John built a Word Clock inspired by an article in Make magazine. It’s only accurate to the nearest five minutes, but what the heck, it has lovely continuously changing colours! The project can also be found in Instructables https://www.instructables.com/id/NeoMatrix-8x8-Word-Clock/ and in Adafruit. https://learn.adafruit.com/neomatrix-8x8-word-clock/overview . It needs only basic soldering skills. All the parts - and the laser-cut enclosure and faceplate - can be sourced from Core Electronics.
It uses the Adafruit NeoPixel NeoMatrix 8x8, a Pro Trinket and a Real Time Clock. It is powered through the USB port on the Trinket and retains the time with a built-in battery.
The code upload is easy and you can tweak it to suit your own taste in colour and movement.
One change I made was to use double-sided tape to stick the neopixel board to its mount instead of using nylon screws. This method allows the grid to sit down flat on the board and makes assembly much neater.
It looks great! Thanks Core for the neat laser cutting.
(John Sharpe)
