New version of the clock forthcoming?

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error1	Posted: 17 Oct 2023, 11:39 AM
Member Posts: 1 Joined: 17-October 23	Would it be possible to add a digit to have full millisecond display and not just hundredths of a second on the new one? You mentioned the GPS receiver should be good for millisecond accuracy... Phone cameras are already able to record at several hundred fps so it would be nice to have the additional accuracy when using the clock to time stuff :) My old kit is still ticking away faithfully, love that thing! -------------
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mit	Posted: 17 Oct 2023, 12:22 PM
yeah whatever Admin Posts: 605 Joined: 4-May 16	QUOTE (error1) Would it be possible to add a digit to have full millisecond display and not just hundredths of a second on the new one? You mentioned the GPS receiver should be good for millisecond accuracy... Phone cameras are already able to record at several hundred fps so it would be nice to have the additional accuracy when using the clock to time stuff :) My old kit is still ticking away faithfully, love that thing! The new version displays to the millisecond by default. And yes, the accuracy of the GPS module is to within about 50ns, which is another five digits beyond that. I have tested the millisecond display of the new clock by filming it at 25,000FPS, and it is rock solid, perfectly visible without flickering. I'm afraid I've made little progress on bringing it to release, hopefully it will happen before Christmas. I've also (stupidly) started working on its successor which will display time to the microsecond... -------------
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elorgus	Posted: 30 Jan 2024, 03:58 PM
Member Posts: 1 Joined: 30-January 24	This is exciting news! The improvements of MK IV sound great (especially easy update/modification of the firmware) and I'm more than happy to wait for its final release. So no pressure from my side, only (pleasant) anticipation :) For me personally millisecond precision is all I ever needed and more than I'm able to see anyways. -------------
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Zman350x	Posted: 14 Jun 2024, 04:17 PM
Member Posts: 2 Joined: 1-August 23	We're now at June of '24. Any update? -------------
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mit	Posted: 19 Jun 2024, 10:35 AM
yeah whatever Admin Posts: 605 Joined: 4-May 16	No progress lately, sorry. It has been a very busy few months. I shall try and release the new clock as soon as I can. I did give a talk at EMF a couple weeks ago about the new clock and there was plenty of interest, so I definitely do want to see this through, I just have so many things on at once that it's difficult to make time for it. Inventing things is the fun part, commercialising them is the really boring bit. -------------
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rolex	Posted: 4 Nov 2024, 05:41 AM
TimeKeeper, NZL Member Posts: 2 Joined: 4-November 24	We're interested here in New Zealand too ! Fingers crossed for the updated clock :) Awesome work please keep it up. ------------- lexrolexro Timekeeper Watch Club New Zealand, Southern Hemisphere, Earth 'Inventing things is the fun part, commercialising them is the really boring bit.' - mit
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mit	Posted: 6 Nov 2024, 12:03 PM
yeah whatever Admin Posts: 605 Joined: 4-May 16	Gosh it's embarrassing I still haven't put them up for sale. I've yet to write the instructions for the new kit, or film a video about it, but I do have a small number of assembled, or partially assembled MkIV clocks here. I have informally sold a few of them to people who were very keen on the millisecond precision. If anyone really wants one, send me an email and we can figure something out. -------------
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rolex	Posted: 21 Nov 2024, 06:25 AM
TimeKeeper, NZL Member Posts: 2 Joined: 4-November 24	Fantastic news - sent you a PM a day or so ago - stoked to hear this mit Hoping soon there will be some MkIV MITXELA Precision Clock's in Aotearoa - - - - - - - - - - Gosh it's embarrassing I still haven't put them up for sale. I've yet to write the instructions for the new kit, or film a video about it, but I do have a small number of assembled, or partially assembled MkIV clocks here. I have informally sold a few of them to people who were very keen on the millisecond precision. If anyone really wants one, send me an email and we can figure something out. (Pic. courtesy aaronfranke - reddit) Last edit by rolex at 21 Nov 2024, 06:27 AM ------------- lexrolexro Timekeeper Watch Club New Zealand, Southern Hemisphere, Earth 'Inventing things is the fun part, commercialising them is the really boring bit.' - mit
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maczrool	Posted: 29 Nov 2024, 02:55 PM
Member Posts: 7 Joined: 28-June 20	I am wondering what display options will be offered. I know others have requested a 12 hour mode. Would there be any options for date format or position? Like MM.DD.YYYY? Time to the left of date? -------------
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SolidElectronics	Posted: 15 Mar 2025, 09:49 AM
Member Posts: 3 Joined: 15-March 25	I came across this project recently (/r/iso8601) and I'm experimenting with making some new board designs. Still a work in progress, but I've made a version that uses the more common 0.56" segments as a prototype, and ultimately I'd like to make one that has the date above the time for a more compact footprint. As for the code, I do have are a very particular set of skills. Namely AVR assembly for the ATTiny family, so this is very much in my lane. I've been reading through it and adding comments to understand how it works, and I'll likely be able to add additional features like a 12-hour mode at some point. Just wanted to put this out there in case anyone was interested, and I'll share the Git repo when it's in a usable state. -------------
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mit	Posted: 17 Mar 2025, 11:46 AM
yeah whatever Admin Posts: 605 Joined: 4-May 16	QUOTE (SolidElectronics) I came across this project recently (/r/iso8601) and I'm experimenting with making some new board designs. Still a work in progress, but I've made a version that uses the more common 0.56" segments as a prototype, and ultimately I'd like to make one that has the date above the time for a more compact footprint. As for the code, I do have are a very particular set of skills. Namely AVR assembly for the ATTiny family, so this is very much in my lane. I've been reading through it and adding comments to understand how it works, and I'll likely be able to add additional features like a 12-hour mode at some point. Just wanted to put this out there in case anyone was interested, and I'll share the Git repo when it's in a usable state. Cool - good luck! Not sure if I already mentioned but one of the main "improvements" to the MkIV clock is that it's written in C, which means it's a lot easier for people to modify. If I were to make another clock using an ATtiny, the most important improvement would be to fit a crystal, so the internal oscillator doesn't need to be calibrated to decode the UART. I would also switch to using a double-buffered display (which is how the MkIV does it). For ages I've been mentally planning a Mk V, which would read out to the microsecond (another three digits!). I promised myself I'd release the MkIV before I start working on it though... -------------
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SolidElectronics	Posted: 27 Apr 2025, 09:07 PM
Member Posts: 3 Joined: 15-March 25	I finally got it into a usable state. This is the firmware with that has some new features including a 12-hour mode, the original circuit scaled down to 0.56" segments, and a brand new board version with date above time. https://github.com/SolidElectronics/PrecisionClock-Hardware https://github.com/SolidElectronics/PrecisionClockMkII -------------
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mit	Posted: 28 Apr 2025, 10:13 AM
yeah whatever Admin Posts: 605 Joined: 4-May 16	Wow, well done! I am a bit embarrassed about the incomprehensibility of the source code, but I didn't really expect anyone else to try to understand it. I don't really approve of 12 hour mode but I absolutely respect that you implemented it! Curious as to why the brightness circuit didn't work for you, it's one of the most pleasing aspects of the clock (when it works). I notice the lookup tables are no longer page-aligned, have you fully tested this? A common thing that I do is to align it to a 256 byte boundary, so the low byte is zero. It saves having to worry about overflow and carrying. For instance the month lookup could probably just have been ldi ZH, high(monthLookup*2) mov ZL, fullMonths lpm daysInMonth,Z Obviously this makes it trickier to shuffle code around it. Alternatively just double check all the places the lookup tables are used and make sure to carry to the high byte wherever it matters. Total length of the lookup tables is 97 so it's probably fine so long as the low byte of the address is less than 158... I had a quick look at the PCB, very cute. I like the idea of having two USB ports to choose the best orientation. Also delighted to see the logo and the screw-mount holes are still there. -------------
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SolidElectronics	Posted: 9 May 2025, 04:53 AM
Member Posts: 3 Joined: 15-March 25	I'm just glad you shared it, and assembly is mostly incomprehensible at the best of times. I've been wanting to build a GPS-synced clock like this for a long time but the software side always scared me off, so having all of the ugly calculations and edge cases being handled was really helpful, even if I did still end up investing a lot more time into it. The 12 hour mode was mostly a challenge to see if I could add what I considered a missing feature, and I thought I'd use it, but I've grown to prefer the 24-hour clock too. For the brightness, I couldn't get it to dim to an amount I was happy with before the display started flickering or went completely out. I also wanted to use amber for the date and green for the time, and they had different dimming profiles and seemed to run too bright at really low currents which made it very hard to tune correctly. Maybe I could have gotten it working if I kept tinkering with resistor values, but I didn't want to have a ton of pots on the back. I also found that the MAX7219 would run the LEDs I was using for the colons way too bright, and if I tried anything to reduce the brightness like putting a resistor across it, it caused ghosting on the time digits. I might chalk that up to poor quality components from AliExpress, but I didn't have different ones to try. I will fully admit the digital brightness isn't as good as analog, and it would be nice if the 2313 had a ADC, but at least this works and isn't blinding bright in a dark room any more. Thank you! I was wondering why you had the lookup table at a particular memory location but I didn't know if it was important. I commented that out at some point when the compiler started putting up warnings about running out of program memory, and it seems to work fine but I haven't extensively tested it. I'll see if I can shuffle things around to re-align it. Thanks again for doing the work and sharing this, you've got a really impressive portfolio and I learned quite a bit. -------------
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geerlingguy	Posted: 12 May 2025, 01:22 AM
Jeff Geerling Member Posts: 3 Joined: 12-May 25	I'm happy to join the forum and also encourage MK IV's release :) I've somehow convinced @mit to allow me to purchase one clock, assembled, and I have to say the functionality is way better than I hoped. I just want to find a good way to mount it in my rack! It is great at establishing a lock even with middling GPS antenna placement (inside my building), and the self-dimming functionality is very smooth and very accurate. Hopefully @SolidElectronics you can figure out the dimming code, as that is the part of this clock that surprised me the most (in terms of not being terrible like most dimming functionality on consumer electronics!). @mit - ~~I believe you had some slow motion footage of the clock ticking the milliseconds by... I was wondering what shutter speed you used?~~ I would like to see if I can get access to a high speed camera to show it off as well! My iPhone's 240 fps mode can barely make out the last digit changing with varying light levels of "8". Edit: Just found you had posted earlier: QUOTE (mit) I have tested the millisecond display of the new clock by filming it at 25,000FPS, and it is rock solid, perfectly visible without flickering. Last edit by geerlingguy at 12 May 2025, 01:23 AM -------------
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