"Simple" hour/minute binary clock?

[[email protected]]

I've been all up and down Google for a couple hours now trying to find
project instructions for a binary clock that displays just the simple
hours/minutes but can't find it. All the projects I'm finding are BCD
displays only, or display the time in a combination of four or five
rows (including seconds). I was really looking to build one like a
watch I saw, displaying hours on top and minutes below in two rows of
LEDs:

8 4 2 1 (h)
32 16 8 4 2 1 (m)

Can anyone point me in the direction of a project like this?

 

[Homer J Simpson]

I've been all up and down Google for a couple hours now trying to find
project instructions for a binary clock that displays just the simple
hours/minutes but can't find it. All the projects I'm finding are BCD
displays only, or display the time in a combination of four or five
rows (including seconds). I was really looking to build one like a
watch I saw, displaying hours on top and minutes below in two rows of
LEDs:

8 4 2 1 (h)
32 16 8 4 2 1 (m)

Can anyone point me in the direction of a project like this?

Tried http://cre.ations.net ?

 

[Donald]

I've been all up and down Google for a couple hours now trying to find
project instructions for a binary clock that displays just the simple
hours/minutes but can't find it. All the projects I'm finding are BCD
displays only, or display the time in a combination of four or five
rows (including seconds). I was really looking to build one like a
watch I saw, displaying hours on top and minutes below in two rows of
LEDs:

8 4 2 1 (h)
32 16 8 4 2 1 (m)

Can anyone point me in the direction of a project like this?

Are you looking to buy this unit as a kit.....
or
schematics for a 74xx/40xx logic.....
or
some microprocessor schematic.....

By the looks of your description, you already have a spec.

Looks like an opportunity to design your own.

Pick a single chip controller with enough pins to drive the number of
LEDs you want and start writting code.

easy

donald

 

[Homer J Simpson]

I've been all up and down Google for a couple hours now trying to find
project instructions for a binary clock that displays just the simple
hours/minutes but can't find it. All the projects I'm finding are BCD
displays only, or display the time in a combination of four or five
rows (including seconds). I was really looking to build one like a
watch I saw, displaying hours on top and minutes below in two rows of
LEDs:

8 4 2 1 (h)
32 16 8 4 2 1 (m)

Can anyone point me in the direction of a project like this?

ISTR Scientific American had one which had wooden toggling displays.

 

[John Fields]

I've been all up and down Google for a couple hours now trying to find
project instructions for a binary clock that displays just the simple
hours/minutes but can't find it. All the projects I'm finding are BCD
displays only, or display the time in a combination of four or five
rows (including seconds). I was really looking to build one like a
watch I saw, displaying hours on top and minutes below in two rows of
LEDs:

8 4 2 1 (h)
32 16 8 4 2 1 (m)

Can anyone point me in the direction of a project like this?

---
Arguably the easiest way to do this in hardware would be to use a
4020 to divide the 60Hz mains by 3600 to get 1 minute ticks, then to
use those ticks as clocks to drive a 4040. The 4040 could drive
low-current LEDs directly, and a decode at 60 minutes could be used
to drive a 4024's clock input, which would give you binary hours out
of the counter. Finally, a decode at 12:60 would reset everything to
00:00 when the sequence would begin anew.

Would you like a schematic?

 

[[email protected]]

---
Arguably the easiest way to do this in hardware would be to use a
4020 to divide the 60Hz mains by 3600 to get 1 minute ticks, then to
use those ticks as clocks to drive a 4040. The 4040 could drive
low-current LEDs directly, and a decode at 60 minutes could be used
to drive a 4024's clock input, which would give you binary hours out
of the counter. Finally, a decode at 12:60 would reset everything to
00:00 when the sequence would begin anew.

Would you like a schematic?

12:60? Don't you mean 11:60?

Michael

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Are you looking to buy this unit as a kit.....
or
schematics for a 74xx/40xx logic.....
or
some microprocessor schematic.....

By the looks of your description, you already have a spec.

Looks like an opportunity to design your own.

Pick a single chip controller with enough pins to drive the number of
LEDs you want and start writting code.

easy

donald

Popular Electronics, or Radio & Electronics magazines had a DIY
project for this back in the '70s.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

 

[Homer J Simpson]

12:60? Don't you mean 11:60?

No. You are at 12:59 and when you hit 12:60 you go to 1:00 instead.

 

[John Fields]

12:60? Don't you mean 11:60?

 

[John Fields]

No. You are at 12:59 and when you hit 12:60 you go to 1:00 instead.

Right.

 

[John Fields]

---
Oops...

Like Homer said, 12:60 will reset to 1:00. (Not 00:00 as I wrote
earlier.)

 

[Homer J Simpson]

Oops...

Like Homer said, 12:60 will reset to 1:00. (Not 00:00 as I wrote
earlier.)

"Homer brain beer well not work without"

 

[[email protected]]

John Fields wrote:
(snip)

---
Arguably the easiest way to do this in hardware would be to use a
4020 to divide the 60Hz mains by 3600 to get 1 minute ticks, then to
use those ticks as clocks to drive a 4040. The 4040 could drive
low-current LEDs directly, and a decode at 60 minutes could be used
to drive a 4024's clock input, which would give you binary hours out
of the counter. Finally, a decode at 12:60 would reset everything to
00:00 when the sequence would begin anew.

Would you like a schematic?

Actually, yes! Please!

My experience with electronics is somewhat limited - I've done some
projects, but they've all been simple "hack it apart and change it"
stuff, mostly on old video game systems (turning my NES into a portable
system, making a light pen for my Commodore 64, etc.). I can read a
schematic, and I'm sure any symbols I don't know can be found online.

I've found a few projects which are close (ticking out time using an
array of chips/crystals rather than using a BASIC stamp or other
programmed chip to count off time, which I've done before & didn't
like), but all of them are much more complex than what I'm looking for
(a twelve-hour hours/minutes display in two rows), usually including
dozens of LEDs to count out 24-hours and even seconds. I'd like to see
if I can make one running off batteries rather than A/C, which means
I'd need a crystal since I wouldn't have the 60Hz line.

Like I said, though, my current experience is too limited to allow me
to be creative, since I don't have much idea of where to start.

 

[Ancient_Hacker]

I'd start from the back-end so you have something to look at.

Get a 74HC4040 and hook up some LED's to the outputs.
Ground the reset pin. feed any kind of square wave signal or pulses
into the clock input. Watch the pretty LEDS count up.

That will be straight binary counting, which can get a little tedious
to decode.

If you want BCD counting, with 8-4-2-1 lights for each decimal digit,
then use a 4518, that's two decimal counters. But this will count up
to 99, which is inconvenient.

To get it to flip over at 59, you need to detect the "6" and reset with
that, you can do with an AND gate, say a CD4081 or two gates of a
74HC00.

Then to get your 1 cycle clock,I'd use another two 74HC4040s and a
32,768 hz crystal.
The crystal you can get to oscillate with one of the NAND gates in the
74HC00. Google for "cmos crystal oscillator" for examples.




Have fun!

 

[[email protected]]

I'd start from the back-end so you have something to look at.

Get a 74HC4040 and hook up some LED's to the outputs.
Ground the reset pin. feed any kind of square wave signal or pulses
into the clock input. Watch the pretty LEDS count up.

That will be straight binary counting, which can get a little tedious
to decode.

If you want BCD counting, with 8-4-2-1 lights for each decimal digit,
then use a 4518, that's two decimal counters. But this will count up
to 99, which is inconvenient.

To get it to flip over at 59, you need to detect the "6" and reset with
that, you can do with an AND gate, say a CD4081 or two gates of a
74HC00.

Then to get your 1 cycle clock,I'd use another two 74HC4040s and a
32,768 hz crystal.
The crystal you can get to oscillate with one of the NAND gates in the
74HC00. Google for "cmos crystal oscillator" for examples.




Have fun!

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't think I was clear on what I wanted
to build, though. Most of the projects I'm finding have a separate
string of four binary numbers for each place:

O O O X Tens of hours
X X X X Ones of hours
X X X X Tens of minutes
X X X X Ones of minutes
X X X X Tens of seconds
X X X X Ones of seconds

With the Os being empty spots where no LEDs are needed. What I wanted
to make is similar to a wristwatch I found online, with just two rows
of places 8, 4, 2, and 1, the top row being hours and the bottom being
32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1 for minutes. A link the image is here:

http://www.urbanjunkie.co.uk/shopimages/products/normal/binary watch square red led 250.jpg

Maybe I'm just not clear on what you're explaining since I'm having
trouble visualizing (like I said, I can read a schematic, but since I
don't know much beyond that, I can't always "see" it when its spelled
out).

 

[Homer J Simpson]

With the Os being empty spots where no LEDs are needed. What I wanted
to make is similar to a wristwatch I found online, with just two rows
of places 8, 4, 2, and 1, the top row being hours and the bottom being
32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1 for minutes. A link the image is here:

Assuming you want the clock shown
http://www.urbanjunkie.co.uk/search.php?xSearch=binary+watch&submit2=Search

It'd be quicker and easier to use a PIC chip. http://www.microchip.com

 

[Rich Grise]

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't think I was clear on what I wanted to
build, though. Most of the projects I'm finding have a separate string of
four binary numbers for each place:

O O O X Tens of hours X X X X Ones of
hours X X X X Tens of minutes X X X X
Ones of minutes X X X X Tens of seconds X X X
X Ones of seconds

With the Os being empty spots where no LEDs are needed. What I wanted to
make is similar to a wristwatch I found online, with just two rows of
places 8, 4, 2, and 1, the top row being hours and the bottom being 32,
16, 8, 4, 2, 1 for minutes. A link the image is here:

http://www.urbanjunkie.co.uk/shopimages/products/normal/binary watch square red led 250.jpg

Maybe I'm just not clear on what you're explaining since I'm having
trouble visualizing (like I said, I can read a schematic, but since I
don't know much beyond that, I can't always "see" it when its spelled
out).

Those guys do this:

1 ppm clock ----- [BCD 0-59 counter] ----- [BCD 0-12 counter]
10's 1's 10's 1's

All you want is this:

1 ppm clock ---- [Binary 0-59 counter] ---- [ binary 0-12 counter]
5 bits binary 4 bits binary

So, figure out how to get your 1Hz clock, then use three binary 4-bit
counters, and some gating logic to get the minutes to wrap at 60
and the hours to wrap at 12.

Good Luck!
Rich

 

[John Fields]

John Fields wrote:
(snip)

Actually, yes! Please!

My experience with electronics is somewhat limited - I've done some
projects, but they've all been simple "hack it apart and change it"
stuff, mostly on old video game systems (turning my NES into a portable
system, making a light pen for my Commodore 64, etc.). I can read a
schematic, and I'm sure any symbols I don't know can be found online.

I've found a few projects which are close (ticking out time using an
array of chips/crystals rather than using a BASIC stamp or other
programmed chip to count off time, which I've done before & didn't
like), but all of them are much more complex than what I'm looking for
(a twelve-hour hours/minutes display in two rows), usually including
dozens of LEDs to count out 24-hours and even seconds. I'd like to see
if I can make one running off batteries rather than A/C, which means
I'd need a crystal since I wouldn't have the 60Hz line.

Like I said, though, my current experience is too limited to allow me
to be creative, since I don't have much idea of where to start.

---
OK. I'll post a schematic to alt.binaries.schematics.electronic
tomorrow, but since Google won't let you access binaries through
Google Groups I'll email it to you as well.

BTW, what battery voltage do you want to use?

 

[petrus bitbyter]

John Fields wrote:
(snip)

Actually, yes! Please!

My experience with electronics is somewhat limited - I've done some
projects, but they've all been simple "hack it apart and change it"
stuff, mostly on old video game systems (turning my NES into a portable
system, making a light pen for my Commodore 64, etc.). I can read a
schematic, and I'm sure any symbols I don't know can be found online.

I've found a few projects which are close (ticking out time using an
array of chips/crystals rather than using a BASIC stamp or other
programmed chip to count off time, which I've done before & didn't
like), but all of them are much more complex than what I'm looking for
(a twelve-hour hours/minutes display in two rows), usually including
dozens of LEDs to count out 24-hours and even seconds. I'd like to see
if I can make one running off batteries rather than A/C, which means
I'd need a crystal since I wouldn't have the 60Hz line.

Like I said, though, my current experience is too limited to allow me
to be creative, since I don't have much idea of where to start.

Hm... So your requirements are straight forward:
- One X-tal ocsillator
- One divider/counter to bring the oscillator frequency down to 1/60Hz
- One divide by 60 (minutes) counter. All six ouputs to drive a LED and the
rollover to clock the hour counter.
- One divide by 12 or 24 (hours) counter, all four or five outputs to drive
a LED.
- All powered by battery.

You can get almost every X-tal you want if only you are willing to pay for
it. Cheapest ones I'm aware of are in the simple quarz clocks. They contain
an oscillator and divider that gives a pulse every second alternating on two
different outputs. Powered by a 1.5V battery you have a 1/2Hz clock. You
only need a transistor the amplify the 1.5V pulse to the level required by
the subsequent logic.

As you want binary output you will need three binary counters. But as the
range of the counters is not a power of two, you will need to reset them
once they've counted to 29, 59 and 11(or 23) respectively. That means for
the divide by 30 counter you should detect the value 29dec or 11101bin and
reset the counter at the next clockpuls. IMHO best counters for this purpose
are the classic 163 counters. Of course the CMOS version so CD40163B for
instance. The divide by 30 counter requires two of then plus a four input
NAND gate for the reset. Similar for the minutes counter. Decode 59dec or
111011bin to reset the counter. If you want a 12 hour clock, you need only
one CD40163B and decode 11dec or 1011bin for the reset.

At 5V or 6V the CD40163b can provide the 1mA required to drive a low power
LED. You can use buffers to increase this current but for a battery powered
circuit I'd stick on the low power LEDs.

petrus bitbyter

 

[[email protected]]

On 18 Oct 2006 05:07:05 -0700, [email protected] wrote: (snip)
---
OK. I'll post a schematic to alt.binaries.schematics.electronic
tomorrow, but since Google won't let you access binaries through
Google Groups I'll email it to you as well.

BTW, what battery voltage do you want to use?

I really appreciate all your help on this! A big part of this project
and a few other small ones I'm working on is to take my ability to read
schematics and build something from them and actually learn what some
of these components/circuits do so I can be a little more flexible and
creative on some larger things I want to build down the road.

Battery voltage doesn't matter, whatever will drive the circuit. I'd
prefer to not use one of the huge 12v flashlight batteries though,
since I wanted to hook a few batts up in parallel and mount clips to
the circuitboard so the whole thing can be hung on a wall. 9v maybe?
The chips will need a 5v I assume (everything I've been working with so
far does). To drive those, I've cheated and used 5v power adaptors
from Radioshack, but like I said I wanted this to be a self-contained
thing.

Thanks again!