This DIY digital hourglass delivers a retro feeling without the messy sand

It’s hard to believe, particularly for those in the maker and mod communities that until a few years back, it was feasible to make decent looking “hacks” or electronics projects at home. Single-board computers or SBCs like the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi made it super cheap to put decent computers inside those DIY contraptions, while 3D printers made it possible to dream up your own designs. While you may still have to use a soldering torch for certain projects, the final results are often worth it. Digital versions can be made of an analog tool, but they don’t have to include all the parts.

Designer: Engineercly

Everyone has a smartphone these days, and all smartphones come with some sort of timer app. This makes it almost impossible to have an hourglass. However, the charm of an old-fashioned tool is still there, as are many other non-digital artifacts. However, a hobbyist might find creating a sandclock difficult. Fortunately, we now have the ability to create an hourglass digitally.

No, this isn’t about having a screen that displays a sand clock, which would be boring and too easy to make. The DIY project aims to replicate the feeling of an hourglass. It can be turned upside-down or sideways and the “sand”, as it drops, slowly. Naturally, it doesn’t use any sand at all but utilizes LED lights to convey the same visual effect.

This project will require a bit more familiarity with electronics, though, as it involves multiple parts that need to be soldered and put together properly. All those parts can be bought online or even off-shelf, though you still need access to a 3D printer to craft the parts. Fortunately, the engineer behind the project provides the pattern that you can feed into any 3D printer or send to a printing service.

The Digital Sand Clock isn’t just a hardware project, though. There is also a bit of coding involved, especially in animating how the LEDs light up to mimic falling sand. That part is actually what makes the entire endeavor rather impressive, given how it can use motion (technically an accelerometer) to control the “movement” of the sand, and the lights adjust accordingly as if they were actually movable solid objects.

DIY projects like these often make people raise their eyebrows, especially after seeing all the components and work involved in making them. Beyond being an enjoyable pastime for hobbyists and makers, it is also a demonstration of how far we’ve come in enabling such creations without being at the mercy of large companies and production plants. This is not just an enabler, but it’s also a source for inspiration and design ideas for engineers and budding designers who are interested in a more democratic method of making things.