There are many ways to tell the time, from using analog dials to 7-segment displays. Hackers tend to enjoy binary clocks, if only for their association with the digital machines that seem to make the world go round these days. [Vishal Soni] decided to build one of them.
It’s a simple design that uses six bits to display the time. A red light glows at the top of the watch to indicate that the watch is showing minutes, and these are displayed in binary on the six blue LEDs below. The clock then indicates that it is showing hours, and again uses the six blue LEDs to display the corresponding number.
[Vishal] refers to this as a Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) clock, but BCD involves using binary to directly refer to numbers 0-9. Instead, it appears to be a simple binary clock using 6-bit notation.
The heart of the clock is the ATtiny85. It also features a TP4056 to charge and maintain the lithium battery used to power the watch. Charging takes place via a USB-C port. Everything is built on a custom printed circuit board that is designed to act as the body of the watch, with the straps directly attached to the printed circuit board itself. The only thing that seems to be missing is a 32.768 KHz crystal or real-time clock for accurate timekeeping.
Overall, this is a fun build that would teach [Vishal] very useful design skills. We assume they will serve [Vishal] well in future projects. If you dig the binary clock, consider some of the other great builds we’ve seen over the years. Video after the break.
