Before liquid crystal display and LED became cheap enough to add to almost any twist , mechanically skillful flutter display were used in with child - scale signage and bedside warning gadget alfileria for improved readability . Shinsaku Hiura hasrecreated one from scratchwith a fun twist : they’vereplaced the numbered flap with play cards , a design that will invoke to anyone who knows you never numerate your money when you ’re sittin ’ at the tabular array .
Take a moment to browseHirua ’s YouTube channeland you ’ll encounter a hardware hacker who seemingly has an obsession with reinvent the clock , with unique and novel designs that center on mechanically skillful functionality . Flip alfilaria are probably most commonly associated with the gargantuan display that train Stations of the Cross and airports used to rely on to provide arrival and departure fourth dimension for passengers , but before glowing blood-red LEDs became popular , they were also used in alarm clock as a way of life to display the time that was easy to show , even to someone who was half asleep .
They worked by spinning a wheel which had a series of flaps attached to it with numbers printed on them ( half a number on one flap , and the other one-half on the flap right next to it ) until the current time was displayed . They were n’t silent , but the auditory sensation of the spinning flaps still has a sure old school appeal to it , and we ’ve run across other hardware drudge use the showing for fun projects : like asplit - dither display that can be used to play Tetris .
Gif:YouTube - Shinsaku Hiura
Hiura ’s Casino Clock was more or less progress from starting line using customs 3D - printed component part include spinning wheels with hinged bearer to which received playing cards are attached . Inside each of the three wheels is a stepper motor which rotates it until the playing circuit card constitute the current time — synced over wireless local area web — is exhibit . The Ace is low , representing 1 , Jacks are 11 , Queens are 12 , and the Joker cards stand in for zero .
The most enjoyable part of a flip clock is the speech sound of the flaps falling as the wheels spin , so to maximize that experience , Hiura randomly arranged the playing card on each wheel ( with the social club of the cards specified in the source computer code ) so that additional spinning is required every time a bit ticktack by . It makes for a fun desk distraction , but it ’s toilsome to think anyone wanting this affair on their bedside table all night long .
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