Vertical Clock

This simple vertical version on the ever-popular wordclock spells out the time by illuminating rows of words. Reading from top to bottom, any five minute increment of time can be spelled out by illuminating some combination of these rows. (Credit to Twitter user @3d0g for this concept.)

This project uses a laser engraved piece of acrylic paired with a cardboard stand and is lit by a strip of NeoPixels powered by a Feather M4 Express board with a Precision Real Time Clock FeatherWing keeping time even if the clock is disconnected from power. 

Top down view of an Adafruit NeoPixel Digital RGB  60 LED-per-meter strip.
Fancy new side light LED strips are a great alternative for folks who have loved and used Adafruit LED strips for a few years but want gorgeous, glowy light emitting at...
$17.95
In Stock
Angle shot Female DC Power adapter - 2.1mm jack to screw terminal block
If you need to connect a DC power wall wart to a board that doesn't have a DC jack - this adapter will come in very handy! There is a 2.1mm DC jack on one end, and a screw terminal...
$2.00
In Stock
Angled shot of a DS3231 Precision RTC FeatherWing - RTC Add-on For Feather Boards.
A Feather board without ambition is a Feather board without FeatherWings! This is the DS3231 Precision RTC FeatherWing: it adds an extremely accurate I2C-integrated...
$13.95
In Stock
Angled shot of a Adafruit Feather M4 Express.
It's what you've been waiting for, the Feather M4 Express featuring ATSAMD51. This Feather is fast like a swift, smart like an owl, strong like a ox-bird (it's half ox,...
$22.95
In Stock
Angled shot of a Header Kit for Feather - 12-pin and 16-pin Female Header Set.
These two Female Headers alone are, well, lonely. But pair them with any of our 
$0.95
In Stock
5V 2A Wall Wart switching power supply
This is an FCC/CE certified and UL listed power supply. Need a lot of 5V power? This switching supply gives a clean regulated 5V output at up to 2000mA. 110 or 240 input, so it works...
$7.95
In Stock
Angled shot of CR1220 12mm Diameter - 3V Lithium Coin Cell Battery - CR1220.
These are the highest quality & capacity batteries, the same as shipped with the iCufflinks, iNecklace, Datalogging and GPS Shields, GPS HAT, etc. One battery per order...
$0.95
In Stock
USB cable - USB A to Micro-B - 3 foot long
This here is your standard A to micro-B USB cable, for USB 1.1 or 2.0. Perfect for connecting a PC to your Metro, Feather, Raspberry Pi or other dev-board or...
$2.95
In Stock
Breadboard-friendly SPDT Slide Switch
These nice switches are perfect for use with breadboard and perfboard projects. They have 0.1" spacing and snap in nicely into a solderless breadboard. They're easy to switch...
$0.95
In Stock
Angled shot of 2 2-pin JST SM Plug + Receptacle Cable, socket type and plug type.
These 2-wire cables are 16cm long and come as a set.  One side has a 2-pin JST SM type connector plug on the end.  The other side has a matching 2-pin JST SM type...
Out of Stock

Materials

In addition to the electronics, for this project you will need:

Read on to learn how to build your own!

This guide was first published on Jul 12, 2019. It was last updated on Mar 18, 2024.

This page (Overview) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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