The Periodic Table Clock oozes nerdy charm
The periodic table is arguably the most popular symbol of nerd pride. Everyone knows what it is, but few people are familiar enough with it to make real use of it. There aren’t, for instance, many people that can tell you the atomic number of darmstadtium. If you’re one of the nerdy few who can, then Görkem Bozkurt’s Periodic Table Clock is perfect for you.
This clock displays the time by illuminating different elements on a translucent periodic table. The color blue corresponds to hours, green corresponds to minutes, and red corresponds to seconds. So if you see Calcium lit in blue, Indium lit in green, and Lanthanum lit in red, then the military time is 20:49:57 (8:49:57 in the evening). If two must share the same element, like when the time is 3:10:10, then it will mix the two colors (yellow in this case). If three share the same element, like 2:02:02, then it should be obvious because only a single element will be lit.
The frame and face plate are 3D-printable. There are various ink printing techniques to create the periodic table overlay, or the user can perform a filament-swap technique to 3D-print in two colors. Illumination comes from a strip of WS2812B individually addressable RGB LEDs controlled by an Arduino Nano board. It uses a DS1307 RTC module for accurate timekeeping. Three push buttons positioned on the frame let the user set the current time.