“After a quick search on the internet, I realized that I could build her a clock with those simple specifications in an evening, from scratch, using parts from my electronic stock. This is a simple project with very few components, and with the attached files, you should be able to do it too, in less time.
The clock uses a matrix display, an an Arduino. There are no bells and whistles, not even a battery backup or an alarm. That being said, using the Parola library, you could really go wild with special effects (fade, scroll, random, swipe….), but I wanted to keep it simple because all these effects can be disturbing while sleeping. However, you can upgrade the software to add those fancy effects, with only a few lines of code. And there are plenty of I/Os left on the Arduino to add a real time clock, battery, buzzer, GPS….. and turn the clock into whatever rocks your boat.”