I Wanted a Clock That Never Needed Setting, So I Built One with a Raspberry Pi
I wanted a clock that never needed setting. Things escalated
Frustrated by manual time adjustments on standard clocks, I decided to build a custom self-setting device using a Raspberry Pi Zero W and an Adafruit seven-segment display. To overcome my limited Python skills, I relied on an LLM to generate the code, resulting in a fully automated clock managed by a deployment pipeline and integrated with HomeKit.
It was a bit like unleashing the full power of the Death Star on a mosquito, but it definitely did the trick.
- Frost1x
I’ve had a Phillips “atomic” alarm clock beside my bed for 23 years that just sets based on radio signal and auto restores if the power is lost, to which it has a backup 9v battery.
There’s a time zone setting offset slider and a DST slider. I basically touch it twice a year, maybe another if I move time zones. I’ve only had to touch it for DST (never switched time zones). Takes me conservatively 10 seconds to find and flip, so it’s taken me 460 seconds or a little under 8 minutes in the past 23 years to do time adjustments.
While these efforts are definitely fun hobby projects, there are cheap reliable solutions out there with minimal intervention that consume the NIST radio signal for time.
Just for anyone interested who wasn’t aware there’s some “old school” time broadcast solutions out there too besides NTP:
https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/time-di...
- Animats
It's a clock. Does it really have to have remote updating, a command line interface, an Internet connection, and HomeKit integration? That's too IoT.
I have three La Crosse clocks that run off the NIST time signal out of Boulder, CO, and need their AA battery replaced maybe once a year. The real challenge is running such a thing on a small battery for a year.
I once made a small clock that displayed "A LITTLE AFTER SIX" and such, changing its text every five minutes. Needed a power connection, though.
- bArray
If you're in the UK, just use the MSF radio signal to sync your clock [1].
> The end result exactly matched my expectations—the best criterion for success that I can think of. With an LLM providing the heavy code lifting and the CAD work, I think I spent more time waiting on supplies to arrive than on anything else—something attributable to my lack of planning and the ease of next-day delivery.
I think the author robbed themselves of a deeper understanding.
[1] https://www.npl.co.uk/products-services/time-frequency/msf-r...
- sasaf5
"One, the path not taken, started with an Arduino or Arduino-like microcontroller. The other began with a Raspberry Pi or Pi-like computer-y thing. I went with the Pi, variously using both a Raspberry Pi Zero W and Zero 2 W."
Ok, so instead of bumping your clock +- one hour twice a year you preferred distro upgrades?
- bux93
>damned if I could find one with a red seven-segment display that I liked (maybe someone else’s search kung-fu is better than mine?).
The secret to finding an inexpensive radio-controlled clock/alarm/watch of your liking it to be German. They LOVE their Funk-Uhren! Sadly they typically only support Germany's DCF77 signal. You can also trivially find DCF77 receivers as components to use in a project.
- linehedonist
The atomic time radio station WWVB does in fact broadcast a daylight saving time bit. A good atomic time clock should accurately update for DST (though Amazon reviews for a clock like this one is pretty mixed: https://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Technology-617-249-Curved-Atom...)
- sudb
This reminded of this other clock project:
https://mitxela.com/projects/precision_clock_mk_iv
Also: I reckon the closest best-value watch alternative that ticks most(?) of the author's boxes is the Casio GW-M5610-1ER, so long as you are inside a radio-controlled time area.
- mjevans
I feel this article's premise too much. That's exactly the sort of clock I wanted to get my mom as a gift.
Why is it so dang impossible to find a not trash simple LED clock that's 'large print', 'the right color', and not annoyingly too bright?
A deluxe model might include a day of the week bar or dot and a month / day in month number (smaller than the time, mostly people care about the time)