Xronos update: PCB, Enclosure and website

Small update today.  Pololu let me know they finished cutting faceplates for the clock, can’t wait to receive it. Based on how it fits, I’m going to make final tweaks to the enclosure and make another one.

I decided to give iTead a try to make PCBs for me. They are a lot cheaper than OSH Park, but might take longer. Since they don’t charge per inch of PCB, I had to choose 10×10 cm boards, however it’s actually only around 6×6 cm, so I can make PCBs bigger in the future and it won’t raise price. Maybe I’ll finally integrate Audio on board 🙂

Unfortunately I got stuck at getting Photoresistor working. I can’t explain it but even tho it’s connected to Analog Port 1 (A1) of ATMega644p chip, it still acts as it’s connected to A0, and that’s where my temperature sensor is connected.   Makes no sense, as they  are not connected in any way. This means that clock won’t have auto-dimming function for now, maybe I’ll add it in the future version.

I have decided to give another overhaul to alarm functionality. I personally need a way to program alarm1 to sound on some days and alarm 2 on another, so I will try to add selection of specific days instead of just Weekday/Daily. I do want to keep functionality simple, so this option will be implement as another submenu inside alarm menu. This way unless user specifically need such granular setting, he/she can still do simpler daily/weekday selection (i.e. off/daily/weekday/more).

Lastly I registered xronosclock.com domain. Surprised it was available, probably has to do with “X” in the beginning 🙂