Piffpaffpoltrie Pays Homage to Depeche Mode with This Seven-Segment Clock Project

Pseudonymous maker "Piffpaffpoltrie" has given his Depeche Mode-loving friend a two-of-a-kind gift: a working scale replica of the seven-segment LED display gracing the cover of The Singles 86>98.

"I admit that I am not too much into Depeche Mode," Piffpaffpoltrie writes by way of introduction to the project. "[My friend] Andreas, on the other hand, is a fan with capital F, A, and N. He challenged me whether it might be possible to build a digital clock having a similar look [to the album cover], just smaller. Since he had already helped me with several of my own projects — and I liked the idea's fun factor — I accepted the challenge."

The project was inspired by The Singles 86>98, an album released by Depeche Mode in 1998: rather than the band shot of its predecessor collection, The Singles 86>96 features an oversized six-digit seven-segment display reading "dm 86 98" — with each digit held on its own speaker stand ("courtesy of Photoshop, I assume," Piffpaffpoltrie opines) — pictured glowing red against the background of a setting sun.

Piffpaffpoltrie's project repurposes a six-digit clock kit, but swaps the bundled small LED displays for ones considerably larger — though a lot smaller than those used by Depeche Mode, if we assume that the cover was in fact photographed honestly rater than being the result of digital manipulation. A mixture of wooden dowels and small metal poles are used to reproduce what was almost certainly a speaker stand in the original, holding up each of the six digits in three groups of two.

Connects at the base of each stand plug into sockets on a metal base, which hides the electronics — all powered by a simple 5V wall-wart. Three switches around the back of the device allow the time to be set, while the circuit from the original clock kit keeps adequate time.

The project is documented in full on Instructables.