SMD_ICE

[russell 27]

CLOCK.JPG (816.08 KiB) Viewed 1311 times

A mix of Ice Tube Heritage, Archie software, and a few Tricks from my own sleeve. However this clock is built, the fundamental circuit elements are the same, albeit many ways to get there. I chose parts that I felt would yield the best display quality, and a circuit design with my favorite design elements.

- Adjustable Time Oscillator crystal
- MOSFET PUSH-PULL 5 Volt ACV filament generator
- CR2032 Battery
- Toggle Alarm Button
- AUTO Display Brightness Light Sensor

BOARD.JPG (894.66 KiB) Viewed 1311 times

The Real magic here is the software, which my circuit is designed around, Thank You John. And thanks to ADAFRUIT for the original concept. If You'd like to give it a try, or modify to your own desire, files are in the ZIP.

SMD_ICE.zip

(439.21 KiB) Downloaded 119 times

Russell

[jarchie]

Wow. Absolutely gorgeous design.

Thank you, Russell!

[russell 27]

John

One question if I may. I see you have a new build that includes flashing dot display separators. I'm not on your programming ability, but I understand the structure on a higher level now. I thought about adding flashing dashes (G segment), which doesn't appear too complicated. My question is this. During snooze alarm the display alternates between snoozing and current time displayed. While time is displayed, alarm set bar flashes synchronous with seconds change. Would it not be possible to set the timer that controls count on the (A) (B) separators to use crystal count, so those animations would be in sync with seconds change. Ideally a count on the half second is what I'm thinking, but there may not be any prescaller left. I don't expect you to make these changes, just want to know if I'm missing something.

THANKS

Russell

[adafruit_support_bill]

Nice looking build Rusell27. Thanks for the post!

[jarchie]

During snooze alarm the display alternates between snoozing and current time displayed. While time is displayed, alarm set bar flashes synchronous with seconds change. Would it not be possible to set the timer that controls count on the (A) (B) separators to use crystal count, so those animations would be in sync with seconds change. Ideally a count on the half second is what I'm thinking, but there may not be any prescaller left.

There are some indicators that flash or alternate on the second change, but it would be an undertaking to synchronize any event to partial seconds. Only one timer can be driven by the crystal, and it is already used to trigger an interrupt once per second. The drift correction (both manual and automatic) adjusts the crystal timer registers on-the-fly. The same timer wakes the clock once per second during sleep for timekeeping while battery powered. So, unfortunately, a lot of stuff depends on the current crystal timer behavior, and reconfiguring it for driving display events at subsecond intervals would be challenging.

[russell 27]

Thanks for the reply.

[phild13]

That's excellent! Something I have wanted to do but never got around to doing. Thanks for Sharing!

[russell 27]

If anyone built this, I found the original battery reverse bias barrier diode [D2] to be unsatisfactory. It eventually led to charging my battery to 4.8 volts, not good. This battery backup setup (diode arrangement) while effective and simple, isn't the best design. I replaced it with the same diode used for [D3] and still testing. Apparently the characteristics of; or the .1 voltage drop of the original schottky wasn't enough to do the barrier thing. D3 [MSS1P6] had a slightly higher voltage drop, similar to what is in the kit and is a possible option that looks decent so far, I didn't have any other SMD diodes at the moment to test.

I made a small change to the code for flashing dashes in sync with seconds change, between the minutes and seconds if anyone has interest.


Thanks for the interest

Russell

[phild13]

It is on my project list, so I will keep your findings in mind when I go to order parts.