I followed instructions from Make magazine (Volume 67) and I made a word clock.
I also started a code project for discovering ways to place words on a grid. With all possible optimization like shaping words in a form of crossword.
Why
It will stay on the table and will show time when I need to head out of the office.
Process
Ordered laser cut
Bought screws and adafruit boards. In the original instructions it used Trinket Pro 5V (ATmega328), but I followed the deprecation warning and chose Adafruit ItsyBitsy 32u4 - 5V 16MHz (Atmega32u4). Imprtant difference between them: the latter is missing mount holes which is the only way to attach the board to the acrylic case inside. I put it inside the case loosely, thus the USB connector become impossible to connect back once you unplug it, so one USB cable took roots in this build for a long time.
How do you call screen that does not display time with digits, but tells it with words?
Result
The clock is working.
Links
- Laser cut layouts, Arduino code: https://github.com/andydoro/WordClock-NeoMatrix8x8
- Add ItsyBitsy to Arduino IDE. Additional Boards Manager URL:
https://adafruit.github.io/arduino-board-index/package_adafruit_index.json