Beneath The Mask Of A Cheap IKEA Clock 

one of the great "benefits" of brexit... having to go through TWO regulatory bodies to get your product shipped to europe

Ironically, UKCA marking currently serves no purpose as the UK will accept CE marking till at least the end of 2024 (and probably a lot longer unless it wants to cut itself off from vital but small production run equipment such as medical and industrial machinery). It's just another symbol of brexit waste and red tape.

And currently UKCA and CE conformity rules are essentially identical because... the UK still wants to export stuff to the EU.

Taking Back Control = Identical Standards That Cost Us More

@@ethzero Yes, but that was to be expected. Despite all the posturing, deviation from EU standards is not viable. Mind you, there is a precedent. Some ANSI standards are just carbon copies of ISO standards with a different heading.

Americans call the rest of the world outside North America “European”. But yes in this case it is worldwide, that includes US.

Yes, for a lot of things YYYYMMDDHHMMSS makes a lot of sense because the text sorting order is the same as the order in time. Even doing the AM or PM on the right end comes out correct.

When I began to use spreadsheets, I always use this format. It ease date sorting, selecting time format with left zeros to allow better legibility and proper row alignment, even in file names.

It is also used in Sweden. They use YYYY-MM-YY but if there is no year then it is DD/MM.

​@@kensmith5694 after ages of doing dd-MMM-yyyy I realized that yyyy-mm-dd sorts nicely...upon discovery I as a team lead issued new guidance for all meeting notes filename to be in that format (although the actual word doc headers are still spelling out day, month-name, year

To me the dots are harder to read.

I would like the dots, if the dots are larger, these are too thin.

They should’ve made a version with light diffusers

Nice that this one's big enough to hold a legible cheat sheet on the back.

And dim. Maybe this is for the shop or office.

I love my blue clock and bedside flame effect light.

Also, the original red LED type runs at 1.6V instead of the 3V needed by blue LEDs with color converting phosphor .

Mine is green. I prefer it over red. Definitely not blue, though.

Mine is orange, so it's in between red and green!

Not lead but something else would be a good idea. Just a chunk of iron would be fine.

Eine Hand voll rostige Schauben und Muttern und ein paar Tropfen Superkleber hätte einen ähnlichen Effekt 😅

If you're going to put it on a table/desk/etc definitely. It also has mounting brackets on the back, though. To hang it on the wall I'd want it to be light as possible.

"Universal" serial bus with a million different connectors how ironic.

@@LanceHall just micro usb (for most cheaper shit) and usb c (for everything else), what million connectors??

Yes, to reduce e-waste. You can buy a usb charger and cable separately in ikea if you need one

You still need to buy an adapter and the EU doesn't prevent that being included. I would have at least expected a cable to be included. The EU never standardised on micro-USB, only recommended it and that was over a decade ago. USB-C regulation attempts to prevent waste from proprietary plugs and sockets on chargers, but this product seems to breach even that future law, which might be why the stock is being quickly flogged off in the US.

​@@oldblueshirtguy Not sure if this is really affected by the new EU USB C regulation. It isn't rechargeable so it doesn't need any charger. And the rules differs between rechargeable devices where one power adapter can be used for many different items, and devices that needs permanent power.

Right on brother. And I can see from your symbol that you are well grounded too. Good stuff.

I wouldn't be shocked to find out that somewhere else in the store is a basket of generic power adapters. I do know that from working for a product company, providing power supplies with electronics off shore requires a lot of special versions.

YES. Hopefully a fan will send her one.

​@@penfold7800 aww heck, I have a whole jar of generic spudgers in a jar at work. I could drop one in the mail tomorrow.

Every workshop needs a spider 😂

Wouldn't an amber LED hit the right color more accurately.

More like reduce cost.

Yep, that really stood out (it's inverted and to the side) long before the box was opened. And the reason is rather simple too: People have been buying and losing phones with included cords for decades. IKEA don't want to add to the pile of orphaned chargers, but provide an opportunity to use one productively. They also offer a large variety of them, e.g. Koppla, Småhagel, Åskstorm, Lörby and Nordmärke. I have a 5-port charger near my bed to charge phone, watch, tablets (eink and leia), game console, and yes, power a clock. And of course the power cord is region specific, while the clock isn't.

Not reading labels and complaining about obviously NOT missing parts. Who has not a drawer with unused phone chargers at home? I like Ikeas approach to not piling up electronic waste. And, if you read the box IN the store and do not have a power supply and a cable, you can get one.

I really love it, I just have soooo many adaptors and cords that I never use, it's a waste.

brianellis9990, I prefer the sound that Techmoan overlays in his videos when he is peeling of protective film.

Excellent reference 😂

...and most likely forever, since deviating from EU standards makes absolutely zero business sense.

i2c would be interesting, even jtag is interesting if it's easy enough to read

What hacking stuff would be worth investigating on a clock? It either displays the time, or it doesn't display the time.

​@@volvo09 maybe add functions like homeassistant intergrations idk, people have the weirdest things

@@volvo09 Hook i2c to an ESP32 and for $5 you have an NTP atomically accurate alarm clock. 🙂

​@@volvo09 You can do quite a lot with some tinkering. - get automatic time synchronisation - automatic daylight savings - ability to show seconds instead of day-of-week - add a count-down timer - add stop-watch - more steps for the intensity - add a light sensor and have it automatically adjust the display intensity - different alarm times depending on day-of-week - multiple alarms same day - configure over WiFi or Bluetooth from phone - add shake snooze - add shout snooze - ... "It's just a watch" doesn't change the fact that the sky's the limit.

would also be fun to hang the raw PCB with the LEDs as a clock that you can only read if "you know"

🤣 The one I got from Amazon only has the 24hr mode. Glad I like it.

They would get so many returns if they sold it in the UK without a 24hr display. I remember back in the early 80s when companies tried that.

Who hasn't set a clock while too tired to remember the stupid little dot? Even pass-out sleepy I can distinguish 5 from 17, but not 5:20 from .5:20 or 5:20.

Enough to know it makes no difference whatsoever.

And if you don’t happen to have one, they’re sold very cheaply at IKEA.

Do they? I always find I have more phones than chargers. Yes I can easily "borrow" one from another device, but a clock needs constant power.

@@oldblueshirtguy So then you’ll need to buy one. Why supply a charger to every single person when not every single person needs one. That doesn’t make much sense.

I noticed during the teardown no presence of a backup battery or a supercapacitor, this means that in the event of a loss of power supply the time is lost and if an alarm is set it will most likely never go off. I have a Sony radio clock and it has a small button cell battery to keep the clock running even in the event of a power loss.

@@CT-vm4gf I think if I buy a clock I expect to be able to plug it in. It's the same reason batteries and plugs are usually included with products these days. If I didn't need the whole clock I could buy a kit.

Also most homes have dozens of chargers floating around. Or 5V options built into other stuff.

Cut out the MCU and add a $5 ESP32. That 'll give you NTP time via wifi.

Yeah, the front segment is the most customizable. You could make it look like an older LED 7 segment display. When I was a kid my alarm clock had the yellow green display.

I believe you meant *Perspex*❤😮😊

@@wilneal8015 Indeed! :D

Smash a printer?🤔😅✌️

I didn't see her SMASH💥💪 Anything... What Video did YOU Watch?? 😮🤡🎱🤬👁️😾

That is not true.

Well, you could get the time via NTP, power-cycle the clock by a small mosfet and then "twiddle the knobs" with the ESP to set the clock.

@@tomteiter7192 I think one would need to build a driver to drive those specific LEDs, which appear to be a segment (via the diffuser), per LED.

@@MicheIIePucca No, the idea is to let the ESP act like a human would press the buttons. Like a remote control. And leave the clock circuit itself unmodified. For example: Set the time to, say, Wednesday 14:02 - power cycle - press SET for 2.5 seconds (one might even check if some segment in the hours display is now blinking) - press "-" to set 24h - press SET - press "+" fourteen times - press set - press "+" two times - press SET - press "+" two times to set WED - done. When the clock's control chip reacts fast enough this could be done almost invisibly.

Bondtolvan is the name of both a card game and a skip rope game, it seems.

In the card game, the one that first get 12 points win. That would explain "tolvan" (the twelve). I don't know if it's something similar in the skip rope game. What the meaning of the farmer (bond(e)) part is, I don't know and haven't been able to find out.

...and add some weight to it in the process. It is too light and gets too easily knocked about.

According to Wikipedia apparently Bondtolva is one name for a card game played with 24 cards... I had no idea that was a thing: ' Bondtolva, även kallat tolva, mariage, marjas eller matador, är ett kortspel som sannolikt är av tyskt ursprung, men ändå räknas till de klassiska svenska kortspelen. Spelet har åtskilliga nära släktingar i andra länder. Bondtolva spelas med en vanlig kortlek som har reducerats till 24 kort (utan tvåor till åttor)[1][2][3] eller 36 kort (utan tvåor till femmor)[4]. Rangordningen är ess-tio-kung-dam-knekt-nio-(åtta-sju-sex). Bondtolva är i första hand ett spel för två deltagare, men kan även spelas av tre, fyra eller sex personer. Spelet går ut på att få poäng, vilket man får för vinsten (flest värdekort i de hemtagna sticken, värt 1 poäng), för vunnet sista stick (1 poäng) samt för trumf och tjog (2 respektive 1 poäng). Poängen för flest värdekort går i första hand till den som tagit flest matadorer (ess och tior). Trumf, liksom tjog, är en kombination av kung och dam i samma färg på handen. Första gången en spelare anmäler ett sådant par räknas det som trumf, och andra gången och följande gånger som tjog. Trumfparet bestämmer också trumffärgen. Det förekommer flera andra regionala namn för tjog, till exempel viv, mäl och snes.[3][4] Vid spel på två med 24 kort får spelarna sex kort var, medan resten av korten bildar en talong från vilken man kompletterar sin hand efter varje spelat stick. Så länge det finns kort kvar i talongen behöver man inte följa färg. När talongen är slut måste man följa färg och om möjligt lägga ett högre kort eller ett kort i trumffärgen. Spelet fortgår vanligtvis tills en av spelarna nått 12 poäng. '

The hourly chime option? 🙂

Exactly. New Toaster (cord sold separately)

@@FranLab Remember when they used to give away a toaster if you open a new bank account with deposit? Imagine getting a free toaster, but then you have to go to the store and buy a power cable for it. Of course, I really have to wonder who actually wanted a Wanamakers bargain basement toaster, free or otherwise, anyhow.

The problem is that there are different plugs. Apple provides USB-C to lightning cable withe their phones. I t would b useless to me. I would have to buy separately either USB-A to lightning or a power brick with USB-C. I thin most have Micro-USB cables that they can use.

@@okaro6595 🙄🙄🙄 It's a wall clock. It's JUST a wall clock. It's not an phone peripheral. The USB port is merely for power delivery. Nothing more. No Data. No Alexa integration. Its a clock. An actual clock. It's job is to tell time. Just to tell time. The plug would go into a USB-A (sometimes USB-C) port on the power adapter, or a powered USB hub, etc., and these things almost always have a USB-A port, and the rest have a USB-C port. None have Micro USB or Mini USB ports.

@@all4espi Exactly. Many adapters have a type A port, some have a type C port. And of course there _are_ plenty of adapters with Micro (and Mini) connectors on an integral cord.

I always use them up... I seem to be quite hard on them 😅 cables too. It's good the are all USB today... I also have a banana carton full of the older stuff.

I envy you. Somehow I never have enough USB chargers.

Also probably European laws about not bundling a USB adapter in everything?