The Hollow Clock
written 2025 06 27
On the website https://www.instructables.com/Hollow-Clock-2/ a 3D printed clock can be found developed by Shiura. The design of the clock used a stepper motor that is being controlled by an Arduino Nano. The time accuracy of the clock is derived from the Arduino Nano. A design that has spawned many derivatives.
Also the design of Pivoine, https://www.thingverse.com/thing:6112703/, which made it a wifi variant. This variant takes the time from an NTP server and makes the clock display a very accurate time. Attractive software therefore.
It is this version of Pivoine that has been the reason to subject the software he developed to a closer look. Why? Well, when you look at the software, you immediately see that it is very ingeniously put together. But also that all explanations about the software are missing. This makes it difficult to understand all the built-in settings that are possible with this software. So there is no good manual that explains all the possibilities.
Furthermore, it turned out that the software was written for a Stamp-C3 SoC (System on Chip), one of the many ESP32 models in circulation, and also for the ESP8266, both from Espressief.
Now the Stamp-C3 is certainly not a common type of SoC, but I really wanted to work with an ESP8266. And then you discover that the software, although “also” written for it, has not been tested for it, because otherwise I cannot properly explain the software errors in the ESP8266 part of the program.
So the software I “redesigned” for the HOLLOW CLOCK WiFi with the ESP8266 SoC, which runs fine, you will find it below.
The design requirements I set for myself:
+ Re-programmable via WiFi (OTA = Over The Air programmable)
+ Remove all code for the ESP32 (Add again in a next version)
+ Include as much explanation as possible in the software that explains the working (of that specifiek code snippit).
+ Include the WiFi credentials in a separate file.
+ Other GPIO ports used than in the Pivoine software
More explanation about the working of the software and the adjustments made you will find in de the .ino file’s
If you want to use the software and connect it to WiFi via your own router at home or elswhere, you must enter your SIDD and Password in the file -secretswifi.h- and choose for STASSID to fill in the credentials.
Here you wil find the software I have re-writen voor the CLOCK