Whether you call it 'Volver al Futuro', 'Regreso al Futuro', or 'Back to the Future', the quirks of translation are irrelevant. You know what we're talking about. You have the dialogues memorized. You can identify the film and the exact moment from just a single frame. And now, you have the chance to build your own time circuits with a handful of components, an Arduino Mini, and a good dose of 3D printing. Unfortunately, they won't help you travel through time... but they look great.
"Marty, don't go to 2020"
The meme spread like wildfire, and to be honest, it's one of the best pieces of advice a young time traveler could get today. Going back to the past sounds very tempting, but jumping ahead a few years to see how we solve all this (if we actually do solve it) isn't so bad either. But we don't have a DeLorean, or a flux capacitor, or plutonium, or Mr. Fusion. What we can have... are the time circuits.
The Time Circuits of Back to the Future
A relatively young YouTube channel called Jéjé l'ingé published an online tutorial and a complete guide on Instructables so you can build a replica of the time circuits step by step, based on an Arduino Mini (or a compatible clone), an RTC module, and several 3D-printed parts. The most complex part of the project, either due to cost or availability, is gathering the nine TM1637 seven-segment displays. From a technical standpoint, nothing prevents you from combining two-digit and four-digit modules, but the ideal is to respect the "red-green-orange/amber" pattern of the original.
All the 3D parts are available for download in STL format, and the longest one is 22 centimeters on a side, something to keep in mind if your printer's build volume is very small. The enclosure doesn't use screws: a bit of glue and a good coat of metallic paint should be enough to get the desired look. The rest of the guide focuses on the connections. There are no complicated circuits here, and you can follow each connection visually without any trouble.
https://old.neoteo.com/back-to-the-future-los-efectos-especiales-de-la-clasica-trilogia-de-viajes-en-el-tiempo/The last section is dedicated to uploading the Arduino code, along with two libraries: arduino-tm1637-master and RTClib-master. If you use something other than TM1637, you'll most likely need to adapt the code a bit, but there's another option: buy all the components at once as a kit from the Jéjé l'ingé page, and avoid headaches. In short: if you're a Back to the Future fan and were thinking about a DIY project, here you have the best of both worlds. What are you waiting for?
Access the guide on Instructables: Click here
