instructables

3D Printed Earth Clock

by SimonRob

Few years ago, I invented and built a clock showing how the Earth is exposed to the sun in real time.

The Earth Clock: I was happy with the result, however I am now an engineering student and I wanted to put my
mechanical knowledge into practice, especially about 3D printing by designing a new version.

This is an unusual clock, it doesn't indicate time as a normal clock would, instead, it shows where your location is,
compared to the night. It's a little gadget to put on your desk.

In the following timelapse the the speed is incredibly high, but keep in mind that the Earth's rotation is so slow that the
model appears to be motionless!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/OcYerSifbg0?rel=0&showinfo=0

As the Earth is tilted by 23.4°, it turns on two di erent axes at di erent speed rates:

- a “vertical” axis doing one full rotation in 1 year, simulating the movement around the sun.
- a “tilted” axis doing 1 rotation every day.

Supplies:

3D les
1x Arduino Nano
1x 28BYJ48 5V stepper motor
1x ULN2003 driver board
2x 5mm push buttons Aliexpress
2x 10k Ohms resistors
1x old USB cable
wires
3x small screws
sandpaper, primer, paint
Soldering iron
3D printer

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Step 1: 3D PRINTING

Here you can purchase the les on Cults3D

It has been designed with Fusion 360.

Try to avoid the elephant's foot problem, it happens when the rst layer is squished against the build plate, it is annoying
when printing pieces intended to be put together, particularly when printing gears… so, despite the fact that the bottom
surface remains ugly, I used rafts to print the 6 [16]planetary_gear.

Elephant's foot can be reduced by lowering the build plate or its temperature, if it happens anyway, it can be xed by
scratching the surface with a blade.

Here is a table showing how I printed the pieces, no supports needed, nozzle = 0.4mm.

The piece [4]Night_globe has a sacri cial layer improving bed adhesion, it needs to be removed after printing.

Name Quantity Material layer height (mm)

[1]Internal_gear 1 Black PLA 0.2
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[2]Bottom 1 Black PLA 0.2
[3]Carrier 2 Black PLA 0.2
[4]Night_globe 1 Black PLA 0.12
[5]Night_globe_support 1 Black PLA 0.2
[6]Carrier_plate 1 Black PLA 0.2
[7]Cable_stopper 1 Black PLA 0.2
[8]Sun_gear 1 Black PLA 0.2
[9]Motor_axis 1 Black PLA 0.2
[10]Bevel_gear1 1 Black PLA 0.2
[11]Bevel_gear2 1 Black PLA 0.2
[12]Spacer 1 Black PLA 0.2
[13]Northern_hemisphere 1 Dark Grey PLA 0.12
[14]southern_hemisphere 1 Dark Grey PLA 0.12
[15]Hemispheres_link 1 Dark Grey PLA 0.2
[16]Planetary_gear 6 Copper PLA 0.2
[17]Year_carrier 1 Copper PLA 0.2
[18]Foot 2 Copper PLA 0.2
[19]Earth_axis 1 Copper PLA 0.2

Step 2: EARTH GLOBE

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Once printed, sand down the at surfaces of the two Put the piece [15] into the southern hemisphere [14]
hemispheres to avoid any gap at the equator. without turning it, align south Africa with north America
and rotate the northern hemisphere by 1/3rd of turn.
After that, continents should be aligned.

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 At this point, you can decide the color of your Earth:
green and blue, black and white… or “realist” like mine.

To achieve a realistic look, spray blue paint over the

entire globe, and paint the continents with acrylic paint
_ according to the colors on google earth.

Sand the globe with 120grit and 400grit sandpaper to

remove the elephant's foot around the equator and to
smooth out the surface, then spray 2 coats of primer and
nally sand with super ne sandpaper (I used 800).

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Step 3: ELECTRONICS

You can see here what you will need for the following Then, I soldered these wires to the other components
schematic (wires are ~5cm long). (buttons, ULN2003 board)

I started by soldering the two resistors and the wires on

the Arduino

Finally, I soldered the USB cable to the ULN2003, but

rst, don’t forget to pass the cable through the 3D
_ printed piece [2] !

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Step 4: ARDUINO

You need to install a library: CheapStepper by Tyler Henry

Here is the code:

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 // Code by SimonRob for the 3D Printed Earth Clock

int button2 = 0;
int button3 = 0;
int DELAY = 0;
#include <CheapStepper.h>

CheapStepper stepper(4, 5, 6, 7);

void setup() {
pinMode(2, INPUT);
pinMode(3, INPUT);
}

void loop() {

button2 = digitalRead(2);
button3 = digitalRead(3);
delay(1);
DELAY = DELAY + 1;

if (button2 == HIGH){
button2 = digitalRead(2);
button3 = digitalRead(3);
stepper.step(false);
delayMicroseconds(50);
}
if (button3 == HIGH){
button2 = digitalRead(2);
button3 = digitalRead(3);
stepper.step(true);
delayMicroseconds(50);
}
if((button2 == LOW)&&(button3 == LOW)&&(DELAY>=21082)){
button2 = digitalRead(2);
button3 = digitalRead(3);
stepper.step(false);
DELAY=0;
}
}

After uploading it, you can already see if your circuit works, by pressing either buttons, the motor should spin one way or
the other. If you are not doing anything, LEDs of the driver board should change every 21s.

Step 5: ASSEMBLY

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First, the motor shaft must be shortened by 4mm. The assembly is detailed step by step in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/nLECxh-nlmc?rel=0&showinfo=0
_

TIP: at 3:15, when you place the [17]year_carrier above

the [1]Internal_gear, try to align the triangle of the
internal gear with the beginning of the current month, it
will be useful when setting the time.

Step 6: SET THE TIME

Now it should work !

To set the time, you need to start at the beginning of the current month and place your country in the night, then press
the button that turns the Earth counterclockwise and count the days until you reach the current day, then go to this
website and ne tune the position to match reality.

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Step 7: CALCULATIONS

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This step is here just if you are curious to know how I (It has an error of around 20h/year which I nd
designed it and where the values are coming from (you acceptable for a 3D printed model).
don't need to understand this step to successfully
make your own Earth Clock) The gear ratio isn’t perfect, so I coded the Arduino
according to the day’s rotation,
The real di culty of the design was to nd a gear
combination linking the day rotation and the year The speed rate of the motor must be calculated with the
rotation and to keep it compact. real gear ratio for the earth to achieve 360°/24h (solar
day),
Because the Earth’s axis is attached to the piece turning
at 1rev/year and by knowing the ways of motions of the Motor speed rate: X°/24h
Earth, I had to achieve a 367.25:1 ratio.
X = 360 / (1 - 2/368.087963) = 361.96674° (this formula
To keep the gearbox small enough, I divided this ratio results from the design itself)
into three identical planetary gear sets with an aimed
ratio of 7.1612:1 for each one. I found a gear Motor speed rate: 361.96674°/24h
combination giving 7.1666:1 which is:
360° => 4076 steps
Sun gear (Z1) =12
361.96674° => ?? steps
Planetary gears (Z2) =31
361.96674 * 4076 / 360 = 4098.26786 steps/24h
Internal Gear (Z3) =74
24h = 86 400 000ms
(Z1+Z3)/Z1 = (12+74)/12 = 7.1666…
86 400 000 / 4098.26786 = 21 082,077 ms/step
With 3 of them in a raw, the ratio is: ((12+74)/12) ^3 =
368.087963:1
Thank you for following my instructables! :D
In theory, 365.25 rotations of the Earth should induce
one full rotation of the year carrier, but using this gear
ratio, the year carrier will achieve 99.77% of this rotation

Well done and great write-up!

Thank you :D

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This is a really amazing design!

Thanks! :)

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