awpaeth@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Alan Wm Paeth) (12/08/88)
In <2082@puff.cs.wisc.edu> perry@garfield.CS.WISC.EDU (Russell Perry) writes: >I've had this idea to take a LED clock and make it display something other than >the time, but I don't know much about the things enough to rip it open and >experiment. Does anyone know how I could go in and change the display... As Henry Spencer has pointed out, this is near impossible. If you are set on "hacking" a wrist-watch, here are two suggestions: (1) remove the crystal and file it down slightly (to reduce its mass). If you can make it run at 366/365 normal it will now tell "star" (sidereal) time. Graphite pencil lead can weight it back up again should you overshoot. (This technique was used by hams before freq synthesis became common). (2) Buy a Casio-style "databank" watch. I've seen them at K-mart for $75CDN. They include a 4x10 char display (5x7 dot characters). If you are of hobbiest persuasion, then you can try to masquerade the signals sent to the watch by its docking port and get interesting text to appear. ---- This entire subject highlights a lament of mine. As consumer electronics become more integrated (figuratively and literally) we trade off the pro's of mass-produced, inexpensive, one-chip designs agains the con's of having virtually no end-user means to tweak said device into a related application. For instance, I know of a EE-hobbiest in LA who wanted to wire up all rooms in his dream house with Star Trek-like "control panels". Mark decided that it was cheapest to place a LCD pocket television in each room and assign a unique UHF channel to it. However, this implied that he could no longer address pixels directly. Instead, he would have to send a modulated video signal (I'm not sure if he finished). For him, the good news was lots of scanning and drive logic electrically and physically matched to the LCDs, in a small, package at less than $100 per station (and maybe you could put the +12 on the coax and just run one cable?) The bad news was that he couldn't get around the tuner and demodulaton function implicit in a chip meaning he has to emulate a small UHF tv station to "talk" any station. /Alan Paeth Computer Graphics Laboratory University of Waterloo
jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle) (12/11/88)
Often, if you look real hard, and you get lots of databooks, and you call people at semiconductor companies, and you have an adequate knowledge of spoken technical Japanese, you can get inside consumer electronics and do things. Rather than taking apart a Fisher-Price camcorder, for example, you can get the chips from Sanyo. Rather than trying to use a TV set as a monitor, you can get a flat-screen small monitor from Sony left over from their Watchcam line. It's not hopeless. But it's not easy. John Nagle
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (12/14/88)
In article <17888@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> jbn@glacier.UUCP (John B. Nagle) writes: > Often, if you look real hard, and you get lots of databooks, and you >call people at semiconductor companies, and you have an adequate knowledge >of spoken technical Japanese, you can get inside consumer electronics and >do things. Rather than taking apart a Fisher-Price camcorder, for example, >you can get the chips from Sanyo. Rather than trying to use a TV set as >a monitor, you can get a flat-screen small monitor from Sony left over >from their Watchcam line. It's not hopeless. But it's not easy. And, of course, you may discover that taking apart the consumer equipment is cheaper than buying the parts in quantity one from a distributor, not to mention a lot less hassle... -- SunOSish, adj: requiring | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology 32-bit bug numbers. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu