Perpetual Projection Time Machine

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Perpetual-Projection-Time-Machine/

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Perpetual Projection Time Machineby msuzuki777on July 17, 2011

Table of Contents

Perpetual Projection Time Machine ................................................................................................

Intro: Perpetual Projection Time Machine .........................................................................................

Step 1: Parts List ...........................................................................................................

Step 2: Projection clock modification ............................................................................................

Step 3: Projection clock modification, part2 .......................................................................................

Step 4: Pushbutton Assembly .................................................................................................

Step 5: Make it Perpetual ....................................................................................................

Step 6: Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 1

Related Instructables ........................................................................................................ 1

Advertisements ............................................................................................................... 1

Comments ................................................................................................................ 1
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Author:msuzuki777

Lazy Old Geek

Intro: Perpetual Projection Time MachineOkay, so I used a little deception in the title to try to grab your attention. Did it work? Well, its more like a Perpetual Projection Clock. This is a "GREEN' project.Theoretically, you won't use up and waste batteries.

PROBLEM: So I am a LAZY OLD GEEK (LOG). I mostly sleep on my side. On one side, I have an alarm clock. But when I turn on my left side, I do have a clock (seepicture) I got free from an insurance company but it isnt viewable at night. Being Lazy and Old, it is hard to turn over to see what time it is.

Trivia: You may wonder since Im Lazy why do I need to know what time it is? Well, we live in the high desert and I like to take my dog for hikes early before it gets tohot. But not too early.

SOLUTION1: So being a Geek, I decided to build my own custom projection clock. My original design was to take this l ittle projection clock key chain and power it by$2 solar light that I got on sale at Ace Hardware. But, alas, I found out the little projection clock was powered by two 1.5V button cells and all of the solar lights, I haveseen have a single 1.2V rechargeable battery in them.

SOLUTION2: Well, I happened to find some Rosewill Solar Flash Lights on sale at Newegg for something like 5 for $3. (see picture) Now I opened one up. They havLIR2032 3.6V lithium rechargeable battery attached to the solar panel, so this should work fine for my needs.

Image Notes1. Current time projected. Note that the time is oriented so that it is easily readwhen the head is laying on a pillow.2. Time Projector. This is an earlier version. The two wires to the solar panel arenot shown.3. Pushbutton.

Image Notes1. My old alarm clock.
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Image Notes1. Unlit clock.

Image Notes1. Keychain solar light.

Step 1:Parts List1 Projection clock key chain $1.35ebay.com(Search ebay for projection clock)1 Key chain solar light $1.00 on ebay.com(Search ebay for keychain solar torch)T Hinge, I found one in my junk pile). I dont know how theyre measured but I think it might be a 2.

Mini pushbutton, also from my junk pileScrap PCB, also from my junk pile

1 heavy duty binder clip. For my headboard, I needed one that would fit on a board.http://www.instructables.com/id/Making-a-bed-frame-with-lots-of-storage/

I bought my key chain solar light from Newegg on a Shell Shocker deal for less than a dollar a piece but they are also available from ebay. Now, I havent purchased oof these but they look almost identical with three LEDs so I am assuming theyre the same design.NOTE: The LIR2032 rechargeable battery in the keychain solar light can also be purchased separately on ebay but the best price I found was about $2. I find it ratherinteresting that you can buy the keychain with LIR2032 and solar panel and 3 LEDs for less than the battery by itself. Go figure.

Image Notes

Image Notes1. Keychain solar light.
http://home/instruct/deploy/Making-a-bed-frame-with-lots-of-storage/


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1. Projection clock key chain.

Image Notes1. T Hinge. It's might be called a 2".

Image Notes1. Salvaged pushbutton on a scrapped PCB.

Image Notes1. Binder clip that will fit on a 1/2" board.

Step 2:Projection clock modificationI tested the project clock as purchased. The f irst thing I did was lose the instruction sheet that came with it. I remember seeing i t but then it disappeared. Spooky!Anyway, I was able to set the time and date and got it to work. I even tried it early one morning. The couple of times I tried it I apparently pushed the wrong button andgot into Set mode, so I gave up and went back to sleep.

There appears to be two or three versions of these projection clock key chains. I only have one type so can only tell you how I modified mine.The basic concept is toattach wires to where the main button goes to simulate a button push.

So I took off the battery cover and found a Phillips screw. (see picture, ignore the two white wires sticking out as I forgot to take a before picture and this is an afterpicture.

The clock has a top half and a bottom half. I took a utility knife and carefully pulled the two apart. They just snap together. (see picture). Again, this is an after picture.The red top has a couple of pieces in it, a lens and a window aperture. They may fall out but you should be able to reassemble according to the picture. I removed thering.


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Next I removed the little PC board assembly sitting in the bottom. This took a little maneuvering and prying to get it out. (see picture)

On the bottom of the PCB, you can see the three buttons. The one to the left is the Light button. Basically, these buttons are just metal domes. The PCB has a circlethat contacts the outer rim of the button and another contact in the middle of the circle. When the button is pushed, the circle is shorted to the center. So it was fairly eto follow the outer ring but I had trouble figuring out where the center contact went.

Having worked with these before, theres a piece of clear tape holding the button in place. I carefully lifted the tape until the metal dome was lifted and I could see whethe center contact went. Then I put the button and tape back on.

There's not much room, so I used some 30 AWG wire wrap wire. One of the contacts went to the LED, so I soldered one wire to that side of the LED.

The other contact went to a l ittle via(contact) that passed through to the other side of the PCB. I used an Xacto knife to carefully scrap away some of the solder maskexposing more of the copper. Then I soldered the other wire there.

Image Notes1. Ignore these wires for now. In the final version, there are four wires comingout.2. Two batteries3. Screw.

Image Notes1. Top.2. Lens.3. Window aperture.4. Bottom.

Image Notes1. Lens.2. Window aperture.

Image Notes1. Bottom of projection clock. The PCB can be maneuvered out the right side ofthe case.


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Image Notes1. Wire attached to LED which is also connected to the outer ring of the 'Light'button.2. Proejection screen.3. The positive power wire is soldered to this metal plate.

Step 4:Pushbutton AssemblySo I had a piece of a PCB with a pushbutton on it. You could also use some vector board or breadboard PCB. Locate the hinge so that the button wi ll be pushed when

the hinge is pushed. I drilled a couple of holes to mount the hinge. (see picture)

I also stuck the hinge in a vise and bent it so that the hinge would lie more parallel to the PCB. You don't have to do this, if pushing the hinge down will activate thepushbutton.

Next I attached the hinge to the PCB and also attached the binder clip as shown in the pictures. My camera shot looks a little distorted. The PCB is pretty much parallethe binder clip. Make sure then metal of the clip doesnt touch any of the circuits going to the push button. The same goes for the bolts. I f a problem, you can cut thetraces or insulate the metal parts.

On the other end of the binder clip, I took some 14 Awg house wiring and wrapped it around so that it was sticking up. The other end I bent it around the projection cloto hold it in place. The way I did it was to figure out where I wanted the bends, then held the wire with some needle nose pliers to make the bend.(see pictures). I alsorotated the projection clock so that the time would be aligned with my reclining eyes. Since my head would be on the pillow, I oriented the clock so that it was vertical swas easier to read. Try to keep the wire away from the buttons on the clock.(see picture)

Solder the two (push button) wires from the clock to the pushbutton. Test it by closing the hinge on the pushbutton. The time should be projected. Clip the clip to whateis handy. I used my headboard bookcase. Adjust the copper support to display the time where you want it . I also put some electrical tape around hinge to keep it in pla

CAUTION: On these four pin pushbuttons, there is two of the pins on each side are connected together. So don't solder the wires to two pins that are already connectinternally.

Image Notes

Image Notes1. I made a slight bend in the hinge so the arm was more or less parallel to thePCB.2. Make sure the pushbutton is 'pushed' by the hinge arm.


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1. Pushbutton.2. T Hinge.3. Scrounged PCB.

Image Notes1. Bolt and washer to hold the binder clamp and one end of the hinge on theother side.

2. Pushbutton is located here.

Image Notes1. 14 AWG wire wrapped around one side of the binder clip.2. 14 AWG wrapped carefully around the projection clock. The wire is adjusted sthat it projects time on the wall.


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Image Notes1. Two wires to pushbutton.2. Pushbutton under the hinge. The tape is just to keep it from flopping around.3. Two wires to solar panel for power.4. Binder clip attached to my headboard bookcase.

Step 5:Make it Perpetual

Well, Im stretching a bit when I say perpetual. My solar panel receives power from room light so its not quite perpetual. If you stuck the solar panel in a window, then would be closer to perpetual.

Open up one of the keychain solar lights. I used an Xacto knife and wedged it into the seam.Solder two wires to the PCB where the battery is attached (see picture). I used a piece of two wire phone cable. This was a poor choice as the wire is very stiff and vehard to strip off the insulation. The wires broke off and I had to reattach and hot glued the wires to the PCB. But the cable was about 10 feet long.The cover of the keychain solar light has a square plastic insert for the button. I took this out and ran the wires through the hole. I also removed the key chain and tiewrapped the wires to the tab for strain relief. (see picture)By the way, the LEDs should still work by pushing the button.Now you have two wires from the projection clock and two from the solar panel.Strip a little insulation away from all four. Be careful that the wires dont touch.

Using a DMM measure voltage across the two wires from the solar panel. It should read about 3 Volts. If it reads -3 V then switch the leads. Make note that the wireattached to the black lead is negative and the the red is positive.If you still have the batteries in the projection clock then do the same procedure for the projection clock..Remove the batteries from the projection clock.Solder the negative wires together and insulate.Solder the positive wires together and insulate.

Now, if you push the hinge button, it should project the clock powered from the solar panel battery.


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Image Notes1. Solar panel.

Image Notes1. Negative side of rechargeable battery. Solder one of the wires here.2. Positive side of the battery. Solder the other wire here.3. This is the diode that prevents the solar panel from draining the battery whenthe panel is not activated.

Image Notes1. This telephone wire is very stiff. I hot glued the wires to the PCB>2. I used a tie wrap to help strain relief the cable.

Step 6:ConclusionsNow place the solar panel where it will get a lot of light during the day. Since my bedroom/work room is fairly dark, i have my bed lamp on most of the day so I put thesolar panel under it.

I measured the current for the projection clock. It was about 90mA. The clock also requires a little bit of power to keep the correct time. The LIR2032 battery is rated a35mAH. That would mean if the battery was fully charged, the projected time would last about 20 minutes. However, the way I use this at night, its only on about 2seconds at a time.

So, theoretically, the battery should be kept charged enough to last in perpetuity, a perpetual time machine for less than $3.

Technobabble:Yes the solar panel is rated at 3.6V and the two batteries in the projection clock are 1.5V each. So I am theoretically applying 3.6V instead of the 3 vo

needed. I am assuming there is enough tolerance to handle the higher voltage. So far i t has worked fine.


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Image Notes1. Current time projected. Note that the time is oriented so that it is easily read when the head is laying on a pillow.2. Time Projector. This is an earlier version. The two wires to the solar panel are not shown.3. Pushbutton.

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Comments

7 comments Add Comment

TR.Parsonsays: Aug 2, 2011. 12:15 PM REPWas anyone else expecting an Instructable on how to build a real "time machine"?

theawesomeninjasays: Aug 2, 2011. 5:18 PM REPThis -is- a legit "time machine"-- it measures it!

msuzuki777says: Aug 2, 2011. 6:16 PM REPAbsolutely! Although some people might think of it as a clock, I like Time Machine!

LOG

wazzup105says: Aug 2, 2011. 2:34 AM REPHey, I have one of these projection thingies (dealextreme :))... Nice idea.
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Perpetual Projection Time Machine

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