Antique Weather Clock

Antique weather clock:

clock

I love the idea of hacking antiques, using electronics to update their functionality or change it completly. I came up with this concept for an antique weather clock, instead of telling the time it tells you the weather.

I used a fake antique (replica) that I picked up for cheep on ebay. I took out the clock work, and replaced it with a servo and used a phidgets USB - servo controller so I could control the servo from my computer. I had to use some gears so that the needle shaft would turn 360 degrees, since the servo only turns about 180. I also re-designed the face of the clock keeping a similar look to the original time piece. Once that was all set I created a little flash application that would connect to yahoo! weather service, and update the servo. I made it so it could toggle between current condition and the local forecast, and also made it so I could enter another zip code to see what the weather is in other places. Their weather service reports something like 40 different conditions, so I had to condense some of them, I combined some things, and ended up with 14 'conditions':

Cold
Hot
Fog / Haze
Cloudy
Partially Cloudy
Sunny / Clear
Clear at Night
Rain / Showers
Mixed winter precipitation (sleet / freezing rain)
Snow
Windy
Thunderstorms
Severe Weather (hurricane / tornado)
Dead Clock (no internet connection / service errors)

It updates automatically, I set the default at every 10 minutes. Its been running pretty stable for a week.

clock

front door open

detail of the servo and gearworks

detail of the servo controler

detail of clock face design

screen capture of flash application

Video: (flash plugin required)