From the mailbox (with software updates)

New software for the Bubble clock from MikeM:

I have the bubble LED shield working with the DS1337 RTC & LiPo shield.  I have it alternating the display with the battery voltage every 2 seconds right now.  I don't have a voltmeter handy, so I haven't verified what is displayed with actual voltage.  It started fully charged at 4.2v and has now dropped to 4.1v.  It should start blinking at 3.45v, and go to sleep at 3.3v.
I started with your original bubble sketch from the blog posting, but then had to remap all the display pins from the schematic.  The current version of the SevenSeg library doesn't match your code, so I had to make some adjustments.
I also changed the SevenSeg library code to even out the brightness.  It looped through all the segments and turned on each appropriate digit, then delayed and turned everything off.
I changed it to loop through all the digits, turning on each appropriate segment.  Once all the appropriate segments are lit, it turns on the current digit, delays, then turns everything off, then moves to the next digit.  With the previous method some segments were bright and some dim, depending on what was displayed on the other digits.
I also changed the SevenSeg library to not blank leading digits.  It now displays 01.36 for 1:36 AM.  I left it as a 24-hour clock.  I can only display a decimal point, not a colon.

Thanks again Mike!

From ScottH, another version (HDSP.ino only; the rest of the files are unchanged) of the HDSP clock sketch adds scrolling of the time and date and improved setting. Thanks Scott!

From DaveC [on the HDSP clock]:

Here are the pictures.  Hope you find it interesting, unique at least.   There is a slide switch in the back with selections Solar charge, USB charge, USB run (the default mode of the kit), and battery run where you press that button on the front to turn on and display the time.   I used a solar/USB  charge board from Adafruit as I am no EE to figure out how to charge a battery from solar and USB with all of the correct regulated voltages etc.  The case is made from corian and in the top view those speckles are a kind of metallic flake in the corian, the center band is pure black. 

From EricL [on the HDSP clock]:

We got the package last week and my 13 yr-old grandson and I soldered it together and powered it up. Works perfectly!! Then I got your Arduino code for it and programmed it with a flashing ':' between hours and minutes and between minutes and seconds. Then I set the date in the RTC and changed the code again. Now it shows the date for 2 seconds every minute. Nice! Thanks for a great project!

From GregoryK [on the HDSP clock]:

Your kit is fantastic. Simple but well thought out. Thanks for bringing it to the market!
I would like to use it in one of my classes at Stanford as an "intro to soldering" and "intro to Arduino hacking" (they already will be familiar with the Uno) project.

From IvanS [on Wise Clock 4]:

Thank you Florin for the very thoughtful and entertaining  gift. Anything based on electronics is always interesting to me. We have been reading the famous quotes all day. It was a pleasure to meet you [...]