Help: I Need A Timer

Could it be you're using the wrong part of Google?

Does it need to be an expensive industrial operational hours clock, like you'd put into a large piece of industrial equipment?

Or are you after consumer goods like what the search finds?

Dude! A million seconds is 11.5+ DAYS. You seriously afraid of roll-over? :-)

I don't think so. But you might be. Those returns don't fit the description of what I'm looking for.

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

Definitely not expensive.

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

:-)

?!?

The seconds will only be shown in the last two digits.

Thanks.

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

On Feb 18, 6:56=A0pm, Searcher7 wrote: > JeffM wrote: > > Searcher7 wrote: > > >I've been searching around and can't seem to find > > >a simple plug-in LED timer > > >with a large red number display (like an alarm clock)[...] >

And what 'description' would that be? You said time which implies minutes and hours but you also say "a "count-up" timer with six digits that show the actual seconds ticking off". Do you mean a 6 digit timer that _only_ counts seconds or a timer decoded to hours and minutes? If you want strictly a 6 digit seconds only you might look into something _like_ this.

In counter mode it only goes to 5 Hz.

G=B2

I one made a 6 digit digital clock by jaming the alarm and sleep buttons on one digital alarm clock, covering the hours display and placing it below another, the time was set by power-cycling them both at mignight.

(if it's based on the lm8560 chip holding alarm and sleep puts the clock into seconds display mode)

te:

It only takes two digits to display seconds. So when I said six digits that meant that such a timer would max out at 99 hours, 59 minutes, and 59, seconds.

I need no alarms

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

te:

Seconds only require two digits...

So when I said I needed six digits it was to allow two digits for the hours, two digits for the minutes, and two digits for the seconds.

I don't need an alarm or anything outside of the ability to start, stop, and reset.

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

Darren had earlier written, "Definitely not expensive."

Jon

Probably just after "cheaper than expensive." ;)

Darren has said "start, stop, and reset" buttons are required. It's not clear from that what should happen if various sequences of those buttons are pressed, so I don't think this is a specification, as yet. For example, if stop is pressed, then start, does it continue or reset the display first? Or, what happens when reset is pressed? Does it also "stop" the display after the reset, or continue at zero but continue anyway? Etc.

And then there is the size of the display, necessary contrast, optical filtering or baffles and grids, polarization filters, automatic adjustment of brightness based upon the ambient lighting situation, choice of wavelength (which can be important), etc.

Weight, size, placement of the buttons (for example, should the reset button be easily accessible), and on and on. I guess it is a wall plug arrangement desired and we might make some assumptions about what that implies, but it's not really much of a spec beyond itself.

And I'm sure that off-the-cuff list is only the beginning that others can supplement, rapidly.

So there isn't really a complete spec. Even simpler things need some thought given to them.

If I were doing this as a one-off for personal use and if I weren't being too picky about it, I might go get a desk radio/clock from Goodwill that met my general needs for the display, wall plug arrangement, and available buttons and modify that. (Assuming that the hours part of the display supported the "99" requirement from the OP, I suppose -- which if I looked closely enough I might be able to find there.)

Jon

Searcher: It sounds like an LED version of a stopwatch. Fess up about what you want to use it for.

its

=3D7429

I never could understand the reason for asking "How much do you want to spend", because everyone would already know the answer to that. Nevertheless, Since this would not be as complex as an actual alarm clock, perhaps I should say I'd want to spend no more than what I'd pay for a cheap alarm clock.

Now if that is not possible then I'm guessing, because no now has said it, that what I'm looking for is not readily available on the market. (But correct me if I'm wrong).

I'd can settle for something that rolls over at 24 hours.

I didn't say that "start, stop, and reset" buttons are required." I said that I wanted "the ability to start, stop, and reset." (So only two buttons would actually be needed).

You're making this way too complicated. As I said, a simple plug-in LED timer with a large red number display (like an alarm clock)

I don't know the size. How big do they come? I just measured the size of the number digits of the alarm clock here on my desk and they are

Thanks.

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

It's actually not as complicated as a stopwatch. But as for as what it's for, it will be used as a time marker during video game play that will be recorded using a video camera. The camera will capture the game screen as well as the timer sitting on the bezel around the monitor.

Thanks.

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

Perhaps you haven't had a lifetime of experience informing you how often "common assumptions" made by someone listening to another are wrong and also how often those who think they know their own situation well later find they haven't adequately considered some facets of their own situation. You can get lucky, too, and have everyone all make the same assumptions about things and be right about all of it, as well. But it tends to pay a designer to remain circumspect until time is allowed for a fuller discussion.

It's nowhere near as complex as an alarm clock, granted. Which may be a reason why a Goodwill alarm clock would be a nice starting point for modification. It probably includes MORE capability and since a hobbyist would be "breaking things" it does, you might actually be left with just enough to get the job done. It already uses 60Hz cycles to keep time, has a power supply, has a display, probably has buttons of some convenient and durable kind, and a case... if nothing else.

I think it's fair to assume that you've spent more time looking after your own needs than others have. If you haven't found a match, that is a good indication that we might save ourselves effort unless we already know for certain of a good fit, from past experience. Speaking only for me, I don't know of one off-hand. But I haven't looked, either. I assume you already have.

It's nothing to build up and program, though. What kind of experience do you have in that arena? Can you take a design and program it? Or can you make a design that others might program for you? Or do you need this done entirely by others? (These questions assume that there isn't a good fit already out in the market. I did notice a nifty "director's movie board" with a nice display down to 10-millisecond digits, the current date, and the director's name that is cheap.. but it doesn't do the rest. So I dropped the idea of passing that on.)

Which pretty much puts every single alarm clock into the running for modification.

You can now easily see how at least some others might interpret a range of possibilities from your words, if not sufficiently well-crafted. You certainly allowed me such room.

Exactly. That's pretty much how I imagine what you've said about it, already.

I believe most are probably designed to be reasonably small (people don't want huge "boom boxes" so to speak on their end-tables -- just not enough room for other things there, then.) Older folks (or those with poor vision) may wish larger digits, but the constraints of available end-table space for most of the marketplace probably places a limit. But you could search for what looks better in that regard, if you are willing to consider a modification. That presumes you know what to look for and what to do, though, once you get one. You might get some help with that, if you are seriously willing to sit down and investigate some unit you decide to "adapt."

If I were looking to modify one, I'd probably want to be sure there is a "reset" line of some kind that resets the clock. Sometimes, this happens automatically only when the battery backup supply is itself removed, forcing the clock to "lose" it's memory. But that is sufficient, because a simple circuit can disrupt the battery supply there. Other than that, I think many (if not most or all) clocks try and use the 60Hz (in your case) or 50Hz (Europe, for example) as a regular "pulse" for timekeeping. You can disrupt that line as well to keep the clock from advancing when you don't want it to. All in all, it seems mostly a matter of opening the thing up and tracing the circuit -- older units might be better, in this regard.

If you need custom work done, it's not rocket science. But it does take a little time. For example, driving a display is done so often, one can almost go to sleep designing it. And there are a range of options from buying expensive chips that do a lot of the work thus easing the software part of it to very cheap methods using discrete parts but requiring more holes/pads and more software work (not hard, conceptually, but somewhat detailed.) The buttons, as you say, can be very easy. And the programming itself really isn't the least bit hard. But the fact is that, in the end, every detail has to be nailed down exactly and precisely and tested out with some eagerness, or else it fails in some way. In other words, human time.

You might consider asking a teacher at a local community college, where they may teach 1st and 2nd year EET or EE courses, if they have any interest in making this a project for some student. My experience is that students there are often so "loaded down" with homework and classwork that they don't want to do this as an outside effort that isn't part of their grade. Besides, 1st year students probably have no chance unless they already come there with the knowledge, so it would have to be one of a few of their 2nd year students, if anyone. So you just have to ask and see what the teachers say to you. Might be a way.

Granting that you can't find (and others can't suggest) a practical alternative already being made available, you might get some volunteer work to do a design and layout and parts list and the software needed. Perhaps it's time to just ask for help. Any skills soldering, drilling holes, and doing a little wiring, at least?

Jon

Why isn't a clock good enough for this? Would this serve your need:

Jon