LED Clock

alex,

So this is my approach of an LED clock. There are zillions of LED clocks out there. Mine is some kind of retro and minimalistic version. It consists of

  • AVR ATmega8, 8 Kb, 4.096 MHz
  • Everlight 2.3″, LED Matrix, 8×5 LEDs
  • some resistors, capacitors and a quarz
  • optional serial connection for configuration

The LED matrix is used in landscape mode, that means it uses a very tiny font. Most characters fit in 3×5 pixels. The font supports only uppercase characters. Because the display has only 8 columns the message has to scrolled.

The display has the following features at the moment:

  • Displays a greeting message
  • Displays the current time, hh:mm:ss
  • Displays a custom message
  • Messages and current time can be modified via serial port

IMGP1238

Schematics
Here is the schematic of the LED clock. The Everlight 5*8 Dot Matrix was not available as part of the Eagle libraries, so I build the part on my own. It looks a bit clumsy as it is my first try to design components.

schematics

Here is a video of the LED Clock. You can see how it changes through different modes from telling the time to displaying a greetings message.

Click To Play
Click To Play

play_blip_movie_224175();

11 Comments

  1. Nice!

    I’m mucking around with an LED matrix at the moment myself. I’m a bit stuck on the scrolling though, I can make it scroll one character at a time but it starts at the left hand side, so looks crap. Any possibility of seeing your code? In return, I’ve got an eagle part library for an 8×8 matrix that I’m sure you could alter to a 8×5 easily…

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  2. Hi Alex,

    just add more spaces to your string, that should help with the scrolling. The source is unfinished and as always without any warranty.
    Anyway, here you go …

    matrix.zip

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  3. hey,

    may you give me your eagle file for the dot matrix thing? i have a 7×5 one here but no files it anywhere. altering yours would save me a lot of time. =)

    greets

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  6. Hi jfk,

    the part has not been used in a PCB until now so I will not release something untested. It was my first part and it was a bit crappy. I think I will remake it.

    Cheers,
    Alex

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  7. I’m sorry, I still don’t understand how to change the clock and messege via serial port. can you give the program or how to change them? And if i add more led matrix, which code should I change?I’m so intersting with this project. My plan is make this project for gift to my girl. can you help me? thanks before.

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  10. Hi Alex

    Your device is really amazing, im very suprised.
    Is it possible to send me the bit fuse and the hex file of the device ?
    It were very nice of you..

    Thx
    best regards

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  11. Hi Maustafa,
    I don’t have any of the files any more, but as I remember, there were nothing special about the fuses.
    Cheers,
    Alex

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Comments are closed.