W&r clock

MY FIRST ARDUINO PROJECT

by barbara sansone

About This project

JUNE, 2009

Wabs&Rocco Clock is my first Arduino project. I started studying Arduino in March 2009 with Alex Posada at Hangar in Barcelona. Classes were once a week, and unfortunately I dind't have time to study at home. We also held an intensive, three-day workshop during SonarMàtica (a part of the Sonar Festival, Barcelona's well-known international festival of advanced music and multimedia art). I conceived the idea and created the clock as a wedding gift for my dear friend Sabrina, so it will live in Dettingen (Germany).

greta with the W&R Clock

GRETA WITH THE W&R CLOCK

How it works

The lit LED position marks the hour, and its color represents the minutes. During the course of an hour, each LED changes colors in 20-minute intervals, going from red to green to blue to red, and, thus, demonstrating the full-range of possible color combinations.

AN ACCELERATED DEMO VIDEO

experiment 1

HOW THE LEDS CHANGE COLOR

some experiments to start with

I began with a simplier circuit without soldering and with normal one-color LEDs.

experiment 1

FIRST EXPERIMENTS WITH ONE COLOR LEDS

the advanced circuit

The advanced version of the circuit is built with soldering and using RGB LEDs.

connections scheme

ADVANCED CONNECTIONS

W&R Clock inside

internal circuits

AFTER A Lot of soldering

W&R Clock outside

internal circuits

THE FINAL RESULT

More arduino projects

INGREDIENTS
- 1 ARDUINO USB
- 1 TLC5940 (16 chANNELS PWM unit)
- 3 TRANSISTORS irf9510
- 12 LEDS RGB
- 1 UNIVERSAL POWER UNIT 500mA max 12,5w
- A LOT OF CABLES
- A SOLDERING IRON
- SOLDERING WIRE
- SOME PIN-CONNECTORS
- A COUPLE OF RESISTORS
- MORE THAN TWO HANDS
- TIME, PATIENCE & A GOOD ATTITUDE
TIME NEEDED
- I MADE IT IN ABOUT 30 HOURS (I was an absolute beginner)
MANY THANKS TO
- HANGAR (for the opportunity, the room, & the materials)
- ALEX POSADA (for being the best and most patient prof)
- MIGUEL (prof 2, for fixing my solderings)
- PIERO SACCO (for his great help)
- IRENE ZARRANZ (for her support)
- DAVID SOLÍS (for the tools, especially the mythical "chupadora")
- GRETA (for finding the wooden ball)

THE ARDUINO CODE
(this code is a modified version of the Basic Use sketch [commented]. It can be downloaded with the Arduino Library for the Texas Instruments TLC5940)
- #include "Tlc5940.h"
  
  int direction = 1;
  int channel = 1;
  long time = millis();
  int color = 0;
  long interval = 1200000;
  
  extern volatile unsigned long timer0_millis;
  
  void setup()
  {
  
  pinMode(5, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(6, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(7, OUTPUT);
  
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Tlc.init();
  
  }
  
  void loop()
  {
  
  if (channel < 12) {
  channel += direction;
  Tlc.clear();
  }
  
  else {
  Tlc.clear();
  channel = 1;
  
  }
  
  time = millis();
  while ( millis() - time < interval) // rampa de 20min
  {
  color = ((millis()-time)*4095)/interval;
  led(channel, 4095-color, color, 0);
  }
  
  time = millis();
  while ( millis() - time < interval) // rampa de 20-40min
  {
  color = ((millis()-time)*4095)/interval;
  led(channel, 0, 4095-color, color);
  }
  
  time = millis();
  while ( millis() - time < interval) // rampa de 40-60min
  {
  color = ((millis()-time)*4095)/interval;
  led(channel, color, 0, 4095-color);
  }
  
  //reset the millis to avoid owerflow
  timer0_millis = 0;
  // Serial.println(millis());
  
  }
  
  void led(int chan, int R, int G, int B)
  {
  
  //blue
  digitalWrite(5, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(6, LOW);
  digitalWrite(7, HIGH);
  Tlc.set(chan, B);
  delay(1);
  Tlc.update();
  
  //red
  digitalWrite(5, LOW);
  digitalWrite(6, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(7, HIGH);
  Tlc.set(chan, R);
  delay(1);
  Tlc.update();
  
  // green
  digitalWrite(5, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(6, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(7, LOW);
  Tlc.set(chan, G);
  delay(1);
  Tlc.update();
  
  }