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Carl edited this page Jun 8, 2017 · 2 revisions

Base3-clock - User manual

How to read the clock

Each line or column (depending on how you mount the clock) represents a part of the time :

line description values
1 hours 00-23
2 minutes 00-59
3 seconds 00-59

Each element of the line represents one base-3 digit, with a different color for each possible value :

  • 0 : light off
  • 1 : green
  • 2 : red

In a horizontal configuration, the numbers should be read from right to left.
The rightmost element is the least significant trit (yes trit, not bit).
The leftmost element is the most significant trit.

As for the hour on the first line, only three elements are needed, the top-left square is used as an indicator for the settings menu.

The Maths, a bit of theory...

The same way binary or decimal numeral systems are based on powers of their respective radices 2 and 10, the ternary system is based on powers of 3.

trit least significant ... most significant
power 0 1 2 3 4 ...
decimal 1 3 9 27 81 ...
range 0/1/2 0/3/6 0/9/18 0/27/54 0/81/162 ...

So to convert a ternary number to the decimal system, you have to start with the rightmost digit, multiply it with 3^0, multiply the next digit with 3^1, 3^2, and so on...

So for example (11021)ter = 1x3^0 + 2x3^1 + 0x3^2 + 1x3^3 + 1x3^4 = (111)dec

The ternary numbers for the clock will have maximum 4 digits (max 3 for the hours).

  • hours : (000)ter - (222)ter => (0)dec - (26)dec
  • mins/secs : (0000)ter - (2222)ter => (0)dec - (80)dec

Settings menu

...coming soon...

Set time

...coming soon...

Set alarm

...coming soon...

Set brightness

...coming soon...

Backup battery replacement

...coming soon...

System reset

...coming soon...

Contact

If you are having any additional questions, just drop me a line 📧.