This week’s selection is the Mechanical Digital Clock by Printables contributor Marian42.
This design is a fully functional, 24 hour, digital clock. It uses the familiar seven segment display format, which are mechanically activated to show different values.
You can see how this works in operation in this video:
Yes, it’s a bit noisy, but it works!
The device uses camshafts to push and pull the segments forward and backward as required to form proper digits. The clock keeps track of seconds, so there’s always movements happening.
Building this is a bit of a project, as there are plenty of 3D printed parts as well as a motor and electronics to install.
However, designer Marian42 provides a very detailed explanation of the assembly process in a separate blog post. There are detailed descriptions of the camshaft mechanism designs, as well as the story of how an iterative process was used to develop the system.
One feature that may emerge in the future is a method of restoring accurate time after a power outage.
This is quite an interesting project that demonstrates the ability to produce complex mechanisms with a desktop 3D printer.
Via Printables and Marian
