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BEZICRON

A 3dprinted electro-mechechical clock with flexible digits

ekaggrat-singh-kalsiekaggrat singh kalsi
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Inspired from the hair rubber band of my daughter I created a mechanical clock which stretches a flexible elastic borrowed from a flexible pen to make the digits. The arms are moved by cams which stretches the elastic band to make the digits. Each digit approximately measures 50mmx 55 mm. The entire clock is about 300 x 140 x 150mm

The clock consists of  4 modules of digits paired in two units. Each pair is powered by  a 20mm geared stepper motor. Each pair has one module driven by the stepper motor and the second module is moved by a carryover mechanism.  Both the units are controlled by a control board in the base containing a atmega8 running in the arduino ecosystem.

The single module

The entire assembly of 4 modules

The base 

It contains the control board which consists of a Atmega 8 and a pair of a4988 stepper drivers

the complete drawing


  • 1 × Atmega 8 microcontroller
  • 2 × A4988 Power Management ICs / Motion, Motor and Servo Control
  • 3 × A3144 hall sensor
  • 2 × push buttons

  • testing a dual module with carryover

    ekaggrat singh kalsi • 01/10/2025 at 05:51 • 0 comments

    next I assemble a dual module to test the carryover mechanism. I worked smoothly as the 20mm geared stepper is a overkill for this purpose. The units motor homes to zero using the hall sensor and then runs clockwise to change the digits. After every one turn it carryovers to the tens module using a carryover gear mechanism.

  • testing a single module

    ekaggrat singh kalsi • 01/10/2025 at 05:47 • 0 comments

    I built a single module to test the concept. The module was driven by a geared 15mm stepper motor which was controlled by a cnc shield. I quickly realized that the torque need to turn the cams and followers was much more than I anticipated. The 15mm motor ran very hot and overworked. So in the next iteration I used 20mm geared stepper motors

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Ben Norris wrote 09/28/2025 at 17:39 • point

Now we just need elasticated EL wire

  Are you sure? yes | no

ekaggrat singh kalsi wrote 09/29/2025 at 05:02 • point

ya waiting for that. Sadly it has a copper base which wont expand or contract and the led cob filaments are too flexible to make a spring. 

  Are you sure? yes | no

Bertrand Selva wrote 09/12/2025 at 15:51 • point

C'est très beau : beautiful !! 

  Are you sure? yes | no

Makerinator wrote 09/11/2025 at 19:16 • point

THIS IS SO COOL! Is the material for the numbers something you could potentially change? If you made it a glow-in-the-dark or black-light reflective material that would look really neat!

  Are you sure? yes | no

ekaggrat singh kalsi wrote 09/12/2025 at 00:11 • point

i looked for many but currently these pen cables are the only durable ones. the think is currently it drags in the loops that hold it and i dont know how even this could last longer. i dont have the time now to long duration test many materials. Maybe sometime in the future

  Are you sure? yes | no

Makerinator wrote 09/12/2025 at 14:10 • point

Gotcha. Still a very cool project! :)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Alexander wrote 09/11/2025 at 18:54 • point

Is this under any sort of open hardware license? I'm not that experienced with CAD and I'd love to be able to look at the design files and see how everything attaches together a bit more closely.

  Are you sure? yes | no

ekaggrat singh kalsi wrote 09/12/2025 at 00:12 • point

sorry but I intend to make it a product in the future so it needs a proper patent or design registration . I have other ones that are free to use

  Are you sure? yes | no

Alexander wrote 09/12/2025 at 00:18 • point

There are many open hardware products out there! Being open source doesn't affect your ability to sell it :) 

  Are you sure? yes | no

Ben Norris wrote 09/28/2025 at 17:42 • point

Unfortunately you can't patent something once you've already made it publicly known, it is no longer novel

  Are you sure? yes | no

Fred wrote 09/10/2025 at 16:17 • point

Wonderful and so creative. Thank for you hard work on this.

  Are you sure? yes | no

ekaggrat singh kalsi wrote 09/10/2025 at 23:17 • point

thanks a lot for your kind words

  Are you sure? yes | no

Ruth Anne wrote 09/10/2025 at 07:28 • point

Wonderful! I am fascinated!

  Are you sure? yes | no

ekaggrat singh kalsi wrote 09/10/2025 at 23:17 • point

thanks !

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curiousmarc wrote 07/30/2025 at 15:45 • point

Excellent!

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Leizar06001 wrote 01/15/2025 at 14:52 • point

Nice ! You might be able to use a material that can slide through rings and be straighten by gravity or a spring

  Are you sure? yes | no

ekaggrat singh kalsi wrote 01/16/2025 at 07:18 • point

that is a great idea. i will try silicone led strings pulled by a spring. I need to somehow hold it on the arms and let it slide

  Are you sure? yes | no

nologolon wrote 01/13/2025 at 13:45 • point

Great idea! 

Imagine you could bend the luminous rubbery led filaments also. 

Would look great in the dark.

  Are you sure? yes | no

ekaggrat singh kalsi wrote 01/14/2025 at 02:11 • point

yes I thought about them but they cant stretch and cant be coiled to make a spring like band, Still looking for a material that can do that

  Are you sure? yes | no

Dan Maloney wrote 01/10/2025 at 19:46 • point

Great build, love the design! I can see how you probably played with those hair ties and made a few crude digits with your fingers and got the idea for this. Wrote this up, should publish soon. Thanks for another unique clock!

  Are you sure? yes | no

ekaggrat singh kalsi wrote 01/11/2025 at 01:05 • point

thanks a lot for publishing it!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Ken Yap wrote 01/10/2025 at 06:19 • point

👍 Haha this is cool.

  Are you sure? yes | no

ekaggrat singh kalsi wrote 01/10/2025 at 08:14 • point

thanks!

  Are you sure? yes | no

ekaggrat singh kalsi wrote 01/11/2025 at 01:05 • point

thanks

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