How to build a circular LCD clock, step 1: buy a circular LCD that looks like a clock.
I'm not kidding, that's the extent of the build. They simply connect that display to a computer over HDMI. The only hacking here is browser-based JS for clock animations.
I am currently building a project (http://www.screenwall.app) that tries to reuse old phones and tablets (that some people have in the drawer unused) as widget displays. Seeing such cool widgets always tempt me to buy it, although I know that my old Samsung A6 is perfectly capable for such things as well. :D
> I also tried with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2, but 512 MB of RAM were too little to run a modern browser,
You don't need a browser to display graphics. And you don't need to be a programming whiz either. I'm sure Claude could write some python to render these clock faces.
Driving HDMI is way harder then you would guess; extremely fast timing to hit. A naive framebuffer alone won't fit in RAM, whilst not strictly needed it would make it a hard challenge.
Author here! :) This article is me sharing something that made me really happy, wanting to show others how they can do the same.
I see some comments pointing out that the clock wouldn't need to run in the browser. I picked this option to make it simple for folks around me to quickly prototype their own clock faces. This isn't supposed to be the cheapest or most efficient implementation, either; feel free to build your own LCD clock and then blog about how you did it!
Its a genuinely nice idea, I do love the second clock face you've done, the sort of "fuel gauge" one. I think a great next step would be some sort of gallery of clock faces that people can use and contribute to, based on whatever code you've used to create them
> I also tried with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2, but 512 MB of RAM were too little to run a modern browser, sadly.
I found that the surf browser was efficient enough to run fine on my Raspberry Pi Zero W. YMMV with animations and such, but it's much better than any chromium alternative in my experience.
I'm not kidding, that's the extent of the build. They simply connect that display to a computer over HDMI. The only hacking here is browser-based JS for clock animations.
[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dtoor/the-cyrcle-phone-...
[2] https://www.cyrclephone.com
> I also tried with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2, but 512 MB of RAM were too little to run a modern browser,
You don't need a browser to display graphics. And you don't need to be a programming whiz either. I'm sure Claude could write some python to render these clock faces.
> I think a Pi 4 might be a good sweet spot between processing power and price,
I know this isn't exactly a serious product and more of a gadget/gimmick but man we are off by a factor of like 3-4 here :D
I see some comments pointing out that the clock wouldn't need to run in the browser. I picked this option to make it simple for folks around me to quickly prototype their own clock faces. This isn't supposed to be the cheapest or most efficient implementation, either; feel free to build your own LCD clock and then blog about how you did it!
Nice implementation though!
I found that the surf browser was efficient enough to run fine on my Raspberry Pi Zero W. YMMV with animations and such, but it's much better than any chromium alternative in my experience.
https://surf.suckless.org/
https://repebble.com/watch
Why do they need to be ...white :)
Oh i see the cables now and cant unsee them.
I guess next step is to 3D print a back case mount that encloses the RPi and plugs into a wall socket for power.