One day, I was in a pub with my daughter, son in law and grandson, when I was fascinated by a clock on the wall. I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to have a clock with a funny shape, and the hands changed length as they rotated around the clock face.
Whilst I was working out how to do this mechanically, my daughter had the brilliant suggestion to use an LED strip and adjust the lights accordingly as the hand rotated around the clock face.
I ended up making one and I have to say it ended up being a bit steam punk, for mechanical reasons.
The key was a device to convey electrical signals and power to the hand as it was rotating, without getting in a tangle. The device needed is called a slip ring.
Wires ‘in’ connected to wires ‘out’ with bushes, enabling one side to rotate around the other side.
This is the LED clock I made. Just a single hand so far.