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Clock/Calendar Project: Additional Components

Discussion in 'BoM Blogs' started by Blackthorne TA, Jan 25, 2013.

  1. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Remove all ads!
    Now that I had the WWVB receiver, what else did I need to complete the design?

    Since I wanted this clock to have an LED display, I needed something to drive a fair number of LEDs. What I decided to use was the Intersil ICM7228 8-digit microprocessor compatible LED display decoder/driver. What the ICM7228 was designed to do is drive 8 7-segment LED displays which if you are not familiar with them includes 7 LEDs arranged in a figure 8 plus an 8th LED for a decimal point. Driving 8 of these displays allows for a grand total of 64 LEDs in a display. A nice extra feature of the ICM7228 is that it has a no-decode mode that allows independent control of all 64 LEDs, which is exactly what I needed.

    Next, I decided to include a battery-backed Real-Time Clock (RTC) chip to maintain the time and date in between WWVB updates and across unplugging the clock (driving so many LEDs would make battery power fairly short-lived so the clock will plug into the wall and only have a small coin battery backup). For this I decided on the Maxim DS1307 I2C interface RTC which had everything I needed: Battery backup; simple serial interface via I2C; and included registers for seconds, minutes, hours, day of the week, day of the month, month and year.

    To control all this I decided to use the same Cypress CY7C63823 microcontroller that I used for the USB DSO. Even though I didn't need the USB functionality, I already had some left over from before and it included some unique timing functionality that would be useful for decoding the demodulated WWVB signal.

    Then of course I needed the LEDs. I decided to use four colors (blue, green, red and yellow) of tiny (1.6mm x .8mm) surface mount LEDs that I was able to get for less than 1 cent apiece.

    So those are the main functional parts of the design. Of course there are miscellaneous other parts like a power supply, resistors, capacitors, different connectors and a coin cell battery holder, but all that will be seen in the complete schematic designs coming up in a later update! :)
     
    Blackthorne TA, Jan 25, 2013
    #1
  2. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    Nice, but a couple of pictures wouldn't hurt!
     
    Taluntain, Jan 26, 2013
    #2
  3. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Oh you will get plenty of pictures of all of the above and more. :) This was just to outline the design decisions I made and what parts I selected. Coming up will be the clock face design, electronic schematics, PCB designs, and of course pictures of the build in process and the final product.

    Lots to look forward to! :)
     
    Blackthorne TA, Jan 26, 2013
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  4. Dice

    Dice ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran

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    Oh I just realized that you are blogging again BT. Sorry I was late getting to read them. I'm looking forward to seeing the pics too.
     
    Dice, Jan 31, 2013
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  5. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    :) There was no schedule to follow. I'm glad to see you're interested though.
     
    Blackthorne TA, Feb 1, 2013
    #5
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