原创 Implementing Cunning Chronograph's back panel

As you can see in the image below, this is starting to look rather tasty, not the least that I've finally gotten around to implementing the Time display mode (until recently I'd been focusing on one of the Music display modes as illustrated in this YouTube video).

(Source: Max Maxfield / EE Times)

 

Even though the Chronograph looks pretty fabulous in this image, I have to say that it looks way better in the real world. Out of all of my projects, this is the one that causes folks to exclaim "Wow!" when they first see it running.

As an aside, observe the conglomeration of circuit boards to the right of the clock. On the near-side-left we see an Arduino Mega at the bottom with my audio spectrum analyzer shield plugged in on top. Behind this we see a breadboard containing a temporary deployment of my real-time clock module. My chum Duane Benson has created a new shield to hold this module along with a temperature & pressure sensor module and a 9DOF (nine degrees of freedom) module containing a 3-axis gyroscope, a 3-axis accelerometer, and a 3-axis magnetometer. Last but not least, on the right we see a smaller breadboard containing a Simblee module, which allows me to control the Cunning Chronograph via Bluetooth using my iPad. I'm going to be relocating this Simblee module onto a prototyping shield as soon as I get a spare moment, but we digress...

The last time we looked at the Cunning Chronograph, I was ruminating over the back panel. Sometimes we get so excited about the way something looks from the front that we neglect the parts that typically remain unseen, but I want people to say "Oooh!" no matter which part of this little beauty they are looking at. On this basis, I decided I wanted my back panel to look like the Visio drawing I created below.

(Source: Max Maxfield / EE Times)

 

I'm particularly pleased by the Morse code sequence in the center depicting the rather apposite Dr. Seuss quote: "How did it get so late so soon?" The problem, of course, was to implement this little scamp. Cutting out all of these slots and holes by hand would have been extremely time-consuming; also, it would have been incredibly difficult to get everything precisely aligned. The other side of the coin is that even small misalignments would have made the back panel look pretty shoddy.

Thus it was that I contacted the creators of the Makerarm -- Zaib Husain and Azam Shahani -- and asked them if they could help me out.

I think you'll agree that the result as seen below is pretty spectacular, especially now it's been stained. The following images show the panel on its own and mounted (just resting, not screwed) on the back of the cabinet.

(Source: Max Maxfield / EE Times)

(Source: Max Maxfield / EE Times)

(Source: Max Maxfield / EE Times)

 

My next tasks will be to attach the power, USB, and audio connectors to the small panel at the bottom; move all of the sensors and the Simblee module onto shields, mount everything inside the cabinet, and reattach the main back panel.

This latter task leads me to a new problem. The panel is currently attached using 5/8" #6 flat-head (counter-sunk) wood screws (you can see some of these holding the smaller connector panel in the final image above). The issue is that I'm currently using screws with a Philips drive and a plain finish. Ideally, I would prefer screws with slotted heads and a black oxide or black phosphate finish, but I've not been able to track these down anywhere. I can live with Philips drive -- although I’d prefer slotted for the antique look and feel -- but I really want the black finish, and painting existing screws black simply doesn’t look as good (any suggestions?).

Last but not least, I'm thinking of lighting the back panel up from the inside. In the case of the slots around the outside of the panel, I was thinking of illuminating the inside of the cabinet with a subtle red glow (maybe have it flickering a bit as though there are flames inside). Meanwhile, I could use white light to illuminate the Morse code area in the middle. I will, of course, be using NeoPixels for all of this, which will allow me to add some interesting effects, but we'll leave that as a topic for a future column. In the meantime, as always, I welcome all comments and suggestions.