Max Maxfield Looks at the Future of Electronics

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

Another project that is coming along nicely is my Vetinari Clock as seen in Figure 3. Are you familiar with the Discworld series of books by Terry Pratchett (RIP)? Lord Vetinari, the scary dictator of the city-state of Ankh-Morpork, has a strange clock in his waiting room. It does keep completely accurate time overall, but it sometimes ticks and tocks out of sync: "tick, tock, tick, tock… tick-tock-tick… tock…" In fact, it occasionally misses a tick or tock altogether. I decided to build my version of this beast using antique analog meters.

My graphics artist friend Denis, who is based in Hawaii, created the designs for the faceplates; master machinist John Strupat in Canada created the new faceplates out of aluminum and applied Denis's graphics using a proprietary printing process he's developed. The result looks like antique enamel. And my chum Jason Dueck from Instrument Meter Specialties in California refurbished the meters and added the new faceplates.

Once again, what we see above is the prototyping jig; it's just a piece of MDF I painted grey and then painted a black surround. Master carpenter Bob is working on the real cabinet, whose surround will be ebonized pear, while the front will be a fine-grained wood veneer with an interesting pattern and an aluminum-like finish. (Click here to see a video showing the vacuum tube on top of the clock being lit from underneath using tri-colored LEDs.)

Yet another project that's on the go is a Caveman Diorama I'm building in an antique television set. This has been on the back burner for a long time, because I didn’t know how to set about constructing the cave. However, I recently met a guy named Mike who is the mildest of men, yet who used to pilot Apache attack helicopters in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mike's hobby is creating monster model railroad dioramas. Mike wants to learn how to use an Arduino to control things like his streetlights, traffic lights, and houselights; I want to learn how to make the cave for my diorama. It's like we were made for each other.

The image in Figure 4 shows an early mock-up. The idea is that we are looking through the TV screen into a cave. The mountains will appear at the back of the TV cabinet. In front of the mountains we will have the tops of some 3D model trees, thereby giving the impression that our cave is located up the side of our own mountain. The hole is the entrance to the cave.

Figure 5 shows the current state of play as of last night. So our point of view will be looking through the TV screen into the heart of the cave. There will be a waterfall dropping into a pool on the left hand side of the cave. In the fullness of time there will be a bunch of cavemen sitting around a fire. I'm working to 1:32 scale, so a 6' tall man will be 2¼" tall. Sitting with the cavemen will be a figure in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt representing yours truly. In the corner of the cave will be an H.G. Wells-style time machine (based on the 1960 movie), thereby giving the narrative to my presence.

The really clever thing will be the mountains at the back of the TV. I'm actually going to render these in 3D on a flat-screen computer monitor. The idea is that the diorama will be tied to the real world via the Internet. Yes, my diorama will be one of the "things" on the Internet of Things. When it's daytime in the real world, it will be daytime in my diorama; when it's nighttime in the real world it will be nighttime in my diorama; when it's a nice day in the real world, all will be sunny in my diorama; and when it's storming in the real world...well, the folks in my diorama better look out.Page 3 of 4

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