Health Expert Tutor : Laser Pointer Clock Makes Timekeeping A Drawn-Out Affair

Designing a unique clock to flex your technical skills can be a rewarding experience and result in an admirable showpiece for your home. [Andres Robam] saw an opportunity to make a laser-pointer clock that draws the current time onto a glow-in-the-dark sticker.

A pair of stepper motors tilt and pan the laser’s mount — designed in SolidWorks and 3D printed. There was an issue with the motor’s shaft having some slack in it — enough to affect the accuracy of the laser. [Andres] cleverly solved the issue by using a pen’s spring to generate enough tension in the system, correcting it. A NODEmcu v2 is the brains of the clock — chosen because of its built-in WiFi capacity and compatibility with the Arduino IDE — and a 5mW laser sketches the time onto the sticker.

The time is pulled from a web server that [Andres] coded and posted to GitHub if you think you want to build something like this for yourself. Or, you can opt for a clock that floats instead of one with a laser.

Filed under: 3d Printer hacks, clock hacks, Microcontrollers