Though the idea is not new to me or the rest of the world, creating a real time binary clock does provide quite an interesting embedded systems problem to solve while, at the same time, producing an interesting piece of functional electronics. I’ve picked this as my next project because it’s relatively simple to implement and design, and I want to use it as a ramp-up to using Atmel AVR microcontrollers.
I’ve designed, on paper, what I want to build and am currently waiting to receive the microcontrollers and hardware programmer. While waiting, I’m going to be looking into designing the casing and pc board that will house the clock. I’m also thinking of learning how to etch my own boards so that, for simpler boards like this one will be, I can save money by making them myself instead of paying to have a board fabricated.
More details and schematic pictures to come as the ideas are lifted from paper to pspice.
To see what this could eventually look like, check out the production versions at Think Geek and Discovery Cannel
(side note… I’m probably not saving any money building it myself, but that’s not the point of taking on a DIY project… the knowledge gained will be worth more than the cost of the project any day)
