Around the end of last year (November-ish), after having acquired a 3D Printer, I started tinkering with design ideas for… anything. I wanted to make something that looked like a “factory-made” product, and would be somehow unique. For some reason all my ideas were surrounding vintage looking electronics. And in between old radios, televisions, lamps and all… one item emerged: Flip Clocks. Of course I wouldn’t try to replicate the “flip” part of it, but the overall design was simple and opened space for playing around.

Around the same time, I was checking some of the new “new-old-mini-versions” of retro consoles (Things like the NES Classic). I really liked the idea of a miniature console, and with that on the back of my head, both ideas clicked.

Around that time I made the first draft of the design. I knew already that I would make it to work as a Raspberry pi enclosure, using a LED Matrix display (from Pimoroni) I had bought for some illogical reason in the past as the clock. It looked good enough to justify pursuing that.

The first design concept, done in 5 minutes in Fusion 360.

The Design

During the design process I wanted to keep what distinguishes a NES console visually intact. Luckily that wasn’t hard. Details as the small black pieces and the red writing, alongside with the white-ish + gray combo, made the design easily recognizable. The main change from the first draft was that now, the clock face was tilted 45 degrees. That helped breaking a little of the square/industrial look, without compromising the resemblance with the console.

Material Used

The ones with a Link are affiliated links. It’s not more expensive but might give me a percentage over the sell and pay me a cup of coffee 🙂 Feel free to get the items anywhere else 🙂

3D Printing

Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3484029

For printing the enclosure, I’ve gone with the following basic configuration:

Nozzle: 0.4mm

Layer Height: 0.12 for the case, 0.20mm for the display cover

Overall Speed: 30mm/s

Feel free to tune it to your taste/printer.

The recommended orientation for Top and Bottom parts of the enclosure is with the flat surfaces on the bed. You can turn OFF supports for the Top part, as it was designed to be friendly to 3D printers. The Bottom part might need some support around the ports cut-outs.

The display cover was printed flat on the bed.There are some design variants available:

One piece – COVERED LEDs . It is the one I used, it relies on the semi-transparent aspects of the PLA I used. It is NOT that transparent, but as the first layer is quite thin, it worked ‘ok’

. It is the one I used, it relies on the semi-transparent aspects of the PLA I used. It is NOT that transparent, but as the first layer is quite thin, it worked ‘ok’ One piece – UNCOVERED LEDs . This is something I will use when I find some sort of black film to put in front of it. It is designed to improve the brightness of the display and give it more definition overall

. This is something I will use when I find some sort of black film to put in front of it. It is designed to improve the brightness of the display and give it more definition overall LED COVERS – If you want to go really fancy, and use two materials when printing (example: Transparent black or white) to cover the LEDs. You will have to print the LED covers first, and swap the filament before starting the Uncovered LED cover on top of the LED covers. It requires some tinkering with the slicer software, and best results are given when using around 130% extrusion for the first layer, as it makes everything bond together nicely. Other pain point is aligning the models in the slicer, but save the GCODE of each separately.

Setting Up the Clock

I will not go through the process of setting up your Raspberry Pi distribution as there are plenty of better tutorials on that. You can go with any – in my case I’ve installed Jessie Lite + Retropie.

After you have all set, take your time and install the Scroll PHAT HD library using the one-line installer on your command line:

$ curl -sS https://get.pimoroni.com/scrollphathd | bash

You can check other install options and tutorials here

Connect the display on the Raspberry Pi and run some of their examples if you wish. They are quite nice.

The “official” clock for this project is a modified version of one of their examples. This version has bigger digits, making a better use of the display – although it does not support other characters yet, in case you want to tinker with it.

Go ahead and clone the repo into your Raspberry Pi home folder:

$ cd $ git clone https://github.com/victorheid/nesclock-display-scrollphathd.git

Give it a try running:

$ cd nesclock-display-scrollphathd $ python clock.py

Ctrl + C will stop the script.

To automatically execute this on boot, as a headless service, go ahead and edit the /etc/rc.local file.

$ sudo nano /etc/rc.local

Just before the ‘exit 0’ line, add the following

python /home/pi/nesclock-display-scrollphathd/clock.py &

The ‘&’ will run the script detached form the console, allowing the clock to run alongside the OS. Exit with Ctrl + X and save the file. Test it by rebooting the RPI.

$ sudo reboot

Your display should turn on after a couple of seconds 🙂

It’s alive!

Finishing

For better painting techniques, you can actually use this video. He uses a gloss finish paint, but the process is the same.

Use the coarse sandpaper first with water to help the process, removing some imperfections from the print. Because PLA is not as easy to sand as other materials, I wasn’t too bothered with the print lines that were still showing after the first round of sanding. When you are happy enough with the result, leave the pieces to dry and proceeded using Polyfilla to smooth out outstanding printing lines. Polyfilla is NOT the best material to use. It gets the job done, but I’d definitely go for a Spray Filler for the next time. But either way, if you chose Spray Filler or Polyfilla, next step is letting it dry, and then sanding it out, using the medium (400) Sandpaper to first remove some of the big imperfections and then move on to the higher grit you have, being gentle enough to just remove the filler where it needs to be removed. In my case I did NOT use water, as Polyfilla didn’t play too well in water. But if you go with another filler, you might be able to use water. At the end of this process you should be able to remove most of the print lines. Try using a flat surface at this stage, laying your sandpaper on your workbench. This will help achieve an even surface and distribute pressure. Make sure to change the way you hold the piece as well, for the same reason.

Use something thin (I’ve used needle files) to clean up the details, as the Pollyfilla WILL get in any small crack (again, try to use Spray Filler if you have available, it will save a lot of time!)

After all the sanding, be sure to wash/wipe any dust that remains in your pieces. It is really important that the pieces don’t have dust on, so the spray paint stick to the surface.

Here the process is simple. I’ve decided to pre-coat mine with a Primer, to improve the adherence of the paint. I’ve done two light coats of Primer, waiting 5 minutes to dry between each coat. After another 5 minutes, I painted with the final color for each piece (Roof for the bottom, Marble for the Top).

For the black details, I’ve used a small tube of acrylic paint and a brush. Covering the area around it with tape and carefully painting it black. You can use a spray paint if you want, but because of the size of the details, it seemed like an overkill.

With all that done, leave it to dry for a day at least, as the decal process needs the paint to be completely dry.

Decal

The red writing on the frame of the clock was my biggest fear. As I considered it to be a crucial part of the design, I didn’t want to mess it up. At first I thought I would have to use a marker or something that relied purely on my handwriting skills, which would surely, ruin everything.

Thankfully enough, I came across a technique that is easy and accessible. All you have to do is print the image you want to transfer using a laser printer (apparently they are water resistant). Make sure to print it inverted. Now, cut the piece you want to transfer as exact as you can, just around it, like a small rectangle.

Now, use Mod Podge on the printed site, use enough to cover everything, but not too much so it doesn’t make a mess. Using tweezers or steady hands, align the paper piece where you want it to be transferred, making sure it is straight enough (That’s where having it cut as exact as you can will help, as it is hard to see through the paper). After you have it aligned, press the paper down against the surface, making sure no air bubbles are left.

Apply some pressure with a credit card or something flat, to avoid air bubbles

Wait for 24 hours. Seriously, wait. After 24 hours, you can start the slow process of removing the paper. Grab a glass of water and with your finger, drop some water drops on the paper. Once it is wet, start rubbing it off GENTLY. You will have to be extra gentle here otherwise you might end up removing too much. You will be able to fill the small pieces of paper rolling off as you pass your finger over the ‘sticker’ over and over. Once most of it is clean, let it to dry.

You will notice that once it is dry, a milky layer appear. That’s because there’s some paper left still. Repeat the same process again, always leaving it to dry before repeating it. It took me 3 passes to remove all the paper. It is easy, but requires patience. If you over do it, you might notice pieces of the lettering coming off. If you do, start avoiding those areas and be extra gentle.

After everything is done, varnishing is optional, but recommended. It will improve the overall look of the piece, protected the paint and it gives a better contrast on the decal area. I’ve also varnished the front of the display cover, it helped darken the color a bit.

Assembling

Assembling is quite easy, it takes 6 M2 screws (3mm length) to hold the Scroll PHAT HD display to the cover and the RPI to the enclosure.

For connecting the Scroll PHAT HD display to the Raspberry PI, you can use a set of jumpers, soldered to a female header connector. The jumpers go to the display and the connector to the RPI. 4 wires are needed in total, the diagram below (taken from the Pimoroni Documentation) shows the Raspberry Pi pins needed (P9 Ground Inclusive). The connectors needed on the display are the same, but remember that if you are looking from the back, they will be mirrored.

I found easier to slide the display into the enclosure first, and connect the wires last, as it can be quite a snug fit. The enclosure has a support where the PCB will slide in, keeping the display nice and close to the frame, as shown below

If the display “face” is too hard to slide into the “rails”, try a bit of sanding on the edges (don’t sand where is going to be visible). This may vary from printer to printer.

At this point, is nice to test the electronics and see if everything is connected properly. If nothing is wrong, proceed by closing the top piece. The snap fit is not too tight and should allow you to open it (be careful, it still a 3D Print!).





BONUS – I used some silicon pads/feet (have no idea how they are called!) I have lying around as small to give it an extra finishing touch – completely optional

Finished

It took a month for me, from designing to final product. I’m really satisfied with the project, although there’s a couple of things I’d do different if I would make it again. If you have any doubt about a part of the project or a tip for a process, let me know in the comment section.