How to transform old hard drive into time gadget

... Hello everyone! So, what are we going to recycle today? Let's take a look what we have in that big box. I'm pretty sure we'll find something to start with. Well, that's hard drive... one more... two more... plenty more; internal, external, IDE, SCSI, MFM... Wow, that's quite a load of junk. Sadly, overall capacity of this box of HDs is much less than capacity of one HD which is humming inside my desktop today. Let's see what we can do for those guys... this one would be good as paperweight, this one as door stopper, but this external SCSI HD looks very promising. Let's examine it closer: - solid metal case; - LED at front panel; - power connector and switch at the back; - power supply +5V, +!2V; - 12V fan; That's almost finished device, it just needs new guts. By the way, I've always wanted my own hard drive clock, and right now I have everything to build one. That's settled. We are making hard drive clock. Is anyone interested in joining the team? / / / /

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step 1Another POV device

... Yes, I know, I've reinvented wheel, since few projects are already built : http://alan-parekh.com/projects/hard-drive-clock/ http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/ee…

step 2Hard drive

... From my experience, not any hard drive is appropriate for the task.. We have to conduct short function test before destroying fragile unit.;-) At first, open hard dri…

step 3LEDs

... For the first unit I've built, I had to make PCB with 24 red, green and blue LEDs surrounding disk, but discovery of RGB Flexible Light Strips made huge improvement in…

step 4Index sensor

... Purpose of index sensor is to tell microcontroller when full disk revolution is completed. There are many devices with identical logic output to accomplish this ta…

step 5DIY Illuminated push buttons

... As seen once in MAKE magazine; LED and tactile switch are combined as illuminated button. Another idea for poor man? I would say It's a good opportunity to make from…

step 6Real time clock-calendar

... Nice piece of hardware from Sparkfun. This tiny assembly contains RTC chip DS1307 with I2C interface, clock crystal and back up battery. According to Sparkfun module w…

step 7And finally, Big Daddy

Well, main part of device it's controller board. Controller is assembled on two sided PCB made by HTT method. Brain is implemented on PIC18F2320 running at 40MHz. Contr…

step 8Assembling unit

For easy maintenance all electrical interconnections between assemblies are implemented with cables and connectors. Since upper platter is slightly unbalanced, I had to fi…

step 9Improving quality of generated image

To produce contrast and colorful image this devise requires proper control of light and color. All light emitting areas should be covered and light should be directed only…

step 10Front panel assembly

For front subpanel I used plastic piece from case of old printer. Front panel is made from piece of junk aluminum.

step 11Illuminated clock dial

Clock dial is made from acrylic. Divider marks are milled on manual micromill. Dial is illuminated by 4 blue LEDs embedded into sides. Each LED is inserted into short slot …

step 12Closing unit

Clock face hole in cover is cut. Cover is repainted black. Clock dial is hotglued to cover. .

step 13Work is done, fun part ahead

Front panel label is made using HTT method. Enjoy the show;-) ...