Terrific LED kit. Easy to assemble and reasonably priced.
For S14Clock LED Word Clock Kit (24 Characters)
Kit arrived well packaged and only took a couple of weeks to reach me in the UK (no customs delay either, unlike many of my purchases from the USA).
I was a bit concerned about soldering the demultiplexer but I played with a cheap SMD practice kit from Aliexpress in advance and with the right tools, it was a breeze. The rest of the kit was very quick to assemble, simple through-hole soldering and a bit of bolting together. I had to re-flash the code, due to the Wi-Fi problem described on the Github page but otherwise it powered up like a charm. The product description mentions that the 24-char display is dimmer than the smaller 12-char model but I can confirm that even in bright sunlight, the bigger unit is perfectly readable.
I have similar display called the WOPR by Unexpected Maker and it's interesting comparing the two. The WOPR feels more sophisticated, with the 3D housing, darker faceplate and front facing buttons but I do like the retro feel of the S14-24 and it's hard to fault the elegance of the design; one demux and a microcontroller in a very compact package. The web interface is also excellent.
The only slight criticism I have of the physical design (also true of the WOPR) is that for an otherwise slim unit, the plug-in microcontroller sticks out quite a bit from the PCB and is clearly visible from above or from the side. A lower profile header or even soldering the controller directly to the PCB would vastly improve the look.
Concerning the software, a useful feature that I think could be added is the ability to enter the time zone as a location, e.g. Europe/London and have the unit adjust for daylight saving automatically. As it is, I had to enter +1 for British Summer Time and I suppose that I'll have to change that parameter back to zero when we revert to GMT in the autumn.
Those minor comments aside, I absolutely love the S14-24. It's old-school tech with a modern twist-superb!
