We all have those times when hard disk recovery is simply impossible, your data is probably lost forever and before you know that hard disk might be heading to the trash bin.
But why not recycle it into a hard disk clock? We have features a ton of great hard disk clocks before, here’s another one named Strobeshnik from Russia made with a custom AVR controller, motor controller, and LEDs.
Strobeshnik uses stroboscopic effect to create the illusion of persistent numeric display. The hard drive platter has 10 digits, colon and dash marks, cut all the way through it. Behind the platter, in the HDD chassis, there is a PCB with groups of diffused LED’s. Groups of LED’s in each character position can be strobed independently at any given time. By careful timing of the light strobes, an illusion of still-standing numbers can be created.
Schematics, Eagle files, and source code for AVR are provided free so you might be able to easily replicate this DIY hard disk clock.
And don’t forget to watch the video as this Strobeshnik Hard Disk Clock certainly factors in the “wow” factor. Bravo!
video://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWHF-bm7wQ0
There’s also a very similar DIY hard disk clock you might want to take a look that uses POV.
And oh yeah, don’t forget, there’s other ways to recycle your hard disk as works of art.
If this hard disk clock hack seems too much for you (and I am sure most of you want to just buy one), check out the simpler hard disk clock you can buy on Etsy.
Seriously though, one day hard disks will become obsolete and it might be a good skill to learn how to recycle/re-make hard disks now, just in case! 🙂
