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 LEDs. Groups of LEDs 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.
This is an awesome piece of hackage that tends to impress
people. Unfortunately it fails at being quiet and reliable, which is a very
important quality of a useful timepiece. Strobeshnik makes an awesome
exhibition item however and can be classified as art.
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