This is an old project that I recently resurrected. I went with a complete overhaul, went from a 40-pin microcontroller to 28. I also converted the display type from 1-I/O-per-word to a multiplexed display. 9 rows, 4 columns.

The idea behind the word clock is displaying time in an English language format. Each number is spelled out.

The physical design used cardboard glued into boxes, each matching the size of a number word. These would light up, illuminating cutouts in tagboard.

First, a video of it running.



This is being constructed:





This is a light test, using +12V to light them, that's why it seems bright.




This is a still of the clock operating, here you can see four word multiplexed at once.



In case you were wondering, this is a picture of the circuit, it's very basic. Also, after that, is a very rudimentary schematic.





Thanks for looking.