It is that time of year when the clocks fall back and we all moan - rightly so. Never mind, we can make it all better by focusing on the clocks themselves... 

 As you might already know, I'm fascinated by modern clocks. They provide so much opportunity for experimenting with user interfaces and different electronic and mechanical mechanisms - and they look good, or at least some of them do.

I start this small selection with a clock that I have to admit I'm not at all sure I like the look of. It's clever, innovative and a lot of fun, but aesthetically I'm not fully onboard.

The Gimbal clock is an invention by mosivers on Instructables. The idea is to use 3D printed numbers that look different depending on how they are oriented. A single block can represent different numbers depending on its angle to the viewer. To present the number required to tell the time the block has to be rotated though two axes and this is achieved using two servos. The build is fairly straightforward and looks fun:

The controller is an ESP8266 which is very minimal but manages to control so many servos via an SPI connection to a PWM servo board.

The next novel clock really made me think. How could I not have realized that this was a possible display technique? However, I was intrigued to discover that this was a mechanical solution and I have been thinking hard about how one could create a pure digital implementation without have to use an excessive number of actuators.

The idea is to stretch a rubber band into the shape of digit using mechanical fingers. You can see in the diagram above that Ekaggrat Singh Kalsi has achieved this using a set of clever, cam-operated, fingers. 

Really great fun to watch and exceptionally clever if you, like me, are bound to electronics rather than mechanics. The problem with converting this to a more free-form actuator is that as well as full open and full closed sometimes the fingers are only partially open. Can done and can you make a full alpha numeric display if it can be done?

This next project isn't so much a clock as a way to help a particular type of clock and watch. I have a few radio-synchronized clocks, but they often have problems picking up a long wave radio broadcast that keeps them accurate. There are also threats that such stations may shut down or give up transmitting a time signal. Mike Burton is similarly troubled and came up with the idea of using an ESP32 to transmit a suitable signal.

As the transmission frequency of the time signal is just 60kHz, it is possible to use bit-banging to not only generate the time code but the carrier frequency. That is, you don't need any tuned circuits or RF electronics. I guess you could call it a software-defined radio if you wanted to. The output of the ESP32 goes into an H-Bridge-type motor driver board which drives two ferrite aerials. The details of the project are really interesting, including the coding of the time into the signal. However, the range achieved is not good. The problem is almost certainly the aerials as getting 60kHz coupled to the ether is not easy.

• Harry Fairhead, I-Programmer's hardware guru, is the author of books about many popular IoT devices including the ESP32 which he covers in Programming the ESP32 In C Using the Arduino Library, Programming The ESP32 In C Using The Espressif IDF and Programming the ESP32 in MicroPython.   

More Information

Gimbal Clock

BEZICRON

WatchTower

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