Every clock in this project could work without others so I will describe how to make single clock. Which motor is the best, which microcontroller I have used, how to drive stepper motor, how to "home" clock hands. In the second part I will share information how to control each clock and how to make effects.first video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o0vmoWVZDwvideo with sound and with tricks:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNlFprewN-A
The most important for me was to make it the cheapest and the simplest one I can do, so I have used bka30d motor (360 degrees version). You can buy one on aliexpress. You can drive it directly from the microcontroller so you don't need any additional drivers. In my opinion motors x40 should be much better for it but there are much more expensive. The motor is the most expensive part in my solution.
When you drive bka30d with 4 or 8 steps you will get to know that those motors are very loudly. That's why I have decided to use the newest microcontroller from microchip - it is atmega328pb (pb - it is very important, not p like on the arduino board). There are 9 (or 10) PWM channels, bka30d has two motors with 2 solenoids - 8 connectors. So we can connect motors to microcontroller and we can have full voltage control on every PIN. Next week I will show my software how to drive the motors in my configuration. The movement is very smooth and much more quieter.
Atmega328pb is cheaper then standard atmega328p - we can "save" more money!
Another issue is how to home clock hands on power up. I realize it by small magnet on clocks hands and two analog hall sensors (ss495 connected to sens1 and sens2). On the power up microcontroller is looking for absolute maximum.
Communication between clock - I used i2c wire. On the schema there are two pull-up resistors - they are needed only in one clock - when one of then is master, when you use for example arduino as master you don't need to sold this in any.
Two buttons are not used in satellite clocks - only when clock is the master.
I chose the BKA30D-R5 ,because sonceboz 6407 and juken x40 is very expensive in China,and the VID28 is out of stock , so i chose the BKA30D-R5.
I have some problem, it is the noise of BKA30D-R5 with 4 and 8 step, I have a solution that has the potential to reduce noise: using the VID6606(or STI6606) to drive the bka30d, I looked at the VID6606's datasheet, which has 4 subdivision functions, meaning that the main axis can rotate at 1/12 degrees every pluse signal, maybe it can reduce noise.
By the way , could you tell me your solution of noise ?
I am building one myself. I plan to use the BKA30-R5D as well. I control them from a Arduino pro mini altough I had to modify the Arduino core to be able to use PWM on 6 pin's on a high enough frequency. Probably are going to make the clocks and hands out of plywood.
This is jaw-droppingly cool! Details! We must have them! That video is mesmerizing. I absolutely would love to build a smaller scale version of this to have on display in my living room. So insanely hypnotising!
What if you had a white hand in front of the two black hands that could be used to "blank" an analog clock? Or is that deviating from the original artistic design?
VID6606 is already on the express road, next week I can test whether this solution can reduce noise.