Total Time Spent: 18.5h

July 25th: Getting to work after I got an Idea!

I was drooling at Nixie tube clocks but those arent available in India ;-; Then I got an idea, why not make it out of LEDs. Turns out, it wasnt so original, people have attempted it before. But I wasnt able to find any intructions, BOM, or schematic. So I am trying to create my own LED clock.

My inspiration-

I would be using LED filaments (Adafruit nooodles kind) to create 7 segment displays which would be mounted vertically onto a PCB. I would run it using a ESP 32 and connect it to the internet for time syncing.

Have started making the schemtatic. Since the 7segment LEDs are wired in a grid pattern, I will use a MAX7219 ic to controll them which is also widely used in commericial matrix displays. I want the numbers to be vertical, therfore I have added 4 2x4 connectors and wired them.

The single led in between is for the separation between hours and minutes.

Total time spent: 4h

July 26th: Schematic Complete, onto the more difficult part

Made the schematic. Turns out that the symbol for ESP32 was the wrong one. So I had to import the correct one from the internet.

Idk why but it took me a lot of time to find the right footprints for all the components, I even had to define a custom footprint for my led filament.

I finally started making the schmatic. With a lot of vias, I was able to wire the numeric display.

I had placed the connectors too closely at first then I realsied that the led panels would clash with each other. I i had to remove all the wiring and re-place them with corret distances. Now I have also taken into account the size of the test tubes that will be going over them.

Wired the MAX7219 with the connectors. Became very complex very fast. Just need to complete the esp32 and well be done.

Finally finished the the schematic. Watched a video about adding mouse bites to combine the different parts. Will do that.

Added mouse bites, filets and mounting holes. Moving now to making a case for my clock.

The male pins on the pcb are wrong here, will fix them in Fusion.

Finalized the bom and started a sketch in Fusion 360.

Total time spent: 7.5h

July 27th: Cadding all the way

Made a base with holes for m2 screws and heatset inserts.

Imported the PCB, aligned and join all pieces. Had to work a lot since the PCB was joined together, as you can see above. So I used split body tool on the faces and then extruded out the rat holes part.