The Casino’Clock Keeps Track of the Time Using Playing Cards
The Casino’Clock is a playing card flap display designed around an ESP32 microcontroller, 3D-printed rotors, and several stepper motors.
Homebrew clock projects are always an interesting endeavor, especially when they make use of 3D printers to create something out of the ordinary. Shinsaku Hiura’s Casino’Clock is one of those builds, which was made using 3D-printed parts for a unique take on a flap display. Crafting a flap clock isn’t without its difficulties, though, as 3D printing the flaps can cause irregularities if they are not precise, causing them to jam in the rotor mechanism.
Hiura designed the Casino’Clock around an M5Stamp-C3, which features an Espressif ESP32-C3 RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 (LE) connectivity. The clock is comprised of three separate units, each including a trio of 28BYJ-48 stepper motors, complete with driver board, and several 3D-printed rotors with 14 hinges that hold the playing cards. These cards are randomly arranged with an ace, 2-10, jack, queen, king, and then joker for zero. Since the clock is equipped with wireless capabilities, it only needs to connect to the Internet to display the correct time.
Watch the video below to see the build process along with the clock in action!