Living out on the west coast in a home with all kinds of RF interference, I've had problems getting 'atomic clock' time signals to reliably keep my wall clock properly synchronized. I searched the net for WiFi enabled digital wall clocks that could be configured to use a reliable NTTP server for synchronization, and quickly learned that most such devices were prohibitely expensive. The same can be said for GPS-enabled clocks.
I then glanced down at my desk, where my old Motorola Droid (without mobile service, rooted and upgraded to Android 2.3 via Cyanogenmod) had been sitting for months. It has WiFi of course, so I decided to go looking for a few essential ingredients: An NNTP synchonization application, and an easily readable digital clock app. I found both, and managed to mount the droid near an AC power source:
I've got a carpenter/handyman coming out to make the mounting look nice, but here is the list of ingredients:
- Rooted Motorola Droid without mobile service
- Digital Clock by Notes
- Clock Sync by Sergey Baranov
- Ultimate Rotation Control by FaMe IT (with license)
The configuration:
I installed all of the above applications. I configured Clock Sync to use the default 'pool.nntp.org' server name. I configured Digital Clock to always keep the screen on (prevent screen timeouts), and selected a nice pale orange text color. I configured Ultimate Rotation Control to lock the screen into the orientation I wanted.
I then enabled WiFi on the device, made sure it connected to my home WiFi network, and attached it to the ceiling. This could easily be adapted to work on a desktop or wall.
So I now have a WiFi enabled, NTTP synchronized digital wall clock. Total cost (not including original Droid purchase): $2.99