Ask nearly anyone, and they would say a clock is a robot, a specialty device that provides the time of day. In this post of Robot Archaeology, we’ll review clocks that move.
The best known robotic clock is the Plotclock kit. This clock uses a pen to write the time on a small whiteboard square, then erase it a minute later. This uses three micro servos and a plastic frame.
There are some other interesting projects using motors for hands as in this Make project below. There are a number of analog stepper clocks worth exploring in this one tutorial.
Other clocks use flip mechanisms. One interesting take on flip clocks is the FabAcademy 7 segment clock:
Each segment is flipped with a servo, 7 servos per digit, 28 in all.
Do you know of some special analog clocks made with motors, steppers, and more? Post your suggestions in the comments!
Make a robot friend with Adafruit’s CRICKIT – A Creative Robotics & Interactive Construction Kit. It’s an add-on to our popular Circuit Playground Express, FEATHER and other platforms to make and program robots with CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. Start controlling motors, servos, solenoids. You also get signal pins, capacitive touch sensors, a NeoPixel driver and amplified speaker output. It complements & extends your boards so you can still use all the goodies on the microcontroller, now you have a robotics playground as well.
