I recently tried something new by entering Maker’s Supply’s limited kit challenge. My idea sounded simple: place one LED behind each number on the clock so that, as each hour arrives, the corresponding number lights up. My first idea was like the clock in the cover image.
I’ve designed more complex projects before, so this one seemed fairly straightforward. I’ve also done wiring projects like this in the past, but there was always a guide telling me exactly what to do: this plugs in here, that connects there, and these are the wires you need. This project was different. While some of that existed, I had to solve a lot of the wiring challenges on my own.
One of the biggest problems was mounting the transmitter coil on a secondary hour hand behind the clock face. That meant I needed a way to keep the wires from tangling as it rotated. My solution was to use a slip ring, but the connectors on the slip ring didn’t match the LED kit connectors. To make everything work together, I had to daisy-chain a long series of wires and adapters.
And did it work?
NO!
That turned out to be the best part.
It didn’t work the way I expected, which meant it needed a complete redesign. The transmitter coil didn’t behave the way I thought it would, the clock ended up being much larger than I wanted, and the slip ring wires were so thin that they heated up whenever I powered the LEDs.
That setback gave me the opportunity to step back, rethink the goal, and start fresh. Several people had suggested a different approach to the clock, but I kept pushing those ideas aside because I was focused on my original concept. Looking back, I almost missed out on a much better design.
What might have looked like failure was actually an opportunity to build something even better.
After a full day of redesigning, followed by two more days of printing, testing, iterating, and printing again, I finally arrived at the version I have now. It's a clock I'm genuinely proud of. This time, it was a success. It does exactly what I imagined over a month ago, even though the mechanism behind it is completely different. The overall design looks much better, has far fewer moving parts, is easier for others to print, and—if I can be a little biased as the designer—I think it looks really cool.
So, fellow creators, just because something doesn't work the way you intended doesn't mean you failed. If you give up on the design there, then maybe, yeah, you could call that a failure. But if you step back, learn from the problem, and keep going, you haven't failed.
You've succeeded!
If you'd like to print the model yourself, check it out using the link below.
https://makerworld.com/en/models/3000883
-CDBuilder
