Despite the fact that electronic watches are not in short supply today, some home craftsmen continue to build their own today. Of course, they make watches of such designs that are not found in stores.
Necessary
- Parts for watch assembly
- Board or materials and tools for its manufacture
- Soldering iron, solder and neutral flux
- The body or materials and tools for its manufacture
- Screwdriver, wire cutters, pliers
- ATMEGA8515 compatible programmer
- Computer, USB to RS-232 converter
- Source of power
Instructions
Step 1
There are many designs of electronic clocks specifically designed for home craftsmen. One of the interesting developments in this area is Sputnix. The documentation for this watch is distributed according to the Open Hardware principle, and the firmware is distributed according to the Open Source principle, however, the license chosen by the author prohibits the sale of the manufactured watch. At the same time, the author himself is not engaged in trade in sets for assembling watches, but accepts voluntary donations of any volume.
Step 2
Go to the BOM (Bill Of Materials) section of the website and download a list of parts for making watches. Decide on your own which of them can be replaced with analogues. Perhaps you already have many of these details, in this case, your costs will be significantly reduced. Purchase the rest of the components.
Step 3
Choose whether you will mount the clock on a PCB or surface mount. If you choose the first one, the board can be made in the way that is most convenient for you, or ordered from a specialized company - all the files necessary for this are available on the site. It all depends on your capabilities and preferences.
Step 4
Mount all parts except the microcontroller. Install the latter into the programmer and write the bootloader and firmware into it. Solder the microcontroller to the board. In the future, thanks to the presence of a bootloader, you can update the firmware without soldering it, through the port built into the watch. You also don't need a programmer.
Step 5
Check the installation carefully. Buy or assemble a power supply for your watch. Turn on your watch - it should work. Be careful not to touch the high-voltage circuits on the board, use the buttons to set the current time.
Step 6
Since the watch contains high voltage circuits, a case is required. What it will be depends on your capabilities. You can buy a ready-made case, you can make it yourself in the way you prefer and from your preferred materials, you can order it, like a board, from a specialized company. In all cases, it must have a transparent insert or holes for indicators. The finished case may need to be modified for this.
Step 7
Once you've finished working on your watch, place it in a place in the room that makes it easy for you and your loved ones to look at it.
