Description
If you’ve ever wished there were 120 hours in a day, this clock is for you. Its mesmerizing three-colour formations can be decoded to tell the time using the base-4 (or quaternary) numeral system. This clock is accurate to the minute, so you’ve got to hurry when you’re figuring out the time!
The clock comes with 3 modes and 10 colour schemes, but that’s just the beginning — as always, this project is entirely open source. It’s built to be hacked! I love to see all of the clever and wacky ways that people personalize their clocks.
Hardwood Finish
This clock is built out of high-quality birch plywood with two coats of varnish. Durable, dependable, and affordable, it’s a staple in my workshop. Walnut and maple finishes are also available.
How do I tell time on the Base4 Clock?
Normally, we represent numbers using the base-10 system, which means that a single digit can be a whole number between 0 and 9. The base-4 system works in the same way, except that a single digit can only be 0, 1, 2, or 3.
To convert to base-10 values, refer to the diagram below. The base-10 number is the sum of the values in the illuminated cells.
The Base4 clock uses the same colour schemes as its big sister the Fibonacci Clock. For the default colour scheme:
- The hours are displayed in red.
- The minutes are displayed in green.
- When a cell is used to display both the hours and minutes, it turns blue.
- White squares are ignored.
Open Source
The Base4 Clock is open source and has been published under the GPL license. The source code, the schematics, and the enclosure plans are available to the public here.
The Base4 Clock’s PCB is made to be fully hackable. You can upload your version of the clock code with no need for a development board. The clock code runs on an Atmega328P running the Arduino bootloader.
Kickstarter
The Base4 Clock has been successfully funded on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/basbrun/base4-clock-new-from-geekoclock
