Sophie 🎲🏳️⚧️Why hasn't anybody made an epicycle clock yet? (yes there are clocks with epicyclic mechanisms, but I mean the display!)
For your consideration, one with just an hour and a minute epicycle, and also one with a seconds epicycle just for fun.
Honestly, I think this would be easier to read than a traditional clock.
What's that? Figuring out a mechanism so each hand spins at the end of the previous one? Eh, not my problem :p
I guess the only downside is the minutes in the middle of each hour will feel like they are going slower since the end of the hand isn't moving as fast?
honestly though who cares about those minutes? I want HD time at the start and end of the hour!
Okay, I have a working prototype (which spent way too long to make, why am I coding on an iPad???)
I have quickly realised that the hour markers are not in the wrong place because of a bug, I just misunderstood how the thing would work.
I’ll look into a fix tomorrow but for now (as you can see), it’s late. I need sleep.
Okay I couldn’t sleep so I just solved the issue. Rotation needs to be based on ‘parent’ epicycle rotations, which is not really a behaviour of epicycles usually but whatever, this makes a cool clock. I’ll fix it up with numbers tomorrow and share it.
I did it! I made an epicycle clock!
Check your loopy time here:
https://sophiehoulden.com/randomstuff/epitime/
If you enjoy things like this, consider supporting me on patreon!
I'm currently working on an epicycle art app, and a super in-depth jigsaw puzzle app!
https://www.patreon.com/SophieHoulden
quick evening update: 24 hour mode, and also a seconds cycle (it does not improve readability! :P)
Saw that my epicycle clock was getting noticed a bit again, so I finally took the time to make it use vector graphics - you can zoom in and it still looks good!
https://sophiehoulden.com/randomstuff/epitime/
Fun bonus: Animated time offsets, watch it go spinny!
Colin the Mathmo@Sophie Lovely work.
I was about to submit it to Hacker News, but I worry about "The Hug of Death".
Could your server cope with the load?
Do you mind it being submitted there?
Regardless, fabulous work.
@ColinTheMathmo eh it’s a pretty light page but if I do hit my host’s limit for the month it’s no big deal another month starts soon anyway :). Thanks for the consideration tho :)
@Sophie Cool ... thanks.
Submitting shortly ...
@Sophie Hah!
it was submitted 35 days ago and the dup-detector rejected my submission.
*sigh*
Never mind. Have you seen the "wobbly clock" by @christianp ??
@ColinTheMathmo haha, guess my webhost managed after all lol.
That clock is also really cool! I feel like I’ve seen it before but my memory can be a little unreliable. Thanks for sharing, it is adorable :)