That "clock" that Mohamed Ahmed made is a 1980's Digital Alarm Clock

[Arty]

 hope all this free shit is retracted 

[ChrisxIxCross]

 

 hope all this free shit is retracted 

 

Haha I wish but that probably wont happen. Kid just got lucky

[FrankGrimes]

the kid tried to get a quick A in science class trying to pull the fleece over the teachers eyes.. and then he got a surface pro 3.. good for him

[Arty]

Kid just got" lucky"

"lucky"

 

Setting a bad example lmao

[crystal6tak]

omg, this kid done messed up his life LOL

 

Having experience being arrested and interrogated at a young age.

 

Living off undeserved fame (by not actually making the clock)

 

Wonder how he'll cope with this and man is he gonna facepalm every time he looks back at his youth once he grows up.

[ChrisxIxCross]

"lucky"

 

Setting a bad example lmao

True that haha. But who knows maybe with all this free shit he'll actually become somebody. 

[Arty]

True that haha. But who knows maybe with all this free shit he'll actually become somebody. 

honestly i hope his dad forced him to do it.

[ChrisxIxCross]

omg, this kid done messed up his life LOL

 

Having experience being arrested and interrogated at a young age.

 

Living off undeserved fame (by not actually making the clock)

 

Wonder how he'll cope with this and man is he gonna facepalm every time he looks back at his youth once he grows up.

If I was him I'd be feeling pretty guilty... Hahaha If he goes to the google science fair what the hell is he gonna say? 

 

So kid can you tell us some more about this clock? 

 

uuuuuuuuh

[HalGameGuru]

THe pictures did not help this, it LOOKS like its in a briefcase, it's not, that is a PENCIL case, its all of 6 inches wide. This is like opening up a Tiger Electronics digital game and saying it looks like a bomb.

 

I had hoped it was AT LEAST an instructible done from scratch.

[Henry]

OP, you should add that he used a countdown clock, put it in a metal case, his dad is running for presidency in Sudan and is possibly using this opportunity to his advantage, the cops and adults KNEW it wasn't a bomb, and probably assumed it was a bomb hoax from the beginning, which it very likely seems to be. This is also all around 9/11. Coincidence?

[Henry]

If I was him I'd be feeling pretty guilty... Hahaha If he goes to the google science fair what the hell is he gonna say? 

 

So kid can you tell us some more about this clock? 

 

uuuuuuuuh

He sounded pretty guilty in this video 

[Sidiox]

So you're telling me that disassembling a DIGITAL clock is anything near hard? At the age of 16 I disassembled and reassembled a laptop and I feel that that's way harder than doing the same thing with a clock. (Also, I never asked for recognition for it, nor do I call myself an inventor (don't think the kid does so himself but you can at least step forward instead of being dazzled by the fame). 

 

To the gallows is what I say!

Yeah you did. And I did not call it hard, I said that it can be tricky, and if you have disassembled then I'm sure you know that that can often be tricky. You don't know the story. As said, he may just have done it just to brag about it, or whatever. As long as you don't know his intentions it is wrong to condem him. He is just a kid, and you don't know if he built it to resemble a bomb. And if he wanted it to resemble a bomb he did a piss poor job. I don't know why he made it and neither do you, so lets just wait and see. 

Also, he said he worked on other stuff as well, you don't know what other stuff that is actually impressive he has created. 

[GoodBytes]

Should this thread be merged with the other one?

Whether he fixed an old clock (which I assume based from the picture he did), or not, the whole event isn't because of the clock, it is racism. If it was anyone else, his box would have confiscated and be the end of it. I don't even think the school would call the parents, they would let the kid deal with it, if he wanted his box back.

And THAT is what people are talking about, not that the fact that he built a clock.

Building a clock, it super simple. You can find tutorials online. At it's core, you need a 0.50$ if not less, timer chip, and a few basic components. Using something like a Teensy USB board would be over kill.

[ObeseWalrus]

Did you all really believe that he built a clock an programmed it and all?

[Henry]

Even if hypothetically this was all a ploy to get such a response, the fact that said response occurred is no less damning. Neither the school or the police knew he didn't build it himself from scratch and most likely thought it was a bomb because of his background. It's a nice strawman though.

clearly they didn't think it was a bomb. They thought it was a fake bomb/bomb hoax. Otherwise, the teacher would have been screaming. And well, bomb squad, evacuations, etc would happen.

[MageTank]

Should this thread be merged with the other one?

Whether he fixed an old clock (which I assume based from the picture he did), or not, the hole event isn't because of the clock, it is racism. If it was anyone else, his box would have confiscated and be the end of it. I don't even think the school would call the parents, they would let the kid deal with it, if he wanted his box back.

I agree and disagree. I agree that this was racism, but i disagree that it would have been confiscated, and that it would end at that. I imagine if a white kid brought in the exact same object, the police would have still been called. It resembled a suitcase (even though it was a pencil box) and had what could be considered a timer, and wires all over the place. This is enough to cause alarm (no pun intended) to anyone. The only difference is, it would not have gotten this much media attention, if any. I doubt it would have ever gone beyond local news. As far as merging the threads, that would suffice as long as the thread title included "*UPDATE*" in it, to remind people information has been added, along with some sort of edit in the original post, with this video included.

[Henry]

Should this thread be merged with the other one?

Whether he fixed an old clock (which I assume based from the picture he did), or not, the hole event isn't because of the clock, it is racism. If it was anyone else, his box would have confiscated and be the end of it. I don't even think the school would call the parents, they would let the kid deal with it, if he wanted his box back.

And THAT is what people are talking about, not that the fact that he built a clock.

Building a clock, it super simple. You can find tutorials online. At it's core, you need a 0.50$ if not less, timer chip, and a few basic components. Using something like a Teensy USB board would be over kill.

He was arrested for a bomb hoax. Even if he was white, he still could have been arrested for a bomb hoax. I mean...look at it.

[Dimi3os]

He sounded pretty guilty in this video 

He's so humble calling everything he ever made an invention and his hobby is making inventions, not creations but inventions. Please...

[Dabombinable]

Repairing a clock can be difficult as well. First you need to test the components to see what has failed, and what's OK (and that can take a while based on the complexity).

[asim1999]

Repairing a clock can be difficult as well. First you need to test the components to see what has failed, and what's OK (and that can take a while based on the complexity).

He should have built a Mini-ITX PC instead and bought that into school 

[Centurius]

He should have built a Mini-ITX PC instead and bought that into school 

Fixing a clock is harder.

[GoodBytes]

He was arrested for a bomb hoax. Even if he was white, he still could have been arrested for a bomb hoax. I mean...look at it.

I see a clock. I think you watch too many movies.

[GoldSrc]

All of us who have had some experience with electronics took the guts from a device and put them somewhere else when we were kids.

If this kid is really a fraud he will fall really hard.

[MageTank]

I see a clock. I think you watch too many movies.

I see a PCB, random wires, a power source, and a random clock panel. The context in which this device was brought to the school is one that was unprovoked. It was not an assignment. It was not asked for. He brought this thing, in an enclosure that resembles a suitcase, for no reason other than to show off his abilities (or so he claimed). While you might see a clock, everyone else (including myself) sees a potential threat. It is not uncommon for time bombs in the real world to have some indicator of time, though i question if any of them used a digital panel. Watches and cell phones tend to be the most common, if you keep up on the news. This particular setup looks like it would come from a cliche action film, but it is still a risk i would not want some random teacher to ignore when the decision impacts the lives of hundreds of children. Considering what the US has been through lately, being cautious is the only safe bet. 

 

Rest assured. If anyone brought this device in, regardless of skin color, it would have been met with the same consequences. My brother was expelled from his elementary school, because he was asked "what would you do if the Dinosaurs came back", he responded "I would get a gun and shoot them". That somehow translated to "he made threats to bring a gun to school". The only difference would be the level of media attention. If this was a different ethnicity, it would not have garnered this much attention.

[HalGameGuru]

This is a list of clocks he could have "made" and been seen as a creator, part of the maker space.

Not to belittle what work he did do, but when I pull a power supply out of a TV, fix it, and put an exploded working TV on the wall in pieces I have not made a TV. I acquire parts and assemble that Nixie clock below I have MADE something. 

 

When I first heard about this I assumed he had done something like below, made something from disparate parts, created something that had not been there before.

 

Ignorant of the details and his mind I cannot discount this entirely, I applaud him for his interest and hope he continues down that road, but this was not makerspace, as its been shown to us. If he repaired a non-working clock and re-cased it that is one thing, and power to him, but it's not like the 'ibles below.

 

I hold no blame for him as to what happened, I merely am not super impressed by his work, I am SUPER disappointed at the teachers, administrators, and COPS involved and the extreme lack of common sense.

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Huge-wood-nixie-clock/

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cyberpunk-Clock/

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Binary-Clock/

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/A-Word-Clock/

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pong-Word-Clock/