Version 2.1.0 of the clock now implements interrupt-driven setting of the second. It needs the Pulse-per-second PPS output from a GPS for that. The result is that the clock is more accurate as it now changes seconds a few hundred milliseconds earlier and aligns perfectly with other clocks I have.
It is optional whether one wants to use this feature or not. If not, the PPS flag needs to be set to 0 in the Setup menu, otherwise the clock will wait indefinitely for a pulse that never comes. In the image to the right the PPS flag is set to "1".
The rest of the code status screen shown here displays: Line 2: code version and date. Line 3: GPS baudrate and PPS flag. Line 4: Time zone and offset from UTC in minutes, and language used for day names when displaying local time.
There are a few new screens also in version 2.1.0, among them one which reads a little database with names and birthdates from EEPROM and displays them in sorted order. See GitHub wiki for details. A program for writing to EEPROM is provided for loading this kind of data. Some big number screens, like the one shown first here, have also been made .
I needed some progressbars and collected all the bars I could find and implemented them on an Arduino with 20x4 or 16x2 LCD.
There is a total of 10 different bars and here are the two which are used in the upcoming version of the Multi face GPS Clock.
The main design principle is that no more than 8 custom characters should be required per bar. That means that the custom character set is uploaded just once for each bar, giving much less probability for wearing out the LCD character memory with its presumed finite limit on the number of write cycles.
This excludes some fancier bars that require more or less continuous updates of character sets during progression of the bar.
The code and images of the other eight bars can be found on Github.
Clock nerds may appreciate that my multi-face GPS Clock software has come in a major new software version, V2.0.0. The main novelty is that it allows a typical user to setup the clock without having to edit the Arduino software. Youtube video demonstrations are below.
First, the 24 screens of the Favorites subset (make sure to turn on subtitles):
Second, how to change the clock from EU to US setup (language, time zone, date format):
A brief press on the rotary encoder will enter the setup menu with these options:
< 0 Clock subset >, < 1 Backlight >, < 2 Date format >, < 3 Time zone >, < 4 Local language >, <5 Secondary menu>.
Submenus will lead the user to :
Menu 0: Clock subset, gives a choice between Favorites (24 screens), All (40 screens), Calendar (13), Fancy clocks (22), Astronomy (16), Radio amateur (13)
Menu 2, Date format, gives a choice between EU, US, ISO, French, British, Period format, Dot format
Menu 3: 20 different time zones
Menu 4: English (en), French (fr), German (de), Norwegian (no), Spanish (es) day names for local time
Secondary menus will enable a choice of among others GPS baud rate
Chosen values will be stored in EEPROM so next time the clock is started it will start with the values used in the previous session.
The latest addition to the Multi-face GPS Clock is a clock face that for hour, minute, and second cycles through the corresponding chemical element in the periodic table. This is shown in the image to the right.
This is screen number 39 for this clock, all of them selectable by rotating a rotary encoder. The project, with Arduino Mega hardware and software is documented on Github, where the current release is v.1.6.0 (2023-04-14).
The display also shows the full name for the element corresponding to the second, as shown above for element 3 which is Lithium. It is located in group (column) 1 and period (row) 2.
Azimuth and elevation for inner and outer planets relative to your present location. The inner planet screen shows Venus and Mercury and alternates also every 10 seconds between showing the position of the sun and the moon. The % illumination is also shown along with an estimate of apparent magnitude
The combined local time and UTC display now has an option to show ISO week number, defined to start on Mondays. (It is my understanding that the week number in the US is different, as Sunday is the first day of the week)
A new calendar screen now shows Gregorian (western), Julian (eastern) as well as Islamic and Jewish dates. The calculation of the Jewish calendar is tough for the Arduino Mega and takes some 5-6 seconds
A screen showing GPS Info has also been included. This screen shows the number of satellites in view (line 0), the number of satellites in use for position fix and their average signal to noise ratio (line 1), the mode and status indicators (line 2), and the Horizontal Dilution of Precision, Hdop, and its characterization in plain text (line 3).
The multi-face Arduino GPS clock is inspired by the Clock Kit from QRPLabs. It is an open source project on GitHub, and it now has support for many more languages in the newly released versjon 1.4.0. As a language nerd myself, I love fiddling with multiple languages and character sets.
The local language option is for display of day name in case local time is shown. The default is English for local time. No matter the choice for local time, English is always used for UTC day name. Here are examples:
French:
Spanish:
German:
Icelandic:
Swedish:
Norwegian/Danish:
English:
As is evident from the examples, the letters ø and ö are displayed when needed. The same goes for å, á, é, ð, and þ which are all displayed properly according to need in the various languages. The wiki of the project on Github gives instructions for how to select language. It is also easy to add more languages.
The multi-face Arduino GPS Clock has some new clock faces in software version 1.3.0:
Demo mode, where all screens are cycled through, with 10-15 seconds per screen
Astronomical clock
Wordclock display
Roman numbers
Morse code clock
This brings the total to 35 different screens. The updated code as well as documentation is on my Github page.
The astronomical clock shows sidereal time as well as solar time:
A sideral year is one day shorter than a solar year, as noon is defined when the earth points in a particular direction relative to the stars rather than to the sun. Further explanation is here: sidereal time
Apparent solar time has noon when the sun is exactly to the South. It takes into account the shift due to daylight saving time, the shift due to my longitude relative to the 15 degree zone per hour, as well as irregularities in the Earth's orbit around the sun. See solar time here.
The Norwegian Ham meeting 2022 will take place 11-13 March near Oslo Airport Gardermoen. Norwegian and some Swedish radio amateurs will meet and the program is here (Norwegian). It will be nice finally to meet again!
I will give a presentation on Saturday morning: "An easy-to-build GPS clock for the shack".
My Multi-Face GPS Clock on Github now has a new software version: v. 1.2.0. Documentation is on the Github Wiki.It has a new screen for predicting lunar eclipses 2-3 years into the future.
It also has a MathClock inspired by the AlbertClock which has its name from Albert Einstein. You have to be somewhat clever to figure it out. But actually it is not so hard. There are four ways to present an arithmetic computation to find hour and minute at regular intervals.
Additions only
Also subtraction
Also multiplication
and finally subtraction, multiplication, and division
There is a new simpler look for a screen showing rise and set times for the sun according to Actual Civil, and Nautical sunrise/set with definitions 0, -6, and -12 degrees below the horizon.
Finally, a screen with Actual rise time, solar elevation at local noon, and present elevation and azimuth for the sun has been added.
The GPSClock from last month has now been updated and software version 1.10 1.1.0 is available on Github. The main upgrade is the possibility to use a rotary encoder for selecting display screen or clock face.
In addition a new screen showing Easter for the next three years, according to both the Gregorian (Western) and Julian (Eastern) calendars, has been added as number 22. The dates are shown in the Gregorian calendar:
A new screen showing the clock in binary, octal, decimal, and hex format is screen 21:
Screens 19 and 20 show the clock in octal and hexadecimal formats and are not shown here.
Screen 15 showing UTC time, locator, position, altitude, and number of satellites has been reorganized in order to work correctly for Western and Southern positions also:
Screen 7 showing binary format has been corrected:
The schematic when a rotary encoder is substituted for the push buttons is:
A wiki has been started on Github where all hardware and software options are described in detail.
Version 1 of my Multi Face GPS Clock is here, as open source software for the Arduino Mega. It has some 22 19 different display screens showing time, location, solar and lunar positions and rise/set times. It shows UTC time as received from the GPS satellites and local time where it automatically adjust for summer time. The initial screen, no. 0, is this:
The display changes by pushing the right-hand pushbutton on the top, increasing the screen number by one. Similarly the number can be decreased by pushing the left-hand push-button. The potentiometer on the right side adjust the backlight. The clock is built on the same hardware as used for the K3NG Arduino CW keyer.
The date and time formats may be changed, and with US settings it looks like this:
This format is closer to the ISO standard:
When local time is shown, day names may be in another language than English. Here is my Norwegian day name display. The local short name for Tuesday (Tir) will be shown in some of the following displays also, because the native option is set:
The circuit diagram is rather simple and is based on an Arduino Mega and I2C or parallel connection to a 20x4 LCD display. It was drawn online on www.circuit-diagram.org and is a public circuit.
The GPS input is for serial data on a TTL-like interface. I use a QRPLabs QLG1 GPS. It is now discontinued and replaced by the QLG2.
The Menu+ and Menu- buttons will increase and decrease respectively the screen number in the following sequence of numbered screens.
The code is public on github.com/LA3ZA/Multi-Face-GPS-Clock. It uses 57714 bytes (22%) of program storage space of an Arduino Mega. This is too much to fit an Arduino Uno. Global variables use 2446 bytes (29%) of dynamic memory, leaving 5746 bytes for local variables.
Here are the other screens. Screen 1 shows UTC time and date, Maidenhead locator and number of satellites:
Screen 2 shows local time, and actual, civil, and nautical rise and set times for the sun, i.e. when the sun touches the horizon, and is 6 and 12 degrees below the horizon. To the right is shown solar elevation (-22 degrees), local time at solar noon (13.09), and solar elevation at local noon (27 degrees).
Screen 3 is similar to screen 2 except for the last line which shows the next lunar event, set, at 17:29, the lunar phase and illumination of, in this case, the decreasing moon, and lunar elevation.
Screen 4 is a lunar display showing actual elevation and azimuth, next set/rise time and azimuth. The last line shows lunar distance as a percentage of its maximum value (88-100%) and distance in km, as well as lunar phase (51% illumination).
Screen 5 shows lunar rise/set times for the present 24 hours and the next and the corresponding azimuth angles:
Screen 6 is a display of time in various user configurable time zones, here showing central Europan Summer Time, Indian time, Eastern Daylight Time, and Pacific Daylight Time:
The following screens show several fancy, barely useable screens of various alternative displays. Screen 7 is binary while screen 8 is binary coded decimal:
Screen 9 is also binary coded decimal, but to be read vertically, like in the Wikipedia article on binary clock:
Screen 10 is based on groups of three bars which are each 1/4 of a round clock:
Screens 13 and 14 are diagnostic displays which are not shown here. Screen 15 shows UTC time, position, altitude and number of satellites:
Screen 16 shows the NCDXF beacons in the 15, 12, and 10 m bands at the present time. It changes every 10 seconds as transmitters change frequency.
Screen 17 shows the NCDXF beacons in the 20, 17, and 15 m bands:
The NCDXF displays were inspired by the single-line display of OE3GOD.
Screen 18 shows the WSPR frequency used at the indicated time according to coordinated band hopping. All 10 bands between 160 m and 10 m are covered in a 20 minute cycle:
After the last screen, the screen counter goes to 0 and the sequence is repeated as the right-hand button is pressed. Pressing the left-hand button will take you directly from the initial display to the WSPR screen.
The startup screen shows GPS baud rate (user settable) as it is waiting for a GPS signal:
The code is on github and has several options. The way to choose and set options has been inspired by the way it is done in the The K3NG Arduino CW Keyer.
An important feature is that it is possible to customize which screens to show and in which order. Thus only screens 0-5 with time, solar and lunar positions and screens 16-18 with the NCDXF and WSPR sequences may be made available for instance.
Other options and features are:
FEATURE_LCD_I2C - I2C interface to LCD
FEATURE_LCD_4BIT - parallel interface to 20x4 LCD
FEATURE_DAY_NAME_NATIVE - to use local language day names for local time
SECONDS_CLOCK_HELP - to set the number of seconds per minute when time is shown in a normal format in the Binary, BCD, etc displays. Values from 0 (never) to 60 (always)
I’ve been working on a GPS-controlled Arduino clock for some years and had set myself the goal of showing time for moonrise and for moonset for the present day. That turned out to be much harder than I had thought.
Finally, over the last few weeks I managed to adapt lunarCycle.c to Arduino and get it to work as shown in the display here. My ambition is now eventually to publish this project on GitHub as I’ve had several requests for it.
The display here shows local time and date, moon phase on line 2, present moon elevation and moon azimuth on line 3, and the next rise time of the moon and at which position on the final line. Follow label ‘Arduino clock’ below for more posts about this clock.
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