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Comment by mjevans | Hacker News Reader

I feel this article's premise too much. That's exactly the sort of clock I wanted to get my mom as a gift.

Why is it so dang impossible to find a not trash simple LED clock that's 'large print', 'the right color', and not annoyingly too bright?

A deluxe model might include a day of the week bar or dot and a month / day in month number (smaller than the time, mostly people care about the time)

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I've had the same struggle. There are some decent LED clocks with up to 1" displays (high), but any further and you get weird colors or glaringly-bright displays.

The best options are expensive clock displays from like Time Machines, MasterClock, etc... but they are not cheap and not meant for consumers.

I knew if I scrolled through the comment section I'd find geerlingguy!

I think too bright would be an issue with any LED display. Even lights on my modem in a different room are a bit much, I turn it off at night.

I use the clock feature on my iPhone (pretty sure there's equivalents for android), where if your phone is horizontal and charging, the lock screen shows one of several large clock face options. I 3d printed a phone stand for it. It's sensitive to both light levels and motion - so it's completely black when there is no motion detected. If you happen to wake up at night and open your eyes, everything remains dark. If you turn to look at your phone/nightstand, it usually turns on the display. Sometimes I need to wave my hand a bit. The balance is pretty good. I choose the giant Comic Sans type numerals as I wear glasses and that makes it still legible for me. [edit - it's called 'standby mode']

I needed the same thing, so I made one:

https://www.stavros.io/posts/i-made-another-little-bedside-c...

My parents rely on mechanical clocks, adjusting and ‘winding’ weights almost every day, they take great joy and pride from the fiddling. It’s fun to hear the clocks announce the hour and slowly hear them drift over time.

My uncle was a huge clock collector. Many of his would go off on the hour, it was quite the spectacle.

I found the following that works quite well

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWKYRS84

(the LEDs come in different colors)

Did you look at memory clocks?

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