DIY Electronic Hourglass
In ancient times, people used an hourglass to measure time. One of such clocks (known since 1500 BC) was found in the tomb of Pharaoh Amenhotep. Today it has become a symbol of the passing time. It is made as a gadget, for example, to measure the time of boiling soft-boiled eggs, or simply to please the eyes. I decided to make my own Arduino hourglass using a led matrix and a few other components, but while creating it, I had a brilliant idea, but more on that in a moment.
Assumptions
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I started by creating a preview illustration and writing out a few assumptions. I wanted the hourglass to be shaped like ... an hourglass. A Led Matrix controlled by an Atmega 328p will be responsible for simulating sand, and the orientation of the device will be read by a gyroscope. The stand was to be in the shape of a regular rectangular box, and the Matrixes would be held by transparent handles. It was supposed to look great.
PCB Designing
With these assumptions, I was able to start designing PCB. I made the schematic diagram of my device in the most professional program for designing printed circuits, which is Altium Designer. It is used by companies such as Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon. When creating the schematic, I used the microcontroller block and battery charging block from the previous project, and I added a gyroscope and some connectors. There is a link to the trial version, which allows you to test the power of this program for 15 days without any fees!
PCB Ordering
I placed all the components on the PCB, created the wires, and added a polygon. I exported the project to Gerber files, created a new folder, and added these files to it, then zipped them into a .zip extension so I could easily pass them to production. To this end, I entered the PCBWay website, where a contest is organized by the way, with a total prize pool of $ 6,000!
I uploaded my file on it and ordered the PCBs, and after a few days, I received a package that contained the boards. When it comes to quality, I have never had anything to complain about against PCBWay, they always produce PCBs of the highest quality. It was the same this time - my tiles were exactly as designed, there was no wire or marking missing.
Idea
I try to solder the components on the PCB one by one, that is, first the components from the charging module, then the components from the microcontroller module, and so on. Testing each module in turn allows me to quickly detect possible errors.
After soldering most of the elements, a much better idea came to my mind, to make a mini hourglass with LEDs in 0401 housing on an hourglass-shaped PCB, which can be used as a key pendant. So I decided not to waste time creating the housing and further soldering, but I quickly made this design on the breadboard to test the materials I had collected so far. I plugged the Arduino nano, gyroscope, and two led panels into it and connected them with wires.
Finishing
