Tiny Word Clock with Espruino and LED Matrix

You’ve probably seen word clocks meant for wall hanging which light up the proper letters to literally spelling out the time. While these look excellent, what if you want one that can fit on your desk without taking up too much real estate?

As shown in the video below, it’s actually quite easy hardware-wise to pull off a very professional-looking clock. At the heart of this device is an Espruino MDBT42Q board, along with an 8x8 LED matrix. These matrices are available in a variety of colors and styles, and 16 pins here are used to control the pixel grid using 16 pins. In this application, the control pins are simply bent toward the middle, allowing connection to the MDBT42Q without any sort of breadboard or extra wiring.

A letter pattern was printed on a piece of paper and applied to the matrix to take care of the actual words, such as “quarter to twelve” or “five past three” for timekeeping. Once a power connector and battery is applied, the only other hardware step is to come up with a stand, program it, and you’re done — just set the time over Bluetooth! More info, code, and even a PDF of the label is available on the project write-up if you’d like to build one yourself.