How it came about
This clock started when I was given a few 2″ high LEDs. I decided to make a two digit clock and it struck me that I should be able to piggy back the displays onto a pcb of the same size. So it was that I devised a layout, etched and drilled it, programmed up a PIC and it worked.
I mounted one display upside down so that I could use the two decimal points together as a flashing colon.
There the project remained without a case until I was sent a few small sheets of a rather curious material. It has embossed lines at 45º, like those lenticular pictures that change when you move your view. I started to experiment with this material and found that when I put it over the LED clock I got a choice of two effects, vertically the material made two slanted copies appear, horizontally I appeared to have one elongated image hovering above the display and a compressed version below it. This really gives a strange floating effect to the display. And so my final clock took advantage of this latter effect.
Above: the lined screen placed vertically and horizontally gives different effects.
All that remained was to make a case for the assembly out of 3mm acrylic sheet, which I sprayed matt black.
Hi,
That is a very nice project! I am particularly interested in how you achieved the floating effect. Could you give me some more information about the material sheet you used?
Thank you.
Matt
The material was sent to me by a friend and I have no idea what it is called or where to buy it. Maybe it is a version of lenticular sheet.