The Casino’Clock Keeps Track of theTime Using Playing Cards

from hackster.io

Homebrew clock projects are always an interesting endeavor, especially when they make use of 3D printers to create something out of the ordinary. Shinsaku Hiura’s Casino’Clock is one of those builds that was made using 3D-printed parts for a unique take on a flap display. Building a flap clock isn’t without its difficulties, though, as 3D printing the flaps can cause irregularities if they are not precise, causing them to jam in the rotor mechanism.

“One of the main difficulties to make a split-flap display with a 3D printer is the fabrication of flaps,” Hiura notes on his project write-up. “Therefore, I used off-the-shelf playing cards for flaps and made a funny and crazy clock with the minimum number of parts.”

Hiura designed the Casino’Clock around an M5Stamp-C3, which features an Espressif ESP32-C3 RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 (LE) connectivity. The clock also includes a trio of 28BYJ-48 stepper motors, complete with driver board, and several 3D printed rotors with 14 hinges that hold the playing cards. Since the clock is equipped with wireless capabilities, it only needs to connect to the internet to display the correct time.

Watch the video below to see the build process and how the clock functions!