It seems that meter clocks gained some popularity among hobbyists. Probably because it’s a bit challenging and great looking projects. This one is based on AT89C5051 microcontroller. Circuit is pretty simple where timing is counted by DS1307 chip and analog meters are controlled by sending voltage levels through DAC converters and amp buffers.

Clock is graded to 24 hour scale and can show hours, minutes and seconds on three meters. To see more packaging examples follow here.

Nixie projects look really cool and old fashioned. If you are tired of LCDs then take a look at this amazing work. It consists of 81 Nixie tube what makes 9×9 display matrix. Nixies are controlled by Arduino platform while cursor is navigated by two knobs. Number is entered via simple keypad.

This Sudoku solver also has a recursive Sudoku solving algorithm which can solve Sudoku’s by itself. It’s really fun to look at action itself.

Direct sunlight is perfect for waking up in the morning. But it happens that there is no sun or simply your bedroom is in western side of the house. Then there is the only way – start cheating with sun simulator. It is based on ATTiny13 microcontroller which takes care of dimming the 150W halogen lamp.

Alarm clock can be set to reach its maximum intensity from 2 minutes up to 8 hours. Microcontroller takes alarm signals from regular digital radio alarm clock so no need to do additional time tracking. I agree it looks a bit dangerous to have halogen lamp near pillow, but it is worth to risk for a bit of sun.

Physics sometimes seems to be boring, but it can be entertaining especially if microcontroller is involved. This is pretty simple project based on Arduino Pro mini. It controls a small brushless DC motor that turns a propeller – so cart moves when motor turns.

Cart also has a magnetic reed switch which turns motor of when activated. Physics classes may find this useful and interesting when learning kinetic energy, force, friction and other stuff.