For full details check out the project's web page at https://diy.viktak.com/2023/07/a-word-clock-with-extras.html

I have long been looking for a way to make a word clock (although there is no shortage of clocks in our home…), but until recently I haven’t found a financially reasonable way to make one. What changed is that I recently acquired a desktop 3D printer. This dramatically expanded the capabilities of my home workshop. I can now easily make reasonably good looking enclosures, face-plates and other small, but essential parts for my projects. To make it more interesting for non-geeks, too, I included some features that are not obvious and I hadn’t seen in similar projects, such as easily replaceable template for letters, that allow the “clock” to be used as something else (maybe a menu, some other info board?).

When I set out to make this clock I had the following feature set in mind (and on paper – having it written somewhere also helps you not lose focus):

1.No buttons, levers, dials, sockets, etc on the actual device – except for power connection. I was playing with the idea of powering the clock wirelessly, but the 143 RGBW LEDs at full power require a large amount of current that would be too bulky to transfer using wireless power transfer.

2.Wireless connectivity using WiFi. This also allows the clock to synchronize itself with time servers on the internet. No more setting the time!

3.Any and all configuration should be done in a web browser remotely, no extra software to download/install by the user.

4.There should be enough letters/characters to display not only the time, but some extra information, like day of the week, weather alerts, name days, or really anything that is available on the local network or the internet (I will show some examples later in the article).

5.The letters should be replaceable with minimum effort if the user wishes to do so.

6.Easy to read: I don’t like the design I saw (in some corners of the internet) where all the letters are visible all the time and the active letters are just lit up a little bit more. I think it is difficult to read, especially in a brightly lit room. In my design only the relevant letters should be visible.

Here it is in action:

More video on details:

The letters can be easily adjusted for other languages.