Have an old hard drive and want to do some fun with it? You can make a clock from it. Clock uses 12 high power LEDs for displaying clock hands. Blue LED represents minutes, red -hours and purple – seconds.

Rotating is synchronized with IR LED sensor. Clock is controlled by PIC16F628 which is responsible for reading IR sensor, and lighting LEDs at right hard drive platter position. Only hex file is available, so you only need to flash a PIC and enjoy the view in the dark.

This is a simple schematic which can be assembled to control a lamp with Sony TV remote control.

Circuit uses a PWM a photocoupler to isolate power part from microcontroller. Power part has very interesting solution on how halogen lamp is driven. Program code for PIC16F628 is available for download.