Hack a Day’s very own [Jack Buffington] is throwing his hat into the ring for the Buildlounge laser cutter giveaway with his solar clock that isn’t a sundial.
The theory behind [Jack]‘s clock is pretty simple. The light from the sun will be captured by a camera obscura/pinhole camera. The sun’s rays shine on dozens of optical fibers that lead indoors and up to the clock. These glass fibers go to pinholes in the face of the clock which light up, showing the time.
[Jack] already cut out the face of the clock on his (awesome) home-made CNC router. He hasn’t gotten around to cutting out the mechanics of the clock face so the clock can be adjusted throughout the year. We’re okay with that, because we’re really not ready to see [Jack] fiddle with his gnomon. At least before [Jack] gets his hand on the Buildlounge laser.
The next major hurdle of the build is the solar collector that collects light into different optical fibers. That’s going to involve a lot of math using the equatorial coordinate system. Help is available, though.
Check out [Jack] cutting the clock face on his router after the break.
No comments:
Post a Comment