Hi, I've been looking all over for a real binary LED clock (for wall or shelf - not a wristwatch or a software clock) , one that displays the H:M:S like 5bit:6bit:6bit or alternatively counting seconds after midnight as a 17bit number. I can only find the binary coded decimal clocks, which I don't find very interresting. I'm not very much into electronics (actually I don't know a thing about it), but it seems like som of you are ...and someone in here might have an idea, how to get one? Have someone seen one on sale? can I build it myself? or something else? I've seen one on this webpage, but they don't respond to e-mails or anything else: http://www.esptec.com/clocks/RoundedEdge.html I'm sorry if this is the wrong forum for these kind of questions, but I'm desperate /Asger
Have you got any microcontrollers? This sort of thing is quite easy with a PIC or an AVR -- although getting accurate enough timing can be a pain to do the maths for. I'll leave theanimus et al. to point you to a decent programmer etc. if you don't have one, and after that, feel free to ask questions about programming it! ch424
i really should make a tutorial or something on this: programmers, debugger, and emulators programmers, cheap, allow you just to load code to the uC. a debugger just allows you to pause the uC, and see whats going on, some support breakpoints (this is where the code hits a point, and it stops and then debugs from there. an emulator allows you to see and play in real time with the uC (thats a micro-controller). programmers, see JDM/PonyProg for the most common, these are really really cheap, cost like $8 if u buy everything new. You get high end ones, which support more devices, these cost upto $200 Debuggers, for the PIC you can buy an ICD2 for $50 USD. If you think ur going to do a lot of PIC stuff, get one of these if you can afford it. Emulators, too expensive, $2,000 gets ur foot in the door, if you can afford this arrange a consultancy with me and i'll give you proper advice rather than a beer fueled rambling the other side of midnight.
newbie alert! Thanks for your replies. I must admit, I really don't understand much of it. I have never done anything with electronics before (I do a lot windows application programming though)... I guess I need a place to start, so I have these four questions: What is PIC and AVR? What is uC? (micro-controller?) How is it programmed? And do you know a good place to start reading if I want to get startet? Thanks again, and sorry for the inconvenience! /Asger
