How I Made: Time-to-go-clock
FEATURE
Count down to future events in style
n 20 January 2017,
Donald J Trump was
inaugurated as the 45th
President of the United
States of America. I
remember the date well,
because that was the day I stumbled
across Nixie tubes for the first time.
Out of these seemingly unrelated
events emerged the Time-To-Go
Clock, Trump Edition.
Like countless others, I
felt a compelling need to say
something about the new
Commander-in-Chief. Spilling
out more polarising words
seemed pointless, however.
Instead, I’d make something
that would, literally and
figuratively, speak for itself.
The Clock’s defining feature,
broadly hinted at in the name,
is that it can display the time to
any future event. In the case of the
Trump Presidency, the US Constitution
helpfully provides the exact time and
date when his term of office will end. Of
course, it is possible President Trump
could be re-elected, in which case the
clock can be easily set to the end of his
second term (or any other date) without
further programming.
O
By Peter Kent
TIME-TO-GO-
CLOCK
FEATURES
Somewhat conceitedly, the clock has its
own dedicated website, which lists its
major features as follows:
- Optional cycling through time, date,
Trump administration days-to-go, and
Trump administration hours, minutes,
and seconds-to-go- Simple, menu-driven setting
using an LCD and website
provided by the clock’s
own server- Celebrates President
Trump’s affinity for Twitter by
tweeting the time left for his
Administration at a random
time each day
- Celebrates President
- Simple, menu-driven setting
- Uses Russian IN-14 Nixie
tubes and Soviet-era military-grade
toggle switches - Uses an IR motion detector to turn
off the tubes if no one is around to
see them, and logs activity on the
clock’s website - Full operating instructions are also on
the website
How I Made
Above
Toggle switches
add a more tactile
experience than
push-buttons