Make a propeller clock using Arduino

The propeller clock I made is based on arduino, But i do not use the arduino in the hardware of my propeller clock, I use Arduino to  upload sketch to my atmega 168/328 microcontroller chip, then i use this chip as a stand alone unit to control the led's, Sometime we say it "Stand alone Arduino".

Things i used in my propeller clock are given below-

Two shift register to control many led's with only three digital pin of Arduino.

A photoresistor and an infrared led, Which  together works as an indexing sensor.

A pcf8563 real time ic, Your microcontroller communicate with this ic to obtain the time and date.

A 5-volt voltage regulator,which convert any voltage between 7-12 volt into 5 volt, Always use a 5 volt voltage regulator with your ic because it runs on constant 5 volt dc power supply.

So these are the things you need to learn to make hardware of  your propeller clock.

Links are given below to learn these things-

1. How to make a standalone Arduino / Arduino on Breadboard.
2. How to use shift register.
3. How to use pcf8563 real time clock ic. 

Now, We can start making hardware of propeller clock, so collect the things given below.

1. A large pcb.
2. 26 leds.
3. A 3904 npn transistor.
4. A computer exhaust fan.
5. 12 volt power supply. 
6. Tools - wire cutter, soldering iron, multiple screw drivers
7. And in the last you will need all the things you have used in the 3 previous tutorial.

Now follow these instructions -

Make a stand alone unit of arduino on the pcb.

Add a timer IC on the circuit.

Add two shift register in the circuit

Connect 8 led with the 1st shift register and connect 7 led's with the second shift register now connect a 2.2k resistor between the 7th pin of shiftregister and the base of transistor.

Connect -ve end of the 9 remainig led's with the collector of the transistor and connect the emitter of the transistor with the ground.

connect a 15 ohm resistor between the +ve supply and anode of the remaining 9 led's.

Add a photoresistor in the circuit as shown in figure below, By connecting the anode with the 4th  pin of the atmega IC and connect a 330 ohm resistor between the cathode of the photo resistor and the ground.

Now take a computer exhaust fan and cut the blades of the fan, Then make three holes on the rotor and wind a 2 round of wire on the cylindrical part of the rotar like the figure below.

The blue wire works as a brush to give the positive 12 volt dc power supply to the rotor unit.

and the shaft of the rotor work as ground.

The resulting hardware will look like the figure below.

Now download the sketch of the digital clock, I will upload the sketch of analog clock after some time.

Download it Digital clock.

Hey guys, thanks for reading my blog.

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