Bulbdial Clock Kit

by Evil Mad Scientist

LED desk/mantle shadow clock soldering kit

The Bulbdial Clock kit is based on an original design concept from IronicSans.com and developed at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. It works like an indoor sundial, but with three shadows of different length. You tell the time just like you do on a normal clock, by reading the positions of the hour, minute, and second hands.

The Bulbdial clock kit comes complete with

  • three custom circuit boards
  • 72 ultrabright LEDs
  • pre-programmed ATmega328p microcontroller with Arduino bootloader
  • tactile button switches
  • aluminum standoffs
  • 20 ppm quartz crystal
  • custom clock face
  • gnomon spike
  • universal-input plug-in power supply
  • stainless mounting hardware
  • plus the resistors, capacitors and other little parts needed to build the Bulbdial clock.

The Bulbdial clock is designed to be mounted in an included handsome, laser-cut Black back/Smoke front acrylic case that makes it suitable for desk or mantle use. The case is 8.75" wide, 4.6" tall, and just over 2" deep

Some soldering is required to put the kit together and you'll need to download the detailed assembly guide. 

The Bulbdial clock kit is open-source in both hardware and software, and is designed to be user friendly and hacker friendly. The on-board microcontroller is an ATmega328p, running a program atop the Arduino bootloader.

FTDI USB-TTL and AVR-ISP programming header locations are provided on the circuit board.

The circuit board also features alternate mounting hole locations-- in case you're building a different case, and a location for a 5 V regulator.

An extended introduction to the project and its design is available here. The schematic diagrams and source code are posted and available for download on the documentation site.

Power supply

The Bulbdial clock kit includes a universal-input power supply that will work with worldwide voltages. The plug is a power-strip-friendly US type, so you may need an inexpensive "grocery store" plug adapter to fit the wall socket in your country.