Motorized Tape Measure Extends to Indicate the Hour in Inches

Tape measures are great for checking the length of lumber, whether or not certain blinds will fit in your particular window, or for a wide variety of other uses. For the time, however, you’ll of course need a clock... unless you're Alex Fiel and Anna Lynton, who have combined the two into a device that extends incrementally to show the current hour in inches.

While it’s not immediately evident from the video below, the tape measure shell (and internals) is 3D-printed and expertly finished. The original idea was to motorize an existing tape measure, but after some consideration, they decided it would be easier to create an enclosure from scratch. The tape, though, appears to be salvaged from an actual unit.

Inside, a NEMA 17 motor moves the tape to its designated position, under the control of an Arduino Nano and an RTC chip to keep the correct time. Magnets are implemented to hold the two halves of the shell together, allowing easy access to the inner workings.

Code for the project can be found on GitHub and print files are available on Thingiverse, though it will certainly take a decent amount of post-processing to make something that looks this good!