This is my first Arduino kit, and I already see improvements to the code that I'm sort of throwing around in my head, but I can't hold all of the beady1.pde in my head to figure out how it all ties together - could someone write up a simple hello world (1 second LED, 1 minute LED and 1 hour LED, say. Maybe just the alignment mode section?) script with instructions for how to go between development and the beady1.pde? If it's just a matter of "Compile this in Processing while the device is hooked up", then I already figured that out with the time sync code.

I already sort of want to leave the arch off so I can reconnect the USB cable more conveniently.

The code is *mostly* user interface-- handling all the cases for the different "menus" and so forth, so I can see where you're coming from. I'll see if I can put together some simple sample code and post it sometime soon.

Okay-- we've just posted a simplified demo code that shows how to address the LEDs, millisecond timer, and buttons.

Awesome, thanks! I can follow what's going on in that, compared to the fuller version - some of the charlieplexing definitions didn't stand out as what they were there for. The only hitch is that Processing is throwing an annoyingly hard to debug error:

A web color (such as #ffcc00) must be six digits.
Bad error line: -2

Buh? Nothing jumps out at me, but I don't know how particular the language is yet.

>Processing is throwing an annoyingly hard to debug error:

Could be because this isn't a Processing program-- you need to use the Arduino development environment.

D'oh, sure enough. A download or two later, some environmental tweaking, and I can flip it back and forth between clock mode and geblinkenlight mode. Thanks!