HowTo: Fibonacci Clock – Programming

In the two posts Fibonacci Clock - An unusual time indicator and Fibonacci clock assembly The Fibonacci clock was introduced and described how you can assemble your own Fibonacci clock. After you have completed the assembly, you now have to program the clock.

This is described in the following article.


Safety instructions

I know the following notes are always kind of annoying and seem unnecessary. Unfortunately, many people who knew "better" have lost eyes, fingers or other things due to carelessness or injured themselves. Data loss is almost negligible in comparison, but even these can be really annoying. Therefore, please take five minutes to read the safety instructions. Because even the coolest project is not worth injury or other trouble.
https://www.nerdiy.de/sicherheitshinweise/

Affiliate links/advertising links

The links to online shops listed here are so-called affiliate links. If you click on such an affiliate link and make a purchase via this link, Nerdiy.de will receive a commission from the relevant online shop or provider. The price does not change for you. If you make your purchases via these links, you support Nerdiy.de in being able to offer other useful projects in the future. 🙂 


Requirements

To program your Fibonacci clock you need to connect it to your computer. To do this you need a micro USB cable that you connect to the watch and your computer.

You also need the Arduino IDE.
How to install it is described in this article: Install programs
There are also a few tips about the Arduino IDE described here, which will give you an initial overview of the Arduino IDE: ArduinoIDE - Tips and Tricks


Download firmware from the Nerdiy.de GitHub

Once you have prepared everything, all you have to do is download the firmware from the Nerdiy.de GitHub.
How you can download software from GitHub is in the article GitHub - How do I copy files from a GitHub to my computer? described.

You can find the software for the Fibonacci clock at: https://github.com/Nerdiyde/NerdiysFibonacciClock


Configure firmware

Before you can transfer the firmware to your Fibonacci clock, it must first be set correctly.
Depending on whether you also installed an OLED display and/or an LDR when assembling the watch, you will have to activate or deactivate these functions in the firmware.

To do this, open the previously downloaded firmware in the ArduinoIDE and go to the “config.h” tab. There you now scroll to the “LDR setup” or “I2C display setup” area.

By default, both the use of the LDR and the OLED display are activated.

If you do not have an LDR installed in your Fibonacci clock, you must now deactivate this function in the software. You do this by commenting out the “#define LDR_INSTALLED” part, i.e. putting a “//” in front of it.
So “#define LDR_INSTALLED” is replaced by “//#define LDR_INSTALLED”.

The procedure is similar for the OLED display.
If you don't have an OLED display installed, you now have to deactivate this function in the software. You do this by commenting out the part “#define I2C_DISPLAY_INSTALLED” and putting a “//” in front of it.
So “#define I2C_DISPLAY_INSTALLED” is replaced by “//#define I2C_DISPLAY_INSTALLED”.


Setting the Arduino type and programming interface

As the last step before the actual programming, all you have to do is set the correct Arduino and the programming interface in the ArduinoIDE. This is the only way to correctly translate and program the program for the Arduino or microcontroller used.
You can find out more about this in the article ArduinoIDE - Tips and Tricks read up.

To do this, click on “Tools” in the Arduino IDE and then select “ArduinoNano” under Board – as shown.
It is also important that you select the correct processor type under “Processor”. For the Fibonacci clock, this is always a processor from the ATmega32P family. Which bootloader is used depends on the version of the ArduinoNano used. The easiest thing to do here is just try it out. If programming with the selected bootloader fails, just try the other one.
To select the programming interface, click on “Tools” again and under “Port” select the Com port that was added to the list after connecting the clock.

That's it for the configuration.


Start the programming process

To start the programming process, all you have to do is click on the button marked in red.

In the article Fibonacci Clock User Guide A small instruction manual has been put together that should help you with the next steps. 🙂


Have fun with the project

I hope everything worked as described for you. If not or you have questions or suggestions please let me know in the comments. I will then add this to the article if necessary.
Ideas for new projects are always welcome. 🙂

PS Many of these projects - especially the hardware projects - cost a lot of time and money. Of course I do this because I enjoy it, but if you think it's cool that I share the information with you, I would be happy about a small donation to the coffee fund. 🙂

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