clock project is the inclusion of an accurate real-time clock IC. Here at Freetronics we have the Maxim DS3232 real-time clock IC module:
Apart from keeping accurate time for years due to the temperature-controlled oscillator and having a tiny coin-cell for backup, it is very simple to connect to your Arduino project. A driver library allows your program to easily set or read the time and date. Perfect for clock projects, dataloggers or anything that needs to know the date and time. Furthermore it contains a digital thermometer and 236 bytes of non-volatile memory to store user settings and other data. For more information, check out the module page here.
