[dorkbotsea-blabber] how much to make an LCD countdown clock?

[rich at spambutcher.com]

sparkfun has some pretty cool stuff if you're willing to get your hands 
dirty...

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutorial_info.php?tutorials_id=47

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=735

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8530

if you're interested in learning about microcontrollers / electronics - 
this could be a really good project to do so with...

(note - sparkfun seems to have periodic reliability problems with their 
site - if the links seem dead - try back later)

alternate approach would be to get a cheap LCD TV / monitor and connect 
a netbook / old PC to it (I'm sure there's a shareware app out there to 
do the actual timer)

Xianhang Zhang wrote:
> I really want a big LCD countdown clock, like 
> http://www.ledgible.com/numeric/images/timer-12.gif 
> http://electronicsusa.com/ck3000.html or 
> http://www.brgprecision.com/image2/md418-02-m18.jpg but the prices I see 
> quoted on these sites range from $400 - $3000. Surely something like 
> that can't be hard to make or even buy? I'm leery about making it myself 
> because part of the reason I want one is for the big, solid, 
> industrially engineered feel but it strikes me that I should be able to 
> get one for much less than what these people are charging.
> 
> Any suggestions?
> 
> Cheers
> Hang
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