Drawing Analog clock second minute & hour needles using line in Tkinter canvas

Once the dial is ready with all markings ( read part 1 , creating dial ), to this we will add needles to the clock.

Analog clock in Tkinter Canvas with three needles hour, minute, second initializing with local time

Following points may be noted.

Each segment is 6 degree and there are 60 segments in our dial.
Each needle has to increase by 6 degree to cross one segment.
For each 360 degree rotation of second needle, minute needle will move by one segment ( 6 degree ).
Hour needle moves 30 degree or 5 segments of 6 degree each on every completion of one rotation of 360 degree by minutes needle.
Zero degree is the 12 O’clock position.

We will use three functions my_second(),my_minute() and my_hour() to display and rotate needles. Using timer we will call ( recursive call ) to my_second() function and on completion of 360 degree we will trigger my_minute() function and on completion of 360 degree of minute needle we will call my_hour().

Increment in each call to functions

Second needle has to increase by one segment of 6 degree on each call to my_second() function ( on every second ).
Minute needle has to increase by one segment of 6 degree on each call to my_minute() function. ( on every 60 seconds).
Hour needle has to increase by 0.5 degree on each call to my_hour() function.

Starting angles of Hour minute and second needles

When the clock starts, we must read the local time and accordingly shift the needles ( starting point). From this point we can start moving the needles. Here is how to read the local time in hour minutes and seconds.

in_degree = 0 # for creating dial markings 
in_degree_s=int(time.strftime('%S')) *6 # local second 
in_degree_m=int(time.strftime('%M'))*6 # local minutes  
in_degree_h=int(time.strftime('%I')) * 30 # 12 hour format 
print(in_degree_h)

Initializing second needle position based on local time

Our variable in_degree_s will hold the local second value.

in_radian = math.radians(in_degree_s) 
x2=x+rs*math.sin(in_radian)
y2=y-rs*math.cos(in_radian)
second=c1.create_line(x,y,x2,y2,fill='red',width=2) # draw the needle

Above code will draw the second needle based on the local time second value and the variable in_degree_s will hold the degree based on this local time value.

Rotating Second needle my_second()

As we have initialized the variable in_degree_s based on the local time value of seconds, we will use these variables as global and create the function my_second()

Use of timer

We used one timer which calls the same function ( recursive ) my_second after 1000 milliseconds (= 1 second ).

c1.after(1000,my_second)

Each call to this function will move the second needle by 6 degree ( in_degree_s=in_degree_s+6 ) The movement of second needle is achieved by deleting the second needle and redrawing it at the new coordinates.

    c1.delete(second) # delete the needle
    x2=x+rs*math.sin(in_radian) # Horizontal coordinate of outer edge.
    y2=y-rs*math.cos(in_radian) # vertical coordinate of outer adge
    
    second=c1.create_line(x,y,x2,y2,arrow='last',fill='red',width=2)

Full code for movement of Second needle is here .

def my_second():
    global in_degree_s,second 
    in_radian = math.radians(in_degree_s) # from degree to ra
    c1.delete(second) # delete the needle
    x2=x+rs*math.sin(in_radian) # Horizontal coordinate of outer edge.
    y2=y-rs*math.cos(in_radian) # vertical coordinate of outer adge
    second=c1.create_line(x,y,x2,y2,arrow='last',fill='red',width=2)
    if(in_degree_s>=360): # one rotattion is over if reached 360 
        in_degree_s=0 # start from zero angle again 
        my_minute()  # call the minute needle to move one segment. 
    in_degree_s=in_degree_s+6 # increment of one segment is 6 degree	
    c1.after(1000,my_second) # recursive call after 1000 milliseconds

Minute needle

Each complete rotation of second needle will trigger the my_miute() function. Check the lines in above code( inside my_second() function ).

if(in_degree_s>=360): # one rotattion is over if reached 360 
        in_degree_s=0 # start from zero angle again 
        my_minute()  # call the minute needle to move one segment. 
    c1.after(1000,my_second) # recursive call after 1000 milliseconds

Adjusting minute needle based on initial minutes value

The variable in_degree_m will hold the angle for minutes needle after reading the local time minute value. ( check the starting angles of hour , minute and second needles above )

in_radian = math.radians(in_degree_m)
x2=x+rm*math.sin(in_radian)
y2=y-rm*math.cos(in_radian) 
minute=c1.create_line(x,y,x2,y2,width=4,fill='green')

Full code for Minute needle is here .

def my_minute():
    global in_degree_m,minute
    in_degree_m=in_degree_m+6 # increment for each segment 
    in_radian = math.radians(in_degree_m) # converting to radians 
    c1.delete(minute) # delete the previous needle
    x2=x+rm*math.sin(in_radian) # Horizontal coordinate of outer edge.
    y2=y-rm*math.cos(in_radian) # vertical coordinate of outer dege
    minute=c1.create_line(x,y,x2,y2,width=4,fill='green')
    my_hour() # calling hour needle to move 
    if(in_degree_m>=360): # One rotation of 360 degree is over 
        in_degree_m=0

Adjusting hour needle based on initial minutes value

At the starting, hour needle we have to move fraction of one hour based on the minutes value. When local time is 7.45 , the hour needle has to be 3/4 of 7 hour and 8 hour segments.

Note that for 360 degree rotation of minute ( one hour ) the hour needle moves by 30 degree. To get the initial angle for hour needle we have to multiply minutes angle value like this. Here 30/360 = 0.0833333

in_degree_h=in_degree_h+(in_degree_m*0.0833333)          
in_radian = math.radians(in_degree_h)
x2=x+rh*math.sin(in_radian)
y2=y-rh*math.cos(in_radian)
hour=c1.create_line(x,y,x2,y2,width=6,fill='#a83e32')

The code for hour needle is here

def my_hour():
    global in_degree_h,hour
    in_degree_h=in_degree_h+0.5 # increment in each step
    in_radian = math.radians(in_degree_h) # in radian 
    c1.delete(hour) # deleting hour needle 
    x2=x+rh*math.sin(in_radian) # Horizontal coordinate for outer edge.
    y2=y-rh*math.cos(in_radian) # vertical coordinate for outer adge 
    hour=c1.create_line(x,y,x2,y2,width=6,fill='#a83e32')
    if(in_degree_h>=360):
        in_degree_h=0

From the main script we have to call my_second() once to start the clock.

my_second() # calling to start 
my_w.mainloop()

variables	Details
rs,rm,rh:	Length of Second needle,minute needle and hour needle
x,y	Center coordinates.
x2,y2	Outer edge coordinates of three needles .
in_degree	Angle in degree. Each segment is 6 degree
in_radian	Inputs to sin() and cos() functions value in radian. Value in degree is converted to radian before using with sin() or cos() functions.

Here is the full code with dial and all needles

import math
import tkinter as tk
import time

my_w = tk.Tk()
#my_w.tk.call('tk', 'scaling',200)
width,height=620,620 # set the variables 
c_width,c_height=width-5,height-5 # canvas width height
d=str(width)+"x"+str(height)
my_w.geometry(d) 
c1 = tk.Canvas(my_w, width=c_width, height=c_height,bg='lightgreen')
c1.grid(row=0,column=0,padx=5,pady=5,columnspan=3)
dial=c1.create_oval(10, 10, 600, 600,width=15,outline='#FF0000',fill='#FFFFFF')
x,y=305,305 # center 
x1,y1,x2,y2=x,y,x,10 # second needle 
center=c1.create_oval(x-8,y-8,x+8,y+8,fill='#c0c0c0')
r1=280 # dial lines for one minute 
r2=210 # for hour numbers  after the lines 
rs=210 # length of second needle 
rm=180 # length of minute needle
rh=160 # lenght of hour needle
in_degree = 0
in_degree_s=int(time.strftime('%S')) *6 # local second 
in_degree_m=int(time.strftime('%M'))*6 # local minutes  
in_degree_h=int(time.strftime('%I')) * 30 # 12 hour format 
if(in_degree_h==360):
    in_degree_h=0 # adjusting 12 O'clock to 0 
h=iter(['12','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','10','11'])
#second=c1.create_line(x1,y1,x2,y2,arrow='last',width=1)
for i in range(0,60):
    in_radian = math.radians(in_degree)
    if(i%5==0): 
        ratio=0.85 # Long marks ( lines )
        t1=x+r2*math.sin(in_radian) # coordinate to add text ( hour numbers )
        t2=x-r2*math.cos(in_radian) # coordinate to add text ( hour numbers )
        c1.create_text(t1,t2,fill='blue',font="Times 30  bold",text=next(h)) # number added
    else:
        ratio=0.9 # small marks ( lines )
    
    x1=x+ratio*r1*math.sin(in_radian)
    y1=y-ratio*r1*math.cos(in_radian)
    x2=x+r1*math.sin(in_radian)
    y2=y-r1*math.cos(in_radian)
    c1.create_line(x1,y1,x2,y2,width=1) # draw the line for segment
    in_degree=in_degree+6 # increment for next segment
# End of Marking on the dial with hour numbers 
# Initialize the second needle based on local seconds value  
in_radian = math.radians(in_degree_s) 
x2=x+rs*math.sin(in_radian)
y2=y-rs*math.cos(in_radian)
second=c1.create_line(x,y,x2,y2,fill='red',width=2) # draw the second needle
def my_second():
    global in_degree_s,second
    in_radian = math.radians(in_degree_s)
    c1.delete(second) # delete the needle 
    x2=x+rs*math.sin(in_radian) # Horizontal coordinate of outer edge.
    y2=y-rs*math.cos(in_radian) # vertical coordinate of outer adge
    second=c1.create_line(x,y,x2,y2,arrow='last',fill='red',width=2)
    if(in_degree_s>=360): # one rotattion is over if reached 360 
        in_degree_s=0 # start from zero angle again 
        my_minute()  # call the minute needle to move one segment. 
    in_degree_s=in_degree_s+6 # increment of one segment is 6 degree 
    c1.after(1000,my_second) # timer calling recursive after 1 second
# End of second 
# Initialize Minutes needle based on local time minute value 
in_radian = math.radians(in_degree_m)
x2=x+rm*math.sin(in_radian)
y2=y-rm*math.cos(in_radian) 
minute=c1.create_line(x,y,x2,y2,width=4,fill='green')
def my_minute():
    global in_degree_m,minute
    in_degree_m=in_degree_m+6 # increment for each segment 
    in_radian = math.radians(in_degree_m) # coverting to radian 
    c1.delete(minute) # delete the previous needle
    x2=x+rm*math.sin(in_radian) # Horizontal coordinate of outer edge.
    y2=y-rm*math.cos(in_radian) # vertical coordinate of outer dege
    minute=c1.create_line(x,y,x2,y2,width=4,fill='green')
    my_hour() # calling hour needle to move 
    if(in_degree_m>=360): # One rotation of 360 degree is over 
        in_degree_m=0
# initialize hour needle based on local hour 
# Adding extra hour needle  movement based on local minute value
# For 7 Hour 45 minutes, hour needle need to move beyond 7 
in_degree_h=in_degree_h+(in_degree_m*0.0833333)          
in_radian = math.radians(in_degree_h)
x2=x+rh*math.sin(in_radian)
y2=y-rh*math.cos(in_radian)
hour=c1.create_line(x,y,x2,y2,width=6,fill='#a83e32')
def my_hour():
    global in_degree_h,hour
    in_degree_h=in_degree_h+0.5 # increment in each step
    in_radian = math.radians(in_degree_h) # in radian 
    c1.delete(hour) # deleting hour needle 
    x2=x+rh*math.sin(in_radian) # Horizontal coordinate for outer edge.
    y2=y-rh*math.cos(in_radian) # vertical coordinate for outer adge 
    hour=c1.create_line(x,y,x2,y2,width=6,fill='#a83e32')
    if(in_degree_h>=360):
        in_degree_h=0

my_second() # calling to start 
my_w.mainloop()

Part I : Clock Dial with Hour Numbers

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Subhendu Mohapatra

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