The Defusable Clock kit is NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE!
This may look like a dangerous device, but it’s really just an ordinary alarm clock — with a twist.
I thought it would be fun to build an alarm clock that looks just like the type of bomb that we always see in Hollywood movies. I certainly don’t know anything about how a real bomb might look, but in the movies they always have sticks of dynamite strapped together, a red digital readout, and a bunch of curly wires. Instead of just building an ordinary clock, I thought it should have a detonation sequence with a scary countdown just like in the movies. And why not make it “defusable” so I an try to stop the countdown by cutting the correct wire?
The Defusable Clock is a fully-functional alarm clock just like you’d expect (a normal beeping alarm, snooze alarm, etc.). But at any time you can press the big red button to start a scary countdown sequence exactly like bombs in Hollywood movies. There are 4 wires across the top of the clock. You have 10 seconds to choose the correct wire to cut: one wire stops the countdown and saves the day, two have no effect, and one will “detonate” the device immediately. These role of each wire is randomly assigned when the detonate button is pressed, so it’s a new challenge every time. Also, the wires are attached with screw terminals, so you can replace them easily. If you don’t want to actually cut the wires, you can just pull them out of the screw terminals if you keep the screws a little loose.
The microcontroller is an ATmega328 with the Arduino bootloader, so this clock is programmable with the Arduino IDE. The ATmega328 is certainly more powerful than needed for a clock, but this device has lots of inputs/outputs, and ATmega328 chips are now about the same price as the older ATmega168. It keeps very accurate time and requires a simple 9V “wall wart” power adapter. A special alarm mode lets you even use the countdown sequence as the alarm and require it to be defused when you wake up in the morning. What a stressful way to start the day!
We are going to offer this as an electronics kit later this fall. Only the electronics will be in the kit — nothing that looks like dangerous explosives! With some imagination, I’m sure you can make a great looking Defusable Clock for yourself, but don’t go scaring anyone with it, and don’t bring it anywhere near an airport, ok? The product page will have plenty of warnings not to use this kit for any evil purposes or get into trouble with your school, employer, or local law enforcement! There will also be a picture gallery where you can submit a picture of your clock after you build it.
UPDATE: the Defusable Clock kit is NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE!
I’m sure some of you will have some ideas and comments, so please leave them below. Keep in mind that this is no more dangerous than any other alarm clock, and yes, we have already spoken to a lawyer about all of this.
Here’s one more version I made using clay for plastic explosives:
Clay used to simulate C4
Would you release the schematics/code of the clock after a certain amount of time had passed? Just wondering.
Also, how many inputs/outputs are used so that if I get this I can hack away at the code to add on more units? I have many, many ideas on how to make this even more fun in the morning.
One would be change one of the wires to speed up the countdown–another cliché that the movies like to put in there. But no more free ideas from me. :P
Yes, the hardware and software will all be completely open source. Nearly all the I/O pins are in use, but you could repurpose the LED outputs if needed. This is designed to be hackable (as long as you don’t get yourself into trouble!)
It is as if you read my mind on what I needed. I am planning a 9yr old’s spy birthday party where the 4 teams,have to find the 4 bombs and diffuse them to save the day(and the eat the cupcakes inside) Very cool gadget you created.
I love the idea, however, I have a few suggestions.
From what I could gather in the video the wires have to be cut in the correct sequence or the correct wire has to be cut first ?
Would it be possible to make the counter stop when the wrong wire is cut and then make it run even faster ?
How about a battery backup in case of a power outage so you don’t oversleep ?
PS; This will surely create some (many) fake bomb alerts or may be misappropriated by some weidors for real bombs.
No, it has nothing to do with sequence. Read the text in the article; one wire defuses the bomb, one detonates immediately, two have no effect.
Yes, you can hack this to behave however you want.
No battery backup or realtime clock. Adds too much expense.
I disagree that there will be any real bomb scares caused by my customers. Most people smart enough to solder together this kit are smart enough not to do something stupid.
Love it. I’d like to have seen a couple more pins broken out, but it’s fine.
TXcrude – Using the Arduino code, I’m sure you could set it up to be however you like.
Battery backup – not easily. Really, you’d want to see a real time clock chip on there, and I just don’t see it, unless it’s one of those to-92’s toward the top. Doesnt’ seem like it, though.
Good enough for setting the clock and the alarm at night and waking up within a minute of when you expect to, but it will lose time faster than a proper clock.
WHO CARES though. Love this project. love it!
There’s no realtime clock. I considered it, but too expensive to add. The code writes the current time to EEPROM, so if your power blinks, there’s no real interruption. Also, this is VERY accurate. It drifts by about 1/10 second per day.
“I disagree that there will be any real bomb scares caused by my customers. Most people smart enough to solder together this kit are smart enough not to do something stupid.”
Challenge accepted.
@Sleazy D,
OK, that was funny.
I see that you actually are intended to cut the wires every time, right? is there a way to make these unplug or something so we don’t have to replace the wires every time I want to set the alarm?
Sure, you can leave the screw terminals a bit loose so you can pull the wires out instead of cutting…
You could just pull the detonating cap(s) or cut the wires to them
You should add some smoke in case you did not succeed ;-)
I’m concerned that the alarm wont be loud enough to wake me up. As seen from the video the “explosion” alarm was very soft, much softer than the countdown timer.
Have you used this to wake up to before? And is there anyway we could get the alarm to become much louder?
I only say this because I’ll get roasted if I show up late for work. But this is such a brilliant idea it would be hard to not use this in the morning.
The alarm is plenty loud — similar or louder than an ordinary alarm clock. The sound on the video was not very good.
Also, as a non technical person. I’m wondering if there could be a smaller panel to use. While not tech savvy I’m pretty good at making props. I’m thinking a Bob-omb (from Mario games) pumpkin bomb (from the Spider-Man comics) or possibly a Thermal Detonator (Star Wars) a plasma grenade (Halo series) or possibly a Predator wrist gauntlet from the movie to laugh while a countdown happens.
Yes most of these don’t really have a countdown.
Can the countdown be set so that at a certain time during the morning it goes off?
Yes, the alarm has two modes. “normal” for a normal alarm clock beeping, and “countdown” so that the bomb countdown sequence starts when you are supposed to get up. Countdown mode isn’t really practical. That’s why I have the big red button you can press to start the countdown sequence whenever you want. Fun at parties?
“I’m wondering if there could be a smaller panel to use.”
@Phill, I made the board as small as possible for the required through-hole components. It could be smaller with SMD components, but I’m going to sell this as a DIY kit that the customer solders together.
Can you make the countdown last longer? Rather than 10 seconds, maybe 30 seconds so you have 20 to wake up and 10 to grab your snippers?
Joey, sure it’s totally hackable. You can program it yourself. It comes preprogrammed, but you can modify the code with the Arduino IDE and a programming cable.
Yea but how much are those separately? And for someone who has no clue what their doing when it comes to programming circuit boards, how easy on a scale of 1-10 would it be?
A serial cable for use with this type of programming is around $20. I sell them for that (http://nootropicdesign.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=7). If you are willing to learn a little bit of programming, you would not have much trouble changing it from 10 seconds to 30 seconds. Based on your feedback, maybe I’ll make the countdown 30s for the alarm mode.
You could pre-sell it via
kickstarter.com
I did consider Kickstarter. The benefit of Kickstarter is that I would know how many parts to buy. I don’t have a capital problem, so I will buy enough parts for several hundred kits and go from there.
I love that Idea!!! I would buy it :) But how to import that to Germany? :D :D
@Liz, I ship worldwide! http://nootropicdesign.com/store/index.php?main_page=shippinginfo
Remember, everyone — I’m only going to sell the electronics as a kit. It’s just a bag of components. I would *never* ship anything that looks like the finished project, and I won’t even ship the electronics assembled.
Mind-blowing work =) Is it possible to access the I²C-interface or is there any unused pin you could use to hook up a RTC or a DCF77 later, in case you own one already/buy one oneself?
@Sebastian, sorry there are no more pins available. This clock is very accurate though, and I felt that an RTC was overkill.
Yeah, it’s more like I don’t want the clock to run all the time and hence I’d prefer to be able to shut it off from time to time without having to re-enter the time when I turn it back on again, that’s all :-)
Well, I’ll probably wait for the scematics and look how I can hack it in ;-)
Do you think it’s possible to run it of a small 9 V (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9-volt_battery) box battery?
No, a 9V battery would last about 5 minutes. LEDs require a lot of current.
when will this be out for sale? :P
The electronics kit will be available in mid to late October. You can sign up for notification on the mailing list link above…
Hello very nice plate simulating a bomb
Could you tell me where I can buy this card, I wanted to give a ride more exciting matches of our air soft
Looking forward
thanks
@Marcel, see comment 34, available in October.
Do you think a bank of 123 batteries would be able to power it for a length of time? Maybe using aluminum tubing filled with 123 batteries?
yes, if you use enough batteries that are appropriate for the current draw, you could run this for a while. I think the device draws about 150mA.
Would be fantastic for airsoft, set the timer up on 10 minutes as an objective :)
Great. This would really be a great addition to my room and a conversational piece. I’m a police officer attached to our county SWAT so you can imagine the conversations that go on when were all together. Any idea when the kit will be for sale? I already signed up for the email notification.
@Kevin, this will be available in mid to late October. Glad to hear someone in law enforcement is actually interested in this (and not telling me it’s a bad idea / illegal to sell a clock)!
It is only a clock but just like anythig else if used in the wrong way and be deadly and illegal. ie airsoft guns, very realistic and if used in the wrong setting can be a bad ending. Looking forward to your email notification.
Will there be an option to buy the kit pre-assembled? I can’t do anything like this as I have no skills in this area though I would love the super cool clock in my room. Nothing like having a clay “C4” clock in my room to scare the crud out of my friends and roommates.
No, this will be a kit only. You can certainly learn to solder — it’s not hard. You have to start somewhere! This kit will be easy to assemble.
Gimme gimme
Is this kit already assembled because i suck at soldering?
No, this will not be assembled — I am not going to ship anything that looks dangerous. You will be able to solder it. There are lots of solder joints but ALL EASY. It will take time, but I encourage people to learn soldering. You’ll be glad you did!
Nice job. I am looking forward to buy this kit.
I am from Quebec, Canada
Will you be paying for my mental health therapy bill after I get a body cavity search at the airport? Oh and FYI in Canada it doesn’t have to be the real deal to find yourself arrested and charged…..!
Does it work on finland? AC is 230V
@arttu
Yes, with a 9V DC adapter. I will also be selling 9V adapters that work in both North America (110VAC) and Europe (240VAC).
Oh! I Have GOT to have one of these kits to put together….ahem…for research of course…. related to my job as a deminer. Please hurry and release purchase details. This will make a great Christmas present for my guys.
Purchase price will be about $33 USD, available Oct 25th.
Back in the early 80’s a military mnagazine was selling a similar clock but they used PVC pipe
with real Dynomite paper covering the pipe. The clock was a simple analog clock run off of a
single AA battery.We raffled off several clocks as a fund raiser at my firemen’s club. I never thought I would see another clock like that given the times we currently live in.
I was wondering, what happens if some one pulls all 4 wires at once?
Well, it would either be defused, or it would detonate, depending on which wire was checked by the code first.
How hard is this to put together? Will I need any tech know how?
kayla, you need to solder. Have a look at the assembly instructions.
love the clock! running into a bit of a prob though…it’s burning through 9v like crazy. set it up with a battery instead…but they last maybe 3 hours before dying. what’d i do wrong?
If you are using a 9V battery, I would not expect it to run for more than a few hours. That’s normal. This clock has LEDs, which draw a lot of current. A 9V battery is not suited for a device like this — it’s intended to be used with an AC adapter. If you use six D-cell batteries it would last quite a while, but really batteries are not the intended power source.
Here’s the deal… My son plays Air Soft. (kind of like paintball but cooler)
He leads a pro league and has sponsors, teaches strategy, runs statewide events, etc.
He is looking for a mock bomb to use in games.
The theory behind this is that one team has to infiltrate and plant the bomb,
then set the bomb at a pre-determined time of countdown to detonation.
They withdraw and the opposition has to locate the bomb and shut it down before it goes off.
Hence the alarm at detonation but we also need the alarm if it is diffused,
so they know to stop the game.
Is there a source where I could get this programmed for the alarm to sound for 10 seconds
if it runs to zero or if it is stopped before hitting zero?
Not sure what the alarm sounds like or how long it sounds currently.
I would also be running it with a battery and a relay trigger added to this could run a louder alarm device powered by the same battery.
Any help would be appreciated.
Jerry, simple software mods can be done by me before shipping if the requirements are well-specified. I have contacted you by email.