You Can Build Your Own LED Matrix Clock with Morphing Digits

Clocks are the perfect combination of form and function, and there are clocks available that fit every possible aesthetic. Do you own a mansion with a study and lots of mahogany? Buy a stately grandfather clock! If your tastes are more minimalist, a simple numberless analog clock fits the bill. But, if you love DIY electronics, this LED matrix clock with morphing digits will be right up your alley.

You can build this clock by following HariFun’s tutorial, and it’s a thing of beauty. As the seconds, minutes, and hours pass, each number morphs into the next with animated movements of the line segments. Just watching the time tick by is completely mesmerizing. Best of all, you can build the entire clock yourself for around $25, and it doesn’t even require soldering.

To get started, you’ll need a 64x32 RGB LED matrix, a NodeMCU ESP8266 microcontroller, female-to-female jumper wires, and two power supplies — one for the LED matrix and one for the microcontroller. There are quite a few wires to connect, but they’re just jumpers and should be easy to plug in. After everything is wired up, just copy the code and flash it to the ESP8266 with the Arduino IDE. Then all you need to do is connect it to your WiFi network and set a time zone, and your clock will start morphing!