Funny, I've been playing with panel-meters as well…
I have an analog computer I'm finishing up. I have ADC's to convert the analog to digital to display the values on an LCD (with an ESP32 dev board—it was more flexible than panel meters, cheaper than an oscilloscope).
But because looking at "simulated" panel-meters seemed to kind of undercut the point of the analog computer, I went ahead and created a small PCB to go from my analog computer to a panel meter like the one in the clock.
Running a "Spring + Mass" simulation on the analog computer and seeing both the LCD/ESP32 representation of a panel meter and an actual panel meter move in sync brought it all home.
This is beautiful, and I like it a lot, but I was slightly disappointed to find that they do not function by increasing the voltage as the day goes on. But then I remembered that that's how pins work. It IS measuring voltage!
I built one of these recent after Princess Auto had an amazing deal on surplus meters like these. They were under just over 1$ each and I bought a lot of them.
The one I built isn't as nice, but it's a really nice way to display the time and people are mildly fascinated by it when they see it.
Iridescence essentially would mean it has a groovy, far-out metallic layer making rainbows on the surface. Not bad, but irrelevant.
PS: Neither of those would really communicate the needed information, except as an extreme (11:59 pm would look just like 10:27 pm, but very different from 12:01 am).
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 49.9 ms ] threadI have an analog computer I'm finishing up. I have ADC's to convert the analog to digital to display the values on an LCD (with an ESP32 dev board—it was more flexible than panel meters, cheaper than an oscilloscope).
But because looking at "simulated" panel-meters seemed to kind of undercut the point of the analog computer, I went ahead and created a small PCB to go from my analog computer to a panel meter like the one in the clock.
Running a "Spring + Mass" simulation on the analog computer and seeing both the LCD/ESP32 representation of a panel meter and an actual panel meter move in sync brought it all home.
(nor would the missus be pleased for me to buy them - but that's another matter)
is 10Hz control just too slow?
I skimmed TFA, came back here to ask for the obligatory 11:59:59 rollover, but then went back and found it.
The one I built isn't as nice, but it's a really nice way to display the time and people are mildly fascinated by it when they see it.
volts as Hours amps as Minutes
Resulting wattage drives an iridescent bulb
Iridescence essentially would mean it has a groovy, far-out metallic layer making rainbows on the surface. Not bad, but irrelevant.
PS: Neither of those would really communicate the needed information, except as an extreme (11:59 pm would look just like 10:27 pm, but very different from 12:01 am).
I thought it was pretty cool, but a bit expensive for what it was.
So I made my own with a PIC chip: https://www.n1kdo.com/meter-clock/index.html
Mine is more of a novelty than a accurate clock. It is a interesting desktop geegaw to invite discussion.
Can't access it. Connection attempts time out.
https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/3...
Minecraft Server Meter:
https://imgur.com/a/minecraft-server-meter-QHpVbY1
Mini Model of a Minicomputer:
https://imgur.com/a/mini-model-of-minicomputer-UTaqI0i
https://imgur.com/a/erniac-u9YVa7K