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Harry Potter inspired clock

MIT How to Make Almost Anything

For my final project for MIT's How to Make Almost Anything course, I decided I wanted to make a prototype of a clock inspired by the Weasley family clock in Harry Potter. In the books, the clock gives the location of each family member instead of the time of day.

Concept Sketches

I started by created various concept sketches before settling on the idea of using the Marauders for the motif.

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CAD Model

Although my initial idea was to make a tabletop-sized clock, I decided instead I wanted to make something more like a grandfather clock. I built off of the existing concept art to create a vector model, and from that a CAD model in Solidworks.

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Clock Body

The body was CNC routed from plywood in two layers.

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Clockwork

The clockwork mechanism was made using lasercut acrylic, 3D printed gears (largely because the two week time constraint on the project, there wasn't time to order parts), a servo, and a custom made PCB.

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Software & Electronics

For the PCB, I made a modified version of the Fabduino. For this prototype, the servo for the clockwork was controlled by a computer interface although the ultimate goal is to make a version that uses GPS signal from my phone.

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