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How to build a circular LCD clock

blinry.org

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Re: How to build a circular LCD clock

#31

Post by arkensaw »

blinry wrote: post #30

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 you…

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

Re: How to build a circular LCD clock

#32

Post by buibuibui »

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

Re: How to build a circular LCD clock

#33

Post by nickk81 »

blinry wrote: post #30

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 you…

It goed to show how negative HN is

Re: How to build a circular LCD clock

#34

Post by Cthulhu_ »

trencedamp wrote: post #16

Beat project, but > 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.

Yeah, there's loads of really cool visualizations you can do with really limited specs, demo scene stuff. Of course, that's an art of its own, it's probably easier to look at c++ and its graphics libraries, or even game engines.

Re: How to build a circular LCD clock

#35

Post by jagged-chisel »

mock-possum wrote: post #18
Animats wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a Kickstarter project to make a round phone.[1] That had potential as a female fashion accessory. But the site hasn't updated since 2025.[2] [1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dtoor/the-cyrcle-phone-... [2] https://www.cyrclephone.com

What makes a fashion accessory ‘female?’

Lack of an external frobnicator?

Re: How to build a circular LCD clock

#36

Post by sharken »

nickk81 wrote: post #33
blinry wrote: post #30

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 you…

It goed to show how negative HN is

In general not really, but I do understand why it's a bit underwhelming to buy the clock upfront.

With that said, the project is really cool and showcases the different watch faces well. For me that's the most interesting part, not how I construct a round LCD screen.

Re: How to build a circular LCD clock

#37

Post by anthk »

trencedamp wrote: post #16

Beat project, but > 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.

Or TCL/Tk with even less RAM and CPU usage than Python.

Re: How to build a circular LCD clock

#38

Post by snorremd »

blinry wrote: post #30

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 you…

Indeed. Don't be dissuaded by Hacker News commenters. All the naysayers here doesn't seem to have published their own blog posts about how they built circular LCD clocks with Arduino ESP32 and low level programming or whatever they fancy as "good enough".

Browser based rendering that allows people to easily make new watch faces with JS and SVG is a perfectly reasonable platform for a nifty project like this. I think your watch faces look neat.

Re: How to build a circular LCD clock

#39

Post by RicoElectrico »

trencedamp wrote: post #16

Beat project, but > 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.

People tend to use LVGL for this kind of projects. Seems adequate. No X server, direct framebuffer write, good tooling.
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