Strobe Light Hard Drive Clock Hack

This hard drive clock, called Strobeshnik, is one of the wildest hacks we’ve come across in recent memory. As you can see above, the modder has punched out the numbers 0-9 in the hard drive platter itself. Behind the hard drive platter is a series of diffused LED lights that are hooked up to a circuit board. As the hard drive spins around, the lights behind it strobe at precise timings so that they appear to light up just a single digit each- like a clock. See the picture below:

Think of it this way- if the hard drive with the numbers spins around at 1 second per rotation, each of the lights will strobe at 1 second intervals timed to go off exactly when the cutout of the number that’s supposed to be lit passes in front of the light. Of course hard drives spin waaaay faster than that which is what makes this clock so crazy- timing. A clock that relies on timing. Woah.

via hacked gadgets