I decided to make another desk ornament since the Annoy-o-tron 2000 was such a big hit. (it actually got stolen by my friend's boss... that's good.
He is british (welsh really but a british citizen nonetheless) and we've always had this inside joke so I decided to make him a clock that would always indicate that it is "almost" time.
I started a bit like I did with the annoy-o-tron, by soldering the capacitors to two different pieces of wire.
I decided to go for a squared shape this time.
I added the rest of the basic miller engine (I bought a bunch of parts to make it so I tend to reuse that one a lot).
I also added a switch on that one, between the solar cell and the rest of the contraption. Since it is not meant to be annoying, I figured it would be nice if I gave him the power to turn it off.
I ended up using one of those magical little geared servos that I usually modify to use as wheels in different robots. I hung the motor from the top part so that it would "magically" float in the middle of the piece.
I added a few pieces of foamcore because I like it so much and because it gave the whole piece a bit more gravitas. Slapped on an old clock hand I had laying around and made a clock face for it.
The end result is a very sturdy yet weirdly disconnected clok that twitches away the "almost" time.... forever (as long as the sun shines).
Captures sunlight and then powers a clock hand that never reaches the next hour.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/almost-clock