Strobeshnik: probably the most awesome hard drive clock of all time

Turning aged hard drives into clocks has been a common occurrence for years now, but there's still something magical about this rendition. Designed and crafted by Svofski, the Strobeshnik relies on the stroboscopic effect to create the illusion of a persistent numeric display. The HDD platter itself has ten digits, colon and dash marks cut all the way through it, and by carefully timing the light strobes, the illusion is perfected. Check out a video of the startup just below the break -- and be patient, the payoff is spectacularly sweet.

See more video at our hub!

[Doppel A Draconius mka Aguiluz Posted Mar 7th 2010 10:50PM]

Take that, fake hard drive clocks!

[swimomatic Posted Mar 7th 2010 10:52PM]

I want one... but am afraid to ask the cost for a product this sweet..

[Aguiluz Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:00PM]

@swimomatic
You have to build one.

[shankeith Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:13PM]

@Doppel A Draconius mka Aguiluz

I'm happy for you you...
and ima let you finish...

but Beyonce had the best hard drive of all time...
OF ALL TIME

[Blackstar Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:44PM]

@Doppel A Draconius mka Aguiluz

Out of all the hard drive clocks I've seen, this is the first.

[dan Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:44PM]

@Doppel A Draconius mka Aguiluz
Plans, instructions, and everything you need to know for building one of these is here:
http://sensi.org/~svo/strobeshnik/

[Mr Oos Posted Mar 8th 2010 12:37AM]

@Doppel A Draconius mka Aguiluz
and @ Aguiluz

Coincidence? Or the same person? :-O

[theshadow27 Posted Mar 8th 2010 4:12AM]

@Aguiluz
What if I get a Virus?

[spin cycle Posted Mar 7th 2010 10:52PM]

That is very cool, and a great idea as to how to do it. But I couldn't take the constant noise.

[Aguiluz Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:00PM]

@spin cycle
As if hard drives are silent....

[J1024 Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:10PM]

@Aguiluz SSDs are. :-D

[spin cycle Posted Mar 8th 2010 12:15AM]

@spin cycle My hard drive sits inside my computer down below my desk. This thing has to be at eye level so you can see it. Hard drives are also sealed which makes them quieter.

Plus, I turn my hard drive off when I'm not using it, but clocks are on all the time.

[James Posted Mar 8th 2010 4:19AM]

@spin cycle

The epicness of this thing will outweigh the noise by far.

[HAWKZ Posted Mar 7th 2010 10:53PM]

that is seriously cool! where can i get one?

[Keanedi Posted Mar 7th 2010 10:57PM]

look cool, but sound noisy

[elduderino Posted Mar 7th 2010 10:57PM]

needs hh:mm:ss display

[GenericMessage Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:00PM]

This........is........whoa........

[mtnDewFTW Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:00PM]

OF ALL TIME!

[AlienSix Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:04PM]

I would love having it until when the head crashes. Then I would be sad

[rsmith4321 Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:12PM]

@AlienSix It might be hard for the head to crash since it's sitting disconnected below the platter.

[tonicboy Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:17PM]

@AlienSix
Huh? It doesn't even use the head at all, why would you care?

[NeonMonster Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:05PM]

Ultimate awesome. But who is going to wait for the harddrive to start spinning to check the time?

[NCase Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:23PM]

@NeonMonster
Just don't turn it off?

[akisweb Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:15PM]

108 Minutes left ...

[Frawley Posted Mar 8th 2010 12:15AM]

@akisweb Nice Lost reference :P

[N1TRO Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:20PM]

That's flippin awesome

[paul34 Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:27PM]

Jesus. All the engineering of one man that went into this and people are complaining about the *noise*?!

This is amazing, noise be damned.

[moshee Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:30PM]

This think looks like it could make music by changing the speed of the spinning, all the while showing what time it is. That would take a hell of a lot more work though.

[Willen Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:38PM]

So what's the MTBF?

[paul34 Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:51PM]

@Willen

Considering it is no longer capable of booting, MTBF = 0

[p0p0 Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:43PM]

Thats no mod, he just mounted an old MacBook harddrive. :P

[cstayfresh Posted Mar 7th 2010 11:51PM]

What happens to it on Daylight Savings?

[Dekstar Posted Mar 8th 2010 12:03AM]

If this were an alarm clock, the alarm sound would need to be the default Windows 7 log on sound.

[airbag888 Posted Mar 8th 2010 12:24AM]

and now the machines will be able to argue that we used parts of their brains as Clocks

[ellery Posted Mar 8th 2010 12:31AM]

meh... I"ll wait for the SSD version ;)

[Thor e Posted Mar 8th 2010 12:31AM]

Something strangely creepy about that video. I was expecting it to show a skull or something..

[Dougyguerrero Posted Mar 8th 2010 12:58AM]

Genious. I wish I had time for a project.

[zangetsu2 Posted Mar 8th 2010 2:36PM]

@Dougyguerrero

"Genius", genius.



(sorry for being a douche, I just always wanted to say that)

[TitaniumLizzard Posted Mar 8th 2010 1:34AM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_television

[jmhalder Posted Mar 8th 2010 1:36AM]

yesterday I commented on the PSP VU hack about it being regurgitated from hackaday, so is this, in both situations a day AFTER hackaday posts it... this isnt a gadget, this isnt important, and you cant buy it... this is a badass project, but its so small and not engadgetworthy... can we have some real news engadget?

[spin cycle Posted Mar 8th 2010 3:30AM]

@jmhalder At least it exists and is real. Engadget posts a bunch of junk which are just unrealistic models.

[Timmmmmm Posted Mar 8th 2010 5:44AM]

@jmhalder How is this not a gadget?

[whiskers Posted Mar 8th 2010 10:39AM]

@jmhalder Yeah, post some more articles about Apple, those always keep me on the edge of my seat with their gadget-news-worthiness.

[hemmy Posted Mar 8th 2010 3:45PM]

@jmhalder
"yesterday I commented on the PSP VU hack about it being regurgitated from hackaday, so is this, in both situations a day AFTER hackaday posts it"

I don't visit hackaday so I personally don't care if it was "regurgitated" from there a day later or even a week later. I now can read about it here on Engadget, and I'm fine with that.

[Moridin Posted Mar 8th 2010 2:06AM]

That has got be the coolest use of a hard drive ever. Period. I want one.

[mahr Posted Mar 8th 2010 3:03AM]

Touch it. Go on, I dare ya'.

[microlomaniac Posted Mar 8th 2010 3:38AM]

Awe.
Some.

[DrPhil Posted Mar 8th 2010 5:32AM]

That clock is so cool! Hmmm... encase it in double layers of perspex and that'll be cool.

Hahhaa good use of all those old 10gb XBOX HDU's that I used to mod :p

[xoundbox Posted Mar 8th 2010 6:46AM]

wow Sweeeeeet!!

[crayjay Posted Mar 8th 2010 8:17AM]

What time is it?

Hold on, let me spool up the clock.