GEKCO DIGITAL CLOCK P/N CLK036 ASSEMBLY & OPERATION MANUAL16 REV 1.0 GEKCO INC.11. Theory of Operation11.1. Block DiagramMICROCONTROLLER8 8 8 8 8 8REAL TIMECLOCKHOURS MINUTES SECONDSUTC/LOCALBUZZERDISPLAYDRIVERMENUSET+DISPLAY BOARDMAIN BOARDThe clock consists of two modules, the main board and the display board. The clock was designed thisway to allow the same main board to use different display boards which could vary in size.If may be helpful to review the block diagram and schematics while reading the circuit descriptions.11.1. Main Board Circuit DescriptionThe main circuit board has the microcontroller, real time clock (RTC), switch inputs and connectors forthe display board, programming interface and the input power.The microcontroller U3 is the heart of the clock. This design uses the popular Atmel ATMEGA328P.This is a very powerful microcontroller with 32Kbytes of flash memory, and 2Kbytes of SRAM as well asnumerous other peripherals. See the ATMEGA328P data sheet for details.