can you tell time in binary i sure can't but maybe this clock will help me learn
as you probably know if you're watching this computers count in binary numbers but humans
not so much most cultures around the world count in a base 10 numbering system more commonly known
as decimal because normally humans have 10 fingers so that makes it easy for us to count
and while decimal numbers are based on powers of ten binary numbers are based on powers of two
hence the name of this clock i don't know why they were able to get a registered trademark on that
but it's the powers of two bcd clock and bcd stands for binary coded decimal
because normally this does not display pure binary numbers it displays a binary
representation of decimal numbers making it a little bit easier for humans to decipher
its display it has crystal blue leds and it was made by a company called anelace
tell time in a high-tech style it's not just a light show it's a clock
it's fun to watch the constantly changing patterns in this light display but the best thing about
this compact unit is that it's actually a clock it uses binary code the language of computers to show
the time after a few minutes practice you'll be able to read the time by adding the values of the
lit leds in each column well we'll see if only it takes us a couple minutes to figure this thing out
this can actually be set to direct binary mode in addition to binary coded decimal
and it has a dim button to change the brightness of the leds which is good
because these blue leds are notorious for being blindingly bright and if this is a clock you
want to have it on all the time and you don't want it lighting up your whole room at night
12 or 24 hour mode automatically senses 50 or 60 hertz and 90 day warranty includes the clock
ac power adapter and instructions and there is their website and the part number
and there's their brief description of how to read it but we'll go over that more later
as maybe you could tell by the slightly ragged state of that box i did not get this brand new
i actually found this at the thrift store it's one of the more unique items i've ever seen
at a thrift store but it did include all the original contents the clock the power
adapter and the instruction pamphlet and you can still buy this new today it cost about 30
dollars with free shipping and the anelace company has multiple different models of binary clocks
the included power supply puts out 9 volts ac and it has to be ac rather than dc because
the clock uses the ac line frequency as a timing reference on the back there are
buttons to set the hours and minutes and if you push both of them simultaneously it resets the
seconds to zero and down here near where the power plugs in is a button to dim the display
you get three levels of brightness
when you first plug it in you get an animated display which serves as your
reminder to set the clock because this does not have a battery backup and i'm
going to turn this down to the minimum brightness which is still pretty bright
it still kind of dazzles the camera but not nearly as bad as full brightness
and you read it from left to right just like a normal clock you get two digits for the hours
two digits for the minutes and two digits for the seconds so right now this column is not showing
anything so that's a zero this one is showing the first led you read it from bottom to top and
this is one two four and eight in binary so that's showing a one for the hour so we're one o'clock in
something this column is also not showing anything so that's another zero so it's one o something
and here is another one so it's 1:01 and we're not going to worry about the seconds right now
so if i set the minutes right now it's 1:01.
that's 1:02. because this is one two four and eight that's three because you add one and two so
one two four and eight you add one and two you get three
there's four five is four and one so you gotta do this math in your head it just incremented to
let's see that's two and four that's six so that's one two and four that's seven and that's eight
and that's nine eight and one is nine and that's ten we get a one in this column and a zero here
there's two ways to think of reading this clock one is doing the math in your head and other way
is simply pattern recognition there's only a limited number of patterns for 0 through 10
and you could pretty easily memorize all 10 of those patterns i mean one of them is just
nothing lit that's obviously zero so you really only have nine patterns to memorize
so if you can memorize those nine patterns you can learn to read this pretty easily even if
you don't understand binary numbers and even if you're not actually doing the math in your head
it's just like how i know the japanese word for stereo
even though i have no clue what the characters mean or how to pronounce it
because it appears on the display of this japanese market panasonic radio whenever i
tune in an fm or am stereo broadcast that symbol right there is japanese for stereo
i should mention that unlike flip clocks and nixie tube clocks there is no historical
product that this is trying to recreate or be an homage to there was never a point in history
where somebody said you know those new computer chips we created that compute in binary we should
use them to make a new kind of clock that's less readable to humans so this is purely
for the novelty factor for the decorative factor and for the educational factor
and i know some people will want me to take this thing apart
but unfortunately it's clipped together with rather firm clips that will probably
require destructive force to take apart so that's not going to happen
but it's a modern product so there's probably not much interesting to see in there anyway just a
single circuit board couple integrated circuits on it and a bunch of very bright blue leds
but i am curious to see what would happen if i ran this on 9 volts dc instead of the 9 volts
ac that the included power supply puts out so i have it connected to my radio shack universal dc
power adapter set to 9 volts and now i'm going to plug it in
and that's the normal light show it puts on when you first
plug it in so first let me dim down the display to something less dazzling and
that appears to be working normally it's counting up the seconds let's see that's the minutes
and that's the hours so i have to take back what i said about it using the
ac line frequency as a timing reference clearly it does not so i don't know why the box says
automatically senses 60 or 50 hertz when it's not sensing anything it's just converting it to dc
and then internally generating its own time reference
so let's see if i can really read the time on this with just a few minutes' practice like the
box says that's a one that's a two so that's 12 o'clock and something this digit
is one and two that's three and that's nothing lit so that's
zero so it's 12:30 not really but that's what this is set to i'm not going to bother
with the seconds because that's changing too fast for me to keep up with but it's 12:30.
now i changed it to something a little bit more challenging that's one
two and four so that's seven so it's seven o'clock and something that's one and two
there's three so it's 7:30 something and that's one and eight so it's 7:39
and according to the manual you can set it to 24 hour mode by holding the dim button
while pressing the hours button so that's 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 and we should have 13
now yeah so 13 o'clock and let's see that's one two that's 13:41 and that's 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 then 21 22 23 and it should reset back to zero and it does so that's the 24 hour mode
and like the box and manual says it also has a true binary mode but i'm not going to bother with
that because it's already difficult enough for me to read it in the regular mode but realistically i
don't think most people are actually going to use one of these to tell time in binary they're just
going to use it as an animated led light show that happens to represent the time in an arcane form
so that's about it for the crystal blue powers of two bcd binary coded decimal clock from anelace
available for about thirty dollars or less if you can find a used one at a thrift store like i did