Bubble LED clock hack with 1970's tech
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ม.ค. 2022
- We hack together a bubble LED clock, in homage of the Texas Instruments LED watch chip and the HP LED bubble displays from the 1970s.
Music: Ether Disco by Kevin McLeod, incompetech.com/
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I keep hearing 'Animal wire' instead of 'Enamel wire' - lol. Great video Marc :)
I was just now minutes old when I learned that the correct word was 'enamel' Thank you for the clarification.
Shoot. Do you know how long it took to install all that catgut in my 3456A? I gotta take it all out again?
But it *eez* animal wire! From the animal called a "wire". It is a most useful animal for electronics. You can make core memory out of its fur, and if you wind the animals very tightly around pieces of metal you can make transformers. As you noted, I am still not exactly sure how it is pronounced in English. Might be because in a silly language called French (France is where the wire animal originally comes from), the tonal accent is always on the last syllab...
@@CuriousMarc touché
@@CuriousMarc
At 1:15 you used the word homage. So many Americans mispronounce it. Please tell us how it is pronounced in French. Thanks!
Don't forget, on the topic of clocks, that we have got one of those rare occasions coming up next month where your clocks will read 2:22:22 2/22/22!
Ohh those M/D/Y regions 😆
@@SergiuszRoszczyk
Yeh, for me it will be 22/2/22.. and on the 24Hr clock will will have 22:22:22 ( 22 mins past 10pm with 22 seconds )
Ahh, yes... I remember lusting after one of those TI watches when they first came out. I was maybe 12 or so, and my parents told me "No way - it's too expensive and you'll just break it!" A handful of years later, and I bought my own first "digital watch", which by then had evolved into an LCD version and was all of $20 or so. But the old LED "bubble" watches still have a special place in my heart, even if I never owned one myself and they became obsolete in less than a decade, simply because they were "my first love" of modern tech. 😋
Originally, 2 silver oxide cells were used… and the switches were made to the junction of the 2 cells. Each cell was 1.2volts I believe.
I knew about the two cells, but did not think about the switches running at half voltage. That might explain it indeed!
@@CuriousMarc yes, the metal caseback would have been both the switch common and the center battery connection (mid rail voltage). I would guess a single cell supply, then a resistor potential divider would serve as a switch common also 👍🏻
This is a better suggestion that I was going to make: Just run the thing with a 3/4 dead button cell.
@@8-bitbitsa821 Not completely sure about your explanation, from memory these watches were mostly plastic (well by the time young me received one as a present), maybe with a sheet metal back, however I recall the main case as plastic.
I literally was dealing with this same issue yesterday (from the converse direction). Try a pair of NiMH cells. They'll last for a year or so between recharges, unless the LEDs are on a lot, and hold 1.2V pretty well (1.4 on full charge, so the sacrifice here would be not fully charging)
Disco is back!!!
That takes me back. I got an LED watch for a birthday as a kid in the 70’s
Cool watch! I also have few such LED ICs made in USSR
When I was in grade 2 back in the late 1970's I had a Scooby Doo calculator that used these same LEDs. I distinctly remember how they felt as I ran my fingertips over them and this led to me constantly being distracted in class. My teacher took the calculator away from me and I never got it back. I have never been able to find one since but I remember it vividly. Seeing these LEDs bring back a LOT of memories.
Sounds like you were subjected to a terrible teacher! Sorry for your loss of a calculator that meant so much to you and for the exposure to yet another person who should never have gone into teaching. Those types give the teaching profession a bad reputation.
that seemed pretty radical from your teacher; I had my TI led wristwatch bought in 1980 and I remember going to the movie theatre and pressing the button like a dozen times in the dark room and got mesmerized same as you with the glowing red tiny but sharp digits; and my vision was good enough in those days to realize the tiny dots making up each "straight segment".
Also I discovered what a battery-eating monster that watch was; realized that it went out after 1 sec of displaying the time because of the high current consumption, but I loved it no matter those issues.Sadly it won't last for more than a couple of years, maybe it wasn't prepared for kids abuse all day long (and I've thrown a big number of expensive japanese batteries back then, found only at selected jewelry shops in that day)
groovy tune at the end :)
A man with one weird clock always knows what time it is. A man with nine is never sure...
you just created nerd craze for spring fashion in interns of electronic engineering. im speachless
The wire-wrap-solder-suck methodology. Love it. Thank you very much Marc as always. Made my day!
Congratulations! You have joined the ranks of actual watch makers! Putting your work in a presentation box was certainly an appropriate idea.
Nice to see some of the "wire-wrap on DIP pins" technique. That's a blast from the past.
Absolutely loved watching this. I could watch Marc hack stuff all day!
I am not sure what I envy [ I mean appreciate ;-) ] most about you Marc! The fact that you've accomplished so much in your life and earned the freedom to play when, and with what, you choose OR the skills you have, perhaps even both! Keep doing what you're doing good Sir! Thanks for another cool vid!
Thanks so much for accomplishing what we electronics enthusiasts dream of accomplishing. It's a joy to watch!
That display is beautiful!
I did the opposite sorta. designed a tiny circuit with a modern chip to retrofit inside a 70s LED watch case :)
Can you share what chip you used? Another commenter was asking if there was any modern equivalent IC to make an LED watch, with power sufficiently low to work off watch batteries. I suspect one could make it with a modern ultra-low power IoT processor.
@@CuriousMarc I used an ATMEGA328, which can be pretty shockingly low power when you configure it just right. Just like the classic LED watches, it sleeps until you press a button. There are some good tutorials out there for doing low power. The only components used are the bubble display, current limiting resistors, MCU, power cap, and watch crystal. and of course the battery. After I discovered charlieplexing, I redesigned it using an ATTINY, but haven't built that version.
@@zbradbell Great, I have never used the sleep mode of the Atmel ATmega.
My dad had 3 of those watches over the years. I think he still has the most recent one...
This was really cool and informative to see, especially the wire-wrap. I've never seen it done, only heard it explained and seen the end result a few times.
Your clock collection is awesome by the way!
Great job Marc! Thanks for sharing your project with us.
That's a really cool epilogue to one of your best video series.
The Bubble LEDs reminded me of a 1970s? Handheld Racing game i found in my attic.
It has bare LEDs, no epoxy or lens, just the bare led die on the pcb. I love old tech
Thank you again CuriousMarc; one of the very few channels on which I click the thumbs up icon BEFORE I watch.
When I deadbug I try to use the leads of the components as much as possible... just bend that lead over to the button lead, e.g. Great job, love the buttons on the chip edges.
Just beautiful Marc! I sense your persistence after the initial power problems. You just WANTED to add this to the collection, which I think is just absolutely brilliant! A watch (don't remember the brand) with this type of display was my very very first digital watch, shortly after my dad returned from the States in 1969 and he brought a very early calculator (thought is was TI but I can't find any reference) with this type of display. I think you did a great tribute.
I love this display so sharp.
NML wire? Animal wire?
Ohh, ENAMEL wire.
Love this.
I always enjoy discovering new tools.
I've honestly never used or seen the little wire wrapper, pretty neat tool.
Wow, very impressive work. And a very snazzy display case, too!
Nice project...a true work of electronic art - i haven't seen chip - only dead bug construction in years! Your fixing the clock modules marathon inspired me to do a resurrection of an old MM5314N chip and bubble display that were hanging out in my parts bin for the last 4 decades... it is also now on display on my weird clock shelf.
Nice project for interruption between big projects!
Great that it works!
It's fun to see old LED tech coming back into vogue in some small way with channels like yours and TechMoan. I recently started an LED watch collection and have become fully invested, having bought an old Pulsar and Commodore, among others. Love the video! :)
Fabulous stuff!
love the box for the "weird clock" 🤩
Pretty cool little idea.
Disco Watch
They're such beautiful leds.
I just loved the wire wrap "dead bug" topology ;-) Thanks for a great and interesting video!
I somehow ended up with a similar watch when I was a kid in about 1978. I thought I was pretty cool. It's amazing how crisp and sharp those little LEDs are.
Very cool! Reminds me of the joule thief art figures I made as a kid (well... I'm still a kid, just with a mortgage and taxes now)
I made them look like fireflies, and they created a neat little spot of light on the display shelf running off almost empty button cell batteries.
tes projets sont toujours très cool !
Merci
The way those little displays are constructed is intuitive; a good example of getting the most out of something,
I'm working on a little VFD timekeeping wearable and it's ending up massive and my guy ends up managing an LED one with one chip and no PCBs at all, just pin to pin.
Hats off to Marc and the designers of that chip.
I HAVE always *wanted* to make one of these!! _I even have most of the parts from old calculators!_
6:24 a fairly common issue with watches which use this chip. For some reason unless you have a nice fresh set of cells, they don't set properly, or indeed at all. The chip also eats batteries pretty quickly. Bear in mind this was bleeding edge technology of the day, so there were still a few gremlins in the works.
I just love that it started out as a dead-bug style of integration, minimum viable product,... but then the problem with the power on the pin. Always something. So still dead-bug style, minimum viable, but now with an add-on diode to handle the idiosyncrasies of the pin. Always love to see the troubleshooting and "design for manufacture" changes that occur.
From a geeky geek to another geek. I love your little clock project! 😀👍
Beautiful!
Very cool!
Soooo cool!!!! Awesome! Love it.
This reminded me of the 60 Hz "clock" for a craptastic clock radio of the era, mains ac through a multi megaohm resistor straight into a logic gate. I feel dirty just writing this.
Yeah, and then bring in on a European holiday and miss every taxi, bus, and event😁
Marc, this thing is *beautiful*. What an awesome little device. I'd kill for those components, I'd love to make an actual watch with them.
It reminds me a bit of Steve Wozniak's Nixi watch without the strap. Cool with a "C"..
i am envious of your clock colection
Love it!
Fantastic! :)
Cool stuff, groovy 70's music :) Got even a modern "80's style" black Casio digital wristwatch as a Christmas present, and have few other digital & LED wristwatches too, love them :)
Awesome!
One of my first projects ever was to wire up a bubble display to a Signetics 2650 and make a clock / counter. Probably around 1979. It was quite satisfying.
I had one of those TI watches, reading the time on a motorcycle was interesting. Reach over to the right wrist and push the button, then quickly put the left hand on the handle bars and hold the right wrist to by eyes to read it with out it timing out.
fancy intro music, i love it!
Nice!
The last time you showed these, I went on ebay and ordered two of the bubble displays. I love them. They have a very interesting look. :) I should order some more.
This is an unavoidable hazard with watching Marc's videos... this happened to me a few weeks ago with the TI Silent 700 terminal, and this video might make me do it again! Uh oh...
CuriousMarc's 1970's style dead-bug LED clock is fully funky. :-)
I'm SO jealous of that Solari flip clock!
I haven't used dead bug mods for many years! The question many will ask is ... WHY? And of course the answer is WHY NOT! Brilliant.
It's because pcb manufacturing is so cheap and accessible these days ;)
@@TradieTrev And of course not many designs use DIP packages! I've got a t-shirt which shows a 6502 processor on it. The words are "I prefer my chips in DIP" 😊
I remember using some kind of enamelled wire which you'd wrap around pins then solder as part of a prototyping system in the 1980s.
I still have some with the dispenser pen tool. The brand I know of was Road-Runner. They also made basic prototyping boards.
Marc
I have 2 Hamilton and 2 Pulsar watches from the first generation of 1970 LED watches with red displays. One of the Hamilton watches has the original chip and display and still works fine. The others have replacement chips/displays. There are 2 guys one in the UK and one in Germany that offer the service to update them if they have failed. The thing that kills these watches i leaving a battery in them so it leaks. Mine all use 2 a76 1.5 v batteries. There original batteries used are not available and these batteries are slightly smaller and need a plastic ring round them to fit in the watch. They are a bit of a cult item. John
I also collect clocks, so love the video!!!!!
I've got one of those 4 digit bubble LED chips from my father! As far as I know he got them at a trade show in Hungary in the early 1970s.
Like it, thanks for sharing :)
So cool !....cheers.
Nice work! Thanks for time! I remember this kind of LED in old console games! Be safe! Luis T.
Beautiful little displays. Cool idea, and we'll implemented. I'd make a watch band for it and wear it. Just not at the airport.
Oh, ENAMEL wires! I thought you said "animal wires." Mon Dieu!
I absolutely love the look of bubble LEDs. I use my TI-30 for that reason on a regular basis even though my android phone has a perfectly good calculator.
Where to buy bubble display?
@@leonidvalentinovich5215 By itself? I have no idea.
@@redleader6442 I like bubble displays too but I have only one broken display and do not know where to buy. Ebay, aliexpress...
@@leonidvalentinovich5215 Good luck.
So god damn cool.
A TI-disciplined Cesium clock. You know you want to.
Absolutely bonkers but fun.
Wire-wrapping, the optimal dead-bug technique.
Nice wire wrap tool!
I had an large assortment of those old bubble LED displays at one time. Given how ubiquitous larger LED displays had become, I ended up tossing them all. Somewhere out there in a Mountain View landfill, probably under the Shoreline Amphitheater, they sit to this day.
nobody ever made LED displays in that small of a form factor again, so now they are in high demand!
Cool! If you added a strap to it, you would have the world's geekiest watch!
the capacitor is the "face" of the "dead bug" - cute!
I'm unfortunately not skilled enough myself, but perhaps someone here could assist? I was thinking... since your goal was a watch, why not 3D print a housing for it out of clear resin? You could make it dual-sided with sockets using the female headers used on project wires/breadboard wires to make it socketable on both sides, with the proper wiring done in between, including little holes printed for the diode/etc? That would give you the ability to still see all of it (could even use 2 different colors for the top/bottom halves) and have a fully wearable design. (Printed to use standard watch bands/pins, of course.) Just a thought, but either way, thanks for sharing this awesome project! I had no idea those were little bubble LEDs, nor that they were using light-guide tubes like that! Fascinating! (And it looks so awesome, even on camera.)
Well done sir :)😁
You have a clock museum going on there!
The music at the beginning reminds me of the glory days of FVDisco
As a boy I bought a LED watch in the 1970s. It took many paper rounds and car washes to pay for it. I still wear it today.
You can use TI linear LDO from TPS709xx series. It has 1uA supply current.
"You got to tickle it to see it." 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I like that little wire wrapping tool, very cool. Shame I have no practical use for it, so it would be a complete waste of money if I were to order one to be delivered by Hermes around 5pm on Monday
:]
I had one as a kid but it was a major battery burner as every kid at school wanted to see it :)
Took me a while to figure out what animal wires were.
Tapping like crazy on computer. Where to source "animal wire"?
love it dead bug style love it
Interesting about the switch input. Some other clock chips from the period (I have one from Mostek for alarm clocks) used three-state inputs for some functions so an input pin could be low voltage, floating, or high voltage. Provided it was wired correctly (with resistors or just a center-off toggle switch) this allowed for more switches to be used with only a limited number of pins.
"An uncharted backwater where people believe digital watches are a pretty neat idea."
My Dad made the first digital watch (the “Pulsar”). I went to a book signing featuring Douglas Adams probably around 1987 or 1988 and told him about the Pulsar. I think he found it amusing.
@@egparker5 thank you so much for this tidbit! This makes me feel even closer to the story :-)
thats a bomb!
I’ve got a 1972 pulsar P2 which is essentially the first digital watch as used by 007. 🇬🇧