Doomsday!

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Progress!

Wanted to upload a movie to show how the Arduino Countdown Clock just wakes up as soon as you open the cardboard box and starts the stressful countdown to zero, but Tumblr would have none of it tonight. We are not done adding all the required stressful sounds, blinking lights, etc… but with Tully’s help tonight and a fair amount of trial an error (error being the keyword here), we managed to reach roughly an 85% completion level. This “Movie Prop” needs to be completed by Nov. 8th so time is running out… LITERALLY!

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Wonderful news tonight!

Tully came through with a Sketch using the Doomsday library that Counts down and uses the Dots Strobe and the Buzzer Tone command. This piece of code (Sketch) alone, gives me 80% of the functionality I am looking for...

Now, if I could just figure out how to incorporate the already existing Photo Resistor feature and tweak the Countdown timer (for maximum effect), I would be done!...

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Here is the flowchart of my desired functionality. I am currently having trouble integrating all the functionality as the Seven_Segment library (from Tully/Devon) supports Counting Down & producing speaker tones while the awesome Doomsday library (from Devon) supports the Photoresistor, produces tones, can blink the seven segments LCDs & strobe/chase the dots on top but I have not been able to make it count down, which is the whole purpose for the clock...

Imagine as soon as you open a closed cardboard box, the photoresistor triggers and the countdown starts with no ability to stop it...

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Assembled the brown-paper battery holders and found a suitable transparent box to hold the countdown clock.

I finally got to talk with Devon, the creator of the Doomsday library the clock uses and confirmed that he is an amazing software developer. Also found that he is a real nice guy and he even speaks French!

I am hoping to record and post a movie soon of the full cycle of countdown to display all the special effects the device will have.

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Built the kit in approximately 1 hour tonight.

I have to say that being new at soldering, it was amazing to be able to follow Tully's detailed, complete, extra-quality step by step instructions all the way to completion! His mouse-over pictures that zoom-in add that extra oomph...

Having a few spare parts like a couple extra LEDs and some extra pins is a great thing!

What is even more awesome, is that I uncompressed the seven_segment library from SamuraiCircuits in my Arduino folder, then uncompressed the Bounce library from Arduino.cc in the same folder, pasted Tully's code right into my brand new Uno and instantly had the Countdown Clock doing its thing! No sweat, no debugging!

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Look what the mailman brought me today!

Ordered this on Monday from "the left coast", received it Thursday (72 hours later) on "the right coast" via U.S. Postal service for $1.95 in shipping. Do we have a great Postal Service or what??

Everything looks good, everything is there, including the optional Rotary Encoder that I didn't think would be provided. Tully, YOU DA MAN! One thing I did notice however is that the URL specified on the included paper is invalid. The proper one is: http://www.samuraicircuits.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=Doomsday_Clock_Shield

Well, guess what I will be doing tonight!?!

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Aren't Seven segment LEDs cool?? Isn't this a cool project?

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Found this $32.95 alternative today from http://nootropicdesign.com/defusableclock/

Although this product can be very cool, I don't think this design is as cool or sophisticated as the one I ordered yesterday, but it could get the job done for some...

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This is yet a different model of a clock/timer. This one is offered by http://www.denkimono.com/ for £35 as a kit.

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Time for some more fun!

I have been looking for a simple kit that will allow me to build a countdown clock that is good for any date/time in the future and at the same time gives me the potential to build what could potentially look like a bomb, just for fun...

Found this kit today, designed & manufactured by Tully Gehan of Samurai Circuits www.samuraicircuits.com . It provides 6 seven-segment LEDs, along with 4 Digital clock colon LEDs and 12 more individually adressable LEDs, a piezoelectric buzzer, a photo resistor, a rotary encoder, etc. Sample sketches to get up and running quickly with a home made countdown clock that countdowns to any date/time you so desire.

Ordered it from ebay for $20 to avoid the 2-4 weeks delivery time lag (from China). Can't wait to build it & play with it...

There are alternatives out there: from building it from scratch using individual seven segment LEDs all the way to buying a completed clock, but I believe this kit is the best value, just supply your own Duino...