Hi there, wanna get together and build an arduino bases TCD? Time circuits display
Hi there BTTF fans.
My name is Fabio and I am from Uruguay. Been in love with BTTF movies since I was 5 years old, 25 years ago.
I´m currently building (or attempting to) the TCD or Time circuits display with arduino.
So far so good (maybe not that much as for screen accuracy) but nevertheless I wanted to share with this awesome community the advances I made and what is still left to do.
One of the things that is hard to me to do/find is the correct materials to make the aluminium enclosure, so... for now Im going with the plexiglass way.
Also I would like to make a poll in this forum regarding how people like/prefer the programming behavior of the TCD
My options are.
1) Just as in the movie. (No real RTC (no real time clock)) just punch the dates and it will simulate the time travel and then start keeping track of the present time as if it was a clock
2) RTC capabilites (I started with a coin cell operated RTC but now moved to a wifi NTP server connection so it syncs the time in each turn on, providing you are connected to the configured hotspot) this can also be changed for a battery RTC or even GPS sync wich will also come in handy for the 88 Speedo. This will always show "our date" in the present date, but you can fiddle with destination time and if you input another destination time the last one will be displayed as time departed. But present time will always act as a normal clock
3) No RTC, no time travel simulation, you can modifiy each display date individually by punching before the month a number from 1 to 3 which will define the display to be operated
I can't contribute to the project. But if it was made with an alarm clock function so I could put it on my desk that would be practical and work visually with the future date.
One of the things that is hard to me to do/find is the correct materials to make the aluminium enclosure, so... for now Im going with the plexiglass way.
You can still buy the correct enclosures from LMB heeger. They are the Crown Royal Series 852 (CR852)
The originals were blue/grey and were painted by production with silver hammer finish paint. The face plates with colored gels are a separate piece and were custom made out of some type of flexible sheet. Most people now typically use thin metal for the face plates.
If you're going through the trouble to design all of the electrical hardware you might as well design the boards to fit inside the correct enclosures. You can order them from LMB as-is with no cutouts for the displays and hand cut each one, or if you want to spend a little more money you can have custom enclosures made that are pre-punched with whatever size cutouts you want.
The originals were blue/grey and were painted by production with silver hammer finish paint. The face plates with colored gels are a separate piece and were custom made out of some type of flexible sheet. Most people now typically use thin metal for the face plates.
If you're going through the trouble to design all of the electrical hardware you might as well design the boards to fit inside the correct enclosures. You can order them from LMB as-is with no cutouts for the displays and hand cut each one, or if you want to spend a little more money you can have custom enclosures made that are pre-punched with whatever size cutouts you want.
Hi Mark, first of all a pleasure to "meet" you and awesome post regarding the F.A.Q about the DeLorean A car restoration.
Just saw last week the documentary and I must say when I saw the DeLorean in that condition I almost cried. Been wanting to travel to the US to meet the car in the Petersen for quite a while but must make visa arrangements and see if I pass the screening.
Yes! I saw the LMB enclosures but my problem is that my pcb for the displays measures 25mm in lenght (sorry we use metrical down south) and the LMB´s are 21mm more or less. Still, I saw at LMB that they can make it as you say with any size, but the minimun order is 25 units and I only need 9. Also I have to bring them to Uruguay by freight (no fuss all the electronics came that way) but they charge by weight and that would be costly to use less than 50% of the material. Still it would be awesome to put them in the original LMB...
Also here to cut aluminium by water stream they charge a fortune, even the acrilic is not coming in cheap. I saw some youtube videos showing that you can cut 3mm 6061 with a circular saw but would be my first attempt with 0 experience so for now is scratched of the book. I tried to make ny owm enclosures with 0.5mm thick aluminium sheets and cut with a dremmel the windows but it did not came out pretty. Also wood is discarted
Other thing that I am working in and maybe some fans will appreciate is to program the PART2 Future display failure with the 1885 date.
I don´t know if I will make it appear randomly or to be triggered by a button or command. Been watching the cuts when the glitch appears to make it the most screen accutarate (it displayes 01/01/1885 but also blinks like 900 in the year with the last digit not lit)
Love to hear more input and to see if anyone else has already made their own
I just bought all the electronics to build 3, the yellow ones were a pain in the butt to get. So...
I can't contribute to the project. But if it was made with an alarm clock function so I could put it on my desk that would be practical and work visually with the future date.
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Thanks for your reply and input. Yes! my idea for my own is to use it that way. I plan to build 3 so i wanted to hear from the community their own ideas.
I made some (slow) progress on the enclosures but for now they are available in galvanized steel instead of 6061 aluminium (I´m contacting some off-shore providers to use it)
Currently I am looking for the colored acrilic plates that goes in front of the LCD displays so I can wrap up the faceplate.
And lastly I´m kind of stuck looking for a suitable mp3 decoder chip to play the input sounds, the one I tried didn´t recognized the SD card and had poor compatibility on that matter.
Here are some captures of the advances.
If you are interested in one unit we can discuss it. Also consider that I´m offering fully custom programable behavior. Something not usually seen in the classic TCD units. You can instruct me how would you like it to behave and I shall program it for you (custom display program, original BTTF behavior, 88mph triggering, GPS speed track and real time clock, or just a desk alarm clock) 98C92873-F3D5-4B42-9573-A9CA6B89B505.jpg
Best regards to this lovely community
Hi there, wanna get together and build an arduino bases TCD? Time circuits display
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Originally Posted by Fabius_Uy
