Digital Clock

I decided to build my own digital clock. When searching for existing products online, it is surprising that I can't find any products that satisfy my basic checklist:

1. It should look nice: all I want to see is the time, which should be displayed in a nice font. >99% of current products use ugly segmented displays (blocky numbers with 90 degree angles).
2. It should be zero maintenance. The time should automatically sync and deal with daylight savings. Why should anyone have to manually set their clocks when Wi-Fi exists? >99% of products expect people to manually set the time!
3. It should have the correct brightness: not too bright when the room is dark and not too dim when the room is bright. >99% of products don't do this.

Bonus points if the clock has a backup battery and continues working when there is a power outage.

Recently I have been using the Nest Hub ($100) as a clock. It is almost the perfect clock (satisfying all three points on my checklist) except that it has a bug that randomly switches the display out of clock mode and back to the home screen about once a day. This bug is the reason I decided to build my own clock.

I built this using an old Kindle Paperwhite. The Kindle Paperwhite has an amazing e-ink display (perfect for bright rooms) and also has lighting so you can see it when it is dark.

I created a basic website to display the time and opened it in the Kindle web browser. Unfortunately the Kindle has a screen saver that automatically starts showing advertisements when you don't interact with it. In order to keep the time on the screen, I had to jailbreak the Kindle to disable the screen saver. Then I fit it into a picture frame and created a border around the time (so you can't see the browser panel). It can be hung up on a wall, although it will run out of battery when not plugged in. I prefer to keep it plugged in next to my desk.

Here is a comparison with the Nest Hub: