Clock

Building the Micro Word Clock

Building the Micro Word Clock

Andrew

Word clock = expensive. Micro word clock = attainable.

Finished Micro Word Clock in an acrylic case.
Finished clock with letters printed on transparency film, mounted with double-stick tape, and in an acrylic case.

Back at the end of November, 2014, I saw a post on Hackaday about a word clock. However, not just any word clock, but a Micro Word Clock utilizing an 8×8 LED matrix that was 20mm square (~0.8″)! Despite the low utility of such a tiny clock, it seemed like a fun project to learn SMT soldering, and it was cheap enough given the low parts count. Also, the designer of the clock, Daniel Rojas, had good documentation and made everything available online, even putting the boards on OSH Park for super-easy ordering. I got to work buying components…

The parts

Components laid out
7 of the 8 components.

The video Daniel created showing off the project indicated just 8 components – I added a USB cable for power. I also created a laser-cut case.

*Much of the following is pulled from the GitHub repository for the project, with some of my own notes*

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