Topic: Pottery Barn Alarm Clock conversion

Many years ago, long before Chumby, my wife gave me a Pottery Barn "Pocketwatch" Alarm clock, and it's been sitting on my nightstand since then.  Of course, there are chumbys there too - but I liked this clock.

Here's what it looks like in original condition:

http://files.blueocty.com/duane/portbarnclock.jpg

A week or so ago it simply stopped working, so I opened up and discovered that the cheapo plastic AA battery-powered clockwork had failed and wasn't fixable. The rest of the clock is pretty nice quality with solid metal construction, and it seemed like a shame to just throw it away.

Since I have a few chumby devices lying around in various conditions, I located a chumby Classic (Ironforge 3.8) that was used by Chumby's QA team that was not really in (re)saleable condition.  After a couple of hours with some basic tools (coping saw, Dremel, drills, some black spray paint, etc), I was able to mount the chumby guts in this clock housing.  It was mainly an exercise in carving out enough of the face to not block connectors and tall components - the bezel, screen and main circuitboard are in front of the face, the riser and Wifi board, antenna and power daughterboard are on the back.  The chumby's bezel fits perfectly within clock's bezel. I made no effort to accommodate the clock's glass facing, since I want to use the touchscreen.

The only soldering was to graft the switch connector used by the chumby's top switch to the wires for the little "alarm on/off" switch used by the original clock.  This gives me Control Panel access using the clock's existing switch.

Since this was a 3.8 device, it powers up when plugged in, so I didn't have to rewire and reroute the power switch.  The back fits even with the little daughterboard, though I had to dremel away the main back mounting points, so the back is currently taped on.

The one thing I couldn't do was mount the CC's nice 2W speakers internally - they're too big.  I'm planning on taking a trip to Chumby's storage unit to see if I can locate some scrap C8 speakers which should fit nicely, or I can just plug in some external speakers to get better audio.  I'm also considering putting some black velvet on the clock face behind the bezel to lower any residual glare, but it's not much of an issue on the nightstand.

Here's what the result looks like - the lighting for the photo stinks, it looks much better in person.  The widget being displayed is the wonderful "Atmos Chrono" clock by "Primal Stare".

http://files.blueocty.com/duane/potteryhack.jpg

Re: Pottery Barn Alarm Clock conversion

Nice. I like that it is being held by the wooden figure and that your son appears to be looking at it in the background.
I hope to see the mod from infocastme soon too. It would be great if this got to be a thing with chumbys.

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

Re: Pottery Barn Alarm Clock conversion

One hack I want to do is a nod to the Panasonic spherical radios/clocks/TVs from the 60s.  The clock radio looks about the right size, but it's tempting to do a real 3D print to make it look right.

In my office at Chumby, we had a big whiteboard that we drew what chumbys would look like from each era from the wood-and-brass "steampunk" to deco to streamlined to mid century modern to 60's, etc.

Another one I've wanted to do is 3D print a first-gen Macintosh enclosure to scale for C1 electronics - about 50% scale.

Re: Pottery Barn Alarm Clock conversion

Duane wrote:

One hack I want to do is a nod to the Panasonic spherical radios/clocks/TVs from the 60s.  The clock radio looks about the right size, but it's tempting to do a real 3D print to make it look right.

In my office at Chumby, we had a big whiteboard that we drew what chumbys would look like from each era from the wood-and-brass "steampunk" to deco to streamlined to mid century modern to 60's, etc.

Another one I've wanted to do is 3D print a first-gen Macintosh enclosure to scale for C1 electronics - about 50% scale.


The sphere would be really difficult to cut exactly right to fit the Chumby screen. Creating it in CAD and 3D printing would be WAAAY easier if you have access to that type of equipment. The steampunk Chumby has been on my mind for years. I know there are a couple of others out in the world and I would love to make my own version. I have never seen the right thing to use as a starting point and I don't want to start from scratch. I also would like all the steampunk stuff that I would add to look like it actually does something. Too often people glue on some gears and call it a day.
The idea of a Chumby one Mac is cool too. So many options...

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

Re: Pottery Barn Alarm Clock conversion

I have this one in my home office - Steve Tomlin bought it and gave it to me:

http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/chumbophone_1-500x420.jpg

Re: Pottery Barn Alarm Clock conversion

I remember seeing photos of that one. It is beautiful!

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

Re: Pottery Barn Alarm Clock conversion

(EDIT by Duane: fixed image link)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1TBUS3CQAAN4-T.jpg

My Chumby (well, Infocast 3.5) Pumpkin from last Halloween

Re: Pottery Barn Alarm Clock conversion

unwiredben wrote:

https://a97wyg.bl3301.livefilestore.com/y3pPywXnmq0ARLmJtrxi4HdNx8zUFl-PwotoyjvlLEQMmoMzNS0Ii1U0-Pm3GK6GWHEFjGqro17AISVYwv1t4Kb006c_7nXCzFOWn_SkfMqDLZi63JSVP8TT-AxpsQ7vBFHf1czfrDp1GZu_cnfN2mbUA/WP_20141031_003.jpg?psid=1

My Chumby (well, Infocast 3.5) Pumpkin from last Halloween

Picture doesn't work.  Looks like it's from some m$ thing that requires a login.

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker