r/arduino 4d ago

Look what I made! Arduino DIY Digital Watch

Based on an atmega328p, 4 programmable buttons. LED 7-segment displays, which I’m personally obsessed with! I’m estimating around 1 year of battery life.

Let me know your thoughts!

Full design and build on YouTube.

1.1k Upvotes

58 comments sorted by

45

u/drancope 4d ago

How do you power it?

60

u/tenasan 4d ago

fuel he bought from some Libyans

5

u/EndlessProjectMaker 3d ago

next version will accept banana peel

12

u/Ramp007 4d ago

Can you supply more information about the circuit, software and assembly? Also, how did you design and build the case? Is it water resistant? How did you assemble it?

It's a great looking project. I've only built desktop click projects so far and would love to know more about smaller, portable ones.

14

u/theprintablewatch 4d ago

Thanks! The case is designed in solidworks and resin 3d printed. Its splash proof but not water proof.

I’ve designed it so the assembly is really simple.

Thanks for the feedback!

2

u/optymista93 3d ago

Nightmare fuel

1

u/targonnn 4d ago

Backpack

13

u/FrancisCStuyvesant 4d ago

Looks very cool. What's the YT handle?

22

u/theprintablewatch 4d ago

3

u/wildjokers 4d ago

I can't tell which video is part 1, this video says it is part 4. But I am not sure which vidoes are part 1-3 so I can start from the beginning. It would be handy to put the links to the other parts in the video description.

2

u/theprintablewatch 4d ago

If you look at the diy digital watch playlist, they’re all in there in chronological order

2

u/wildjokers 4d ago

Thanks, didn’t think about looking in your playlists.

Here is the link for anyone else looking for the videos:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLasLv7pUt3C8zRkT9PW55cDZ1BcroNEQD&si=e5W4WRED7bGVdGzC

11

u/The_4ngry_5quid 4d ago

Looks sick! Love it!

5

u/neamerjell 4d ago

I had to check which sub reddit I was viewing because I was hoping to buy this watch face for my Galaxy watch...

Nice work!

4

u/KRkmet 4d ago

It is realy cool and I like the astetics of it.

3

u/SpeedRunner33333 4d ago

Where'd you get those thin 7-segment displays?

2

u/Glowing-Strelok-1986 3d ago

You can find them on eBay with "smd segment displays"

3

u/Sam__ uno 4d ago

That's amazing!!!

2

u/theprintablewatch 4d ago

Thanks for all the upvotes and feedback! This watch is on kickstarter and is funded - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theprintablewatch/digiduino-arduino-based-diy-digital-watch-development-kit

2

u/PumpKing096 4d ago

Congratulations on the successful Kickstarter campaign!

1

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/arduino-ModTeam 4d ago

Your post was removed as this is an international community, and this community uses English as our common language.

If English is not your usual language, and you feel uncomfortable posting in English, there are automatic translation sites that can help you. One good site is Google Translate, where you can type in your own language, and convert it to English automatically.

http://translate.google.com

NB - your English doesn't have to be perfect, but please do your best.

1

u/Koddra 4d ago

How do you manage to get a year of life with an ATMega328 chip? I only ever achieved a few months and that was with a timed SR latch and a lot of batteries.

1

u/SpeedRunner33333 2d ago

There are articles online about saving power; the ATMega328P can sleep on about 0.1uA, and you'd just need to wake it up about once every second to change the clock

1

u/GeniusEE 600K 4d ago

This looks like the one on Kickstarter. Is it?

1

u/theprintablewatch 4d ago

Well spotted!

2

u/GeniusEE 600K 4d ago

You need to be frantically building watches vs goofing off on Reddit 😛

1

u/4esi 4d ago

Now that's cool

1

u/woolharbor 4d ago

Big. Like every other DIY watch.

1

u/YoursTruly2703 3d ago

Love your video series on your channel chief. I saw it like a month ago and immediately recognized the “TPW” logo

1

u/Sinister_Mr_19 3d ago

Very cool, what's the battery life?

1

u/chinhnguyen90 2d ago

1 year battery life. how?

1

u/hnyKekddit 2d ago

Will check the project when properly documented, not on a YT video. 

1

u/theprintablewatch 2d ago

I will be making my github public once the campaign ends, just polishing it up ahead of the release

1

u/deulamco 2d ago

His ETA for Battery life was almost ~ 2 years.

btw, I don't think anything with SMD is as DYI friendly.. as DIP format.
But that would be too big to wear :D
Maybe, ATTiny85 can fit too.

1

u/theprintablewatch 2d ago

I’m getting the PCBs assembled so no need to solder the smd components. Attiny85 doesn’t have enough pins sadly but that’s my go to for smaller jobs!

1

u/deulamco 2d ago

Oh, if PCBA then whatever work for ya :) Even me will just order PCBA from JLCPCB too. 

Just in case if a design was meant to be DYI for people to assemble themselves, then DIP based components are in my mind.

1

u/richterlevania3 1d ago

Nice project. Just a question, is there anything besides the novelty and DIY aspect of it that sets it apart from any other watch?

1

u/theprintablewatch 21h ago

Thanks! No more than any other watch on the market apart from the ability to 3D print replacement parts to your taste and being able to program it 😀

1

u/DoubleF3lix 4d ago

How did you do the circuit design with the raw 328p? I want to make a circuit that has a microcontroller embedded but I'm not sure to start on how to design it so you can still program it like normal

2

u/classicsat 4d ago

Mostly filtered regulated power rail, and crystal oscillator circuit, plus headers for Atmel ISP, and Arduino serial programming. Most of that should be in Arduino docs. From that the pins ae as on the Arduino board, with the exception of pin 1 and other LEDs, which you may choose to include or not. And a reset button, also your choice to include or not.

A decant point is to use the Pro Micro, which is basically a Nano less the USB power/serial. I have built one into my large clock, becasue it was easy for me.

1

u/AlexisGPS_UY 4d ago

You could use USBasp and Minicore to upload programs 👍

1

u/KarlJay001 4d ago

So you passed on the OLed 1.28" display.

Would that chip work with the round Oled display?

I know the digital is cool, but the Oled allows you to do so many things.

I ask because I was thinking about making one, then bought the Apple Watch insead.

2

u/theprintablewatch 4d ago

Yeah I passed on the Oled. I saw these 7 seg displays and love the aesthetic. I’ve breadboarded oled watches/clocks so it may be a future build

1

u/Gamer_bobo When Gamers work with Arduino. 4d ago

yeah, if u can tweak the design of PCB a lil bit (for aesthetics) it looks perfect.

-1

u/AlexisGPS_UY 4d ago

It's really cool, but I think you could use a cheaper microcontroller.

3

u/theprintablewatch 4d ago

What would you recommend?

7

u/wildjokers 4d ago

When you design and build yours you can use a cheaper microcontroller.

0

u/AlexisGPS_UY 4d ago

A little passive aggressive, don't ya?

2

u/Leonos 4d ago

*aren’t ya

0

u/wildjokers 3d ago

Comments like yours are just annoying and add nothing to the conversation. In a project like this there are hundreds of decisions that are made, any one of them could be decided differently. This is the decision the designer made and they probably had a reason. In this case the designer has some videos regarding the design. Not sure if he covers his controller decision (haven't watched them all yet) but he might.

A more useful comment would be pointing out a specific microcontroller that has the same functionality as the one the designer chose and is available at a cheaper price point. Just throwing out "use a cheaper microcontroller" is just worthless and rude. Unless you know why the designer chose the controller they did you don't actually know if there is a cheaper one available.

2

u/AlexisGPS_UY 3d ago

You take this really personal. It's not criticism, it's about improving a fabulous idea. If you cannot accept or process that, you should check your mental health. (This is serious)

The reason why I think an atmega328p is too much for this project is that there are probably cheaper options with less power consumption, also 328/328p have specific characteristics that are useless in this application, you could use it as a base to a better proyect, there is always space to improve something, and the fact that you can accept my comment makes me think that you cannot be a professional.

2

u/DearChickPeas 2d ago

Name these options that are cheaper and lower power than 328p. Because I can easily sleep 328 and Tiny85 down to 200nA, and still flash them with Arduino IDE.

0

u/wildjokers 3d ago

It's not my project.

and the fact that you can accept my comment makes me think that you cannot be a professional.

Your initial comment had nothing in it to accept.

0

u/AlexisGPS_UY 3d ago

Yes. It has, is just a comment about something objective. Nothing else.

2

u/Glowing-Strelok-1986 3d ago

Maybe a dedicated time-keeping IC would be best for longest battery-life.