RSSHey Makers, I put together the LED Clock kit today - it took awhile to make but was really rewarding once I got going with it. Obviously the wiring was the hardest part but once you check all your connections and develop a pattern it goes by pretty fast. This kit also taught me a couple of things. One of those was how to tell the polarity of an LED. It all has to do with the length of the legs on the LED. Also I learned firsthand how bright LED's can really be. Unless you just want a clock that appears to be powered by a nuclear power plant inside your house, you will need to cover the clock with a sheet of paper.
All in all although it did take some work I now have a pretty rad LED Clock in my living room now. And I can tell people I hacked it together myself!
As I said before my only warning....would be these LED's are bright....really bright. Check out how they mess with my camera's lens below. If your interested in buying this kit, check out the Maker Shed to order it. More photos after the jump.
Close up of LED Clock Kit in it's box. It all looks so simple with the happy father and his kid looking so content. Will I be so happy at the end of this?
Tools I used. Keep it simple folks. All I needed were wire cutters and the Leatherman to
push the LED tips in and twist the wire bundles.
So now we are starting to get into the kit. One of the first steps is to make sure the power source is working. And yes it was working for sure! As I mention above this is BRIGHT. Check the video down below.
Following the Schematics is pretty easy. I remember having some trouble on one of the steps but it was easy to go back and fix. I do think even some black and white photos in the guide book would of helped. Instead all we get are electrionic schematics and black and white line drawings. Photos would of helped.
Extra detail work is where I had the most fun. Twisting and hooking up the LED's was fun but it did take awhile to assemble the 22 bundles of wires.
Finished product ready to shine in my living room. As I mentioned above this thing is bright. My dog who nornally sleeps on the couch in the living room was not happy about his new neighbor. Eventually I relented and covered the front with a piece of white paper, which also did help visibility...and keeping my pet happy.
I don't know the design of this LED clock but generally if LEDs are too bright you just need to up the value of the current protection resistors. Doubling them will halve the brightness, and so on. Driving LEDs at lower current also helps them last longer.
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