Skip to content

Clock Architecture Explorer

Run the Clock Architecture Explorer Fullscreen

About This MicroSim

Clock architecture is the big-picture plan of which parts a clock needs and how they connect. Every clock in this book has the same five blocks:

  • Power supply: provides the electricity everything else needs.
  • Microcontroller: runs the program.
  • Time source: tells the program what time it is.
  • Display: an actuator that shows the time.
  • Input: sensors such as buttons that let a person set the time.

Red dashed arrows show power flowing from the supply to every block. Blue arrows show data: the time source and the buttons send data in to the microcontroller, and the microcontroller sends data out to the display.

Choose a clock from the menu and each block is relabeled with the real part that fills it. The blocks never change; only the parts inside them do. That is what makes the five blocks a useful planning tool for any new clock you design.

How to Use

  • Pick a clock from Choose a clock: 4-digit LED clock, OLED clock with RTC, or Smartwatch. Each box shows the part that clock uses.
  • Click any box to read its job, a note about the chosen part, and a link to the chapter that covers it.
  • Switch between clocks with a box selected to compare how each clock fills the same block.

Iframe Embed Code

You can add this MicroSim to any web page by adding this to your HTML:

1
2
3
4
<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/clocks-and-watches/sims/clock-architecture-explorer/main.html"
        height="450px"
        width="100%"
        scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Learning Objectives

By the end of this activity, students will be able to:

  • Describe the job of each of the five blocks of a clock.
  • Compare how a 4-digit LED clock, an OLED clock with an RTC, and a smartwatch fill the same five blocks.
  • Explain the direction of power and data flow between the blocks.

Grade Level

9-12 (Clocks and Watches with AI)

Duration

10-15 minutes

Prerequisites

  • Read the Clock Architecture section of Chapter 2.
  • Know the difference between a sensor and an actuator (Chapter 1).

Activities

  1. Name the jobs (3 min): With "Any clock" selected, students click each box and summarize its job in five words or fewer.
  2. Compare three clocks (5 min): Students fill in a table with one row per block and one column per clock. Ask: which blocks change the most between clocks? Which part never changes?
  3. Follow the arrows (3 min): Ask: which blocks only receive power? Which block both receives and sends data?
  4. Design your own (4 min): Students invent a fourth clock (for example, a NeoPixel ring clock with WiFi) and list the part that fills each block.

Assessment

  • Students list the five blocks and the job of each.
  • Students explain why the Smartwatch time source can be more accurate than the 4-digit LED clock time source.
  • Students correctly fill all five blocks for a clock design they have not seen before.

References

  1. Block diagram (Wikipedia) - How engineers use boxes and arrows to plan a system.
  2. Real-time clock (Wikipedia) - Background on time-source chips like the DS3231.
  3. Network Time Protocol (Wikipedia) - How a WiFi clock gets the exact time from the internet.
  4. vis-network documentation - The library used to draw this diagram.