Set TM1637 Display clock via rotary encoder without interrupts

Just admit it, we all like to make clocks (well, people who found this blogpost via Google often do). One of the simplest clock to make is an Arduino based clock with a 7-segments display.

Not going into details (at least not in this post, perhaps I'll make an Instructable for this clock), but for this clock you need an Arduino, a DS3231 real-time clock module, a 7-segments display and a rotary encoder. As you probably guessed from the title, I'm using a TM1637 based display.

All parts are very cheap and can be easily obtained via eBay.

There are many tutorials/blogs/instructables explaining how to make an Arduino clock based on a DS3231 and a TM1637 display. And then I wanted to set the time via a rotary encoder. Simply click, set the hours by turning, click again, set the minutes by turning, click again and done. That's a rather simple method to set the time and I'd wish many of my clocks had that feature (in my car, the microwave, alarm clock, etc.).
This page really helped: http://www.buxtronix.net/2011/10/rotary-encoders-done-properly.html
Here you can read, how to simply use a rotary encoder on an Arduino.

And this was the result after an evening programming:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A round word clock (sort of)

Image
As I was making a word clock, based on another instructable ( http://www.instructables.com/id/My-Arduino-WordClock/ ), me and my sister were wondering whether a round design would be cool too. While searching the internet, I could not find a round word clock, so we decided to design/create one ourselves. The clock displays the time somewhat similar as on a regular word clock. There are two major differences, on a 'regular' word clock the hours are words. On our word clock they're numbers just like a normal clock. The minutes (in 5 minute steps) are replaced by a word on the clock and the location of the word provides extra information. Note that I use Dutch templates, but an English version should work too. Of course some changes to the software are required. Here's the list of materials used for this clock: 1 - Ikea Pugg clock (costs around $12) 1 - Arduino Uno R3 1 - Real time clock module (based on a DS3231 clock chip) 1 - warm white LEDs on a str...
Read more

Binoctular LED clock

Image
A while ago, I saw this blogpost on Hackaday. It shows a seven segment clock made of Neopixels. Actually, this was a brilliant idea, it's surprising that no one thought of it earlier. It's so simple and looks very nice. Although I liked the idea, I wasn't really thrilled by the design. It was -in my opinion- a (VERY) cool proof-of-concept, great for on a workbench, but not for on my nightstand. So that started me thinking (that's what I like about sharing ideas, inspiring others). As I did not have any single Neopixels lying around (or a LED strip with WS2812B's), I did have a WS2812B-LED ring, with 8 LED's. Why not make a clock out of those? This is the result: This clock runs on a Arduino Nano clone and uses a DS3231 to keep track of time (with backup battery of course). On the back, there are four buttons to set the time and run demo's. During the project, I made a Python simulation of it: This is the first implementation, a sort of proof-o...
Read more

A round word clock (part 2)

Image
A couple of years ago, I made a round word clock (see in this blog). It was based on an Arduino  Uno clone with shift registers to control the LEDs. This resulted in a lot of wires on the back of the clock: This left some room for improvements! So now, version 2.0: It is now based on an ESP32 and WS2812B LED's. At startup, it first connects to the internet via wifi to obtain the current time and then displays it on the round word clock. The wiring is much simpler now: But the best new feature is: color!! Each number/text has at least two WS2812b-LEDs behind it and for each single LED there's a constant color loop. This creates a really nice effect, as it will always show multiple colors at once. My kids love it. It does not have any demo modes yet. The plan is to add these demo's in a later stage. First on the list is a webpage to control the clock settings. And this webpage should also show the clock (maybe not in the nice color changes, as the might be to time consuming ...
Read more