DABs Clocks is a collection of hand made, one of a kind devices that each display time in unconventional and interesting ways. These time pieces are both functionally and aesthetically pleasing. I design and build some of my clocks without any assistance. For others I turn to Guy Marsden for the engineering and fabrication phase. In these situations I bring a concept to Guy and through an iterative and collaborative process I'll eventually create a 3D representation of the clock that Guy will build.
Orbit
Orbit represents time by directing light through an acrylic light guide onto the rear face of a white opaque acrylic disc. This Light Guide Clock (LGC) tells time to the nearest 5 minutes using a red dot to represent the minutes and a blue dot to represent the hour. Once every hour, when the 5 minute dot and 1 hour dot share the same position on the clock face, a single dot of soft purple appears for 5 minutes. An interesting feature of the clock is that between midnight and 1:00 am the clock face has only one dot of light, red, that displays time to the nearest five minutes. When viewed from the side one can see how acrylic rods guide light from LEDs placed on a PCB in the back of the clock. The entire clock "mechanism" was designed in a modular fashion to enable "mass production" and to permit the clock mechanism to be readily installed in other case designs that have the identical receptacle for the plug in module.
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Cast acrylic was used for both the light guide rods and the outer tube because of the better optical and fabrication properties it has over extruded acrylic.
The Origin of Light Guide Clock
It all started with my interest in using internal reflected light inside a tube to create a novel clock "mechanism". I tested the principle using Tygon tubing that at one end rested atop a linear array of LEDs and at the other end held in place inside holes bored in an opaque acrylic sheet. Nothing fancy and while this proof of principle is far removed from the final LGC that was built it was the impetus I needed for moving ahead with the project.
3D Design Drawings
