A project I started some time ago (2007 ?) with the purchase of four aircraft indicator units. I have no idea what they where intended for, but they came new in a vacuum sealed bag. Their production date is somewhere in the early 70's

With the displays from four of these units I was able to construct three clocks ( each unit had three 0-10 displays and two with letters and combined numbers )

The displays are of the projection type in a really small form factor.



The left meter shows seconds ( each thick mark is a second ) and the right one does a full minute from bottom to top.
The pot sets the display and backlight brightness and the switch is used to set the time ( I didn't want to alter the clock externally, the only change I made is a hole for the power connector in the place where a grounding screw used to be.

The whole thing is controlled by a Atmega8 ( probbably a bit overkill ) and timekeeping is done with its internal RTC clocked buy a dallas DS32KHz TCXO. The meters are both center zero and are PWM driven by the uC



It uses an external 12V wallwart and that volage is stepped down with a switching regulator for incandescent lamps (variable with the panelmount pot )



Hope you guys like it, I'm verry happy with how it turned out.

That is an impressive build Do you have any more photos or build information?

Nice work!

Incoming links:

hackaday.com/2011/07/25/clocks-built-fro...plus-parts/#comments

www.geekosystem.com/aircraft-clock-hack/

www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/topic2051072.html

emancarrillo.tumblr.com/

www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/new-c...s-from-old-airplanes

Wow, this build is amazing .
Where did you got those aircraft parts. I want to build this by my own.
Greets.

Hey thanks for referring me Brian,

I didn't think there would be so much interest in these clocks.
I bought the instuments form a uk based surpluss store.
(stores.ebay.co.uk/Michaels-Electronics-Emporium)
That must have been somewhere in early 2008

They had 20+ units at the time and if I had known back then there would be interest in these things a probably would have bought a few more I contacted the seller recently only to find they where all gone.

These units being aircraft grade have every position fitted with lamps where only a small numbers was being used, so together with the lamps from the dismantled unit that gives a lot of spares of the probably not so easy to find bulbs.

The backlight uses a 1W midget flange bulb and it's lampholder is located under the "R", on my unit I discovered that the plastic color filter was discolored and warped by the heat of the bulb, so I made a LED replacement for it.

I have three working units, one sits on my desk the second one I sold a while back and the third one is still available. I might put up an ebay auction for that one.
Anyone who is interested in one can contact me before I do.

More info ... I have a few pictures from the early building stages.

The original displays ( not in the correct order )


Inside view

That thing is awesome! How much are you looking to sell the other one for??

It was not my goal to start a selling topic here, but #3 is available on Ebay

Good luck selling it; I know there were also some people interested on the Hack A Day forum as well.

EDIT: I see you left a note there as well. Should have checked before I posted this

Well, I see that it sold. Did someone here buy it?