Led Matrix Clock

This Instructable shows how we can build an red led matrix clock which can get date/time from internet and display it using the LED matrix

This being a short DIY project i have not made a case for this so it may not seem professional also the steps foe the same are very easy infact only 2 :)

Step 1: Part List

1. MKR1000 Purchase-Link
2. MAX7219 LED Matrix 4 in series. Purchase-Link
3. Power source 5v capable of delivering 2Amps
4. Jumper cables
5. 2 hours of free time :)

Step 2: Assembly

Hardware:

The hardware part is simple and is like a breeze to assemble this, the display works on MAX7219 chip which is basically a shift out register with latching and multiplexing,

Connection fro the controller to display can be done as following.

MKR1000MAX7219

MOSI(8) -------> Data In (DIN)

SCK(9) -------> Clock(CLK)

CS(7) -------> Chip Select(CS)

5v -------> Vcc

GND -------> GND

Software:

1)Clone my git repo https://github.com/LRagji

2)Open the project in Arduino IDE

3)Update your wifi credentials

4)Compile and upload it to MKR1000

Sit back and enjoy your clock

Step 3: Future Considerations

If you look what we have is actually an internet connected display, and we can use it do lot more stuff than just get date time.

We could use this with following

• To display weather info
• To get your meetings from google calendar
• To get your youtube hits
• lots of other stuff like notifications with IFTT etc

From a hardware perspective i feel we can add following to add more appeal

• Add a buzzer
• Add RTC for maintaining alarms

Also remember to build a case for it and do tell me in the comments how yours looks :)