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Neat Little Clock - Make Your Own

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https://www.amazon.com/Sharper-Image-Electronic-Display-Contemporary/dp/B07CD7S9PZ

Sharper Image LED Word Digital Clock, 7.75", Copper Finish,
Light-Up Desk & Wall Clock

. . .

   Kinda cool idea ... a 12x11 array of letters/words
   which light up accordingly to spell out the time.

   People who like to do home projects might like to
   make one of their own ... a Pico would make a good
   engine, maybe COULD do it with an Uno or decent PIC,
   but you will need a few 3->8 chips to work all the
   lights directly. The Uno/PIC ... you'll also want
   the better I2C time chip (do they still make the
   'ChronoDot' ?).

   The letter stencil ... not sure. Clearly could be
   made on a 1-sided fiberglass full-clad board that
   could be etched ... but it'd be up to you to figure
   out how to impress neat letters - neg image - onto
   the thing.

   HAVE used a laser printer and (two) sheets of
   transparency film to do circuit boards before
   however. Laser is spotty/dotty on such film
   so you overlay TWO sheets to get a decent photo
   mask. The sheets should be opposite, so the toner
   layers touch each other. Use more of a spot light
   source, not diffused, and you can get useful stuff
   down to 3mm tracks. There are now board makers who,
   from a file, will produce single-unit lots for not
   TOO much money.

   Any with chemical photography equipment and a big
   flat-field lens - easier. Just use 4x5 or 5x7
   ultra-fine-grain film and high-contrast development
   and you get a great mask. Just photo the laser sheet.

   It all WOULD cost more than the commercial unit, but it
   would be YOUR unit ... maybe make it a little bigger.
   I am tempted  :-)

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Neat Little Clock - Make Your Own c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-12-07 21:45 -0500

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