Spare Inputs on Clock?

idreamincode

I'm looking at purchasing a Evil Mad Scientist Clock and was wondering if there are spare inputs that could be used by external source triggering.

I'm not actually looking to use this as a clock, but more for a remote display. If it was not possible to have an extra input, would I just not solder in the function buttons to use as external wires in their place?

If that doesn't work, I'm thinking of using a 2nd Arduino to just feed serial data to the clock, but that seems redundant.

Thanks for the support.

Windell Oskay

Hi idreamincode, 

I suspect that you're asking about the Alpha Clock Five, not the Bulbdial.

There's no obligation whatsoever to use it as a clock.  You can feed serial data to the clock using a USB-TTL cable, or another Arduino, or use the available spare I/O pins any way that you like.  The current version of Alpha Clock Five has 9 (if i counted correctly) spare I/O pins that can be used as inputs, not counting the two pins that go to the second serial port.

I hope that this answers your question; if not, please let me know how I can help.

idreamincode

Yes! That is exactly what I'm looking for, the Alpha Clock Five. Sorry if I posted this in the wrong forum.

Looking forward to getting my hands on one of these. Very exciting.

idreamincode

I'm looking to use PC5, input #27 (according to the PDF file). When I code in this:

int a5ExternalInputPC5 = 27; // external inputs

setup{

  pinMode(a5ExternalInputPC5, INPUT);           // set pin to input

}

loop{

externalInPC5 = digitalRead(a5ExternalInputPC5);   // read the input pin

      if(externalInPC5 == 1){

        Serial.println("External PC5 Pressed");

      }

}

It is showing as constantly being pressed. I don't have anything connected to any of the PC5 or other extra ports.  Can you point me in the right direction?  Thanks.

idreamincode

I figured it out. Pin PC7 actually maps to input 23.

Pinmap is from this site:

http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/atmega644-arduino

Windell Oskay

Sorry-- didn't see your message until you had already found the answer.  The "canonical" guide is the Sanguino:  http://sanguino.cc/hardware