Retro Clock
Turn any screen into a split-flap clock
Festaboard's live Clock turns a spare monitor, tablet, or TV into a full split-flap clock: time, day, and date flipping over on a 6×22 grid of mechanical-style tiles, in your browser, for free. No physical board and no subscription required.
What a split-flap clock display gives you
A split-flap clock display is the flip-board look you remember from old airports and train stations, rebuilt in software. Festaboard draws the same layout as a physical Vestaboard: 6 rows by 22 columns, 132 character tiles, each one flipping through the alphabet until it lands on the right glyph.
The point is the motion and the sound. When the minute changes, the affected tiles flip, and Festaboard plays a real split-flap flip sound that's been modeled to sit softer and more pleasant than a harsh station board. If you'd rather have it silent on a desk, press M to mute, or leave it on for a shelf piece you actually want to hear tick over.
Set up the flip clock: 12h or 24h, time, day, date
Add the Clock integration and your board becomes a live flip clock that updates itself, no reloads and no scripts to babysit. It shows the current time, the day of the week, and the date, and you choose whether the time reads in 12-hour or 24-hour format.
Five themes change the whole mood of the clock. Classic Amber gives you the warm split-flap look, Terminal Green reads like an old CRT, Clean White is bright and minimal, and Cool Blue and Warm Red push it in either direction. Pick the one that matches the room and the screen it's living on.
A mechanical clock screen for desk, shelf, or wall
The same board works as a small retro clock for a desktop and as a wall-sized mechanical clock screen. On a desk monitor or a shelf tablet it sits in a corner of your day; on a smart TV it becomes a feature wall.
Press F, or use the on-screen control, and Festaboard goes fullscreen: the site chrome disappears so nothing shows but the grid. That's the mode you leave running. If you want more than just the time, fullscreen slide rotation can cycle between your clock and other saved boards on an interval you set, anywhere from 5 up to 120 minutes.
Keep the clock running all day on low-power devices
For an always-on clock, turn on the public share link to get a read-only URL at festaboard.com/b/<token>, then append ?kiosk=1. Kiosk mode drops all chrome, starts with sound off, and holds a screen Wake Lock so the display never sleeps. Edit the board from your dashboard and the change pushes to the screen in about a second with no reload, and the tab auto-reloads to recover if it's been hidden a long time.
Animation is tunable through the URL so old hardware keeps up. Use ?anim=full for the complete flip, ?anim=lite for fewer steps (the kiosk default), or ?anim=off to swap text instantly with zero animation on very low-power devices. Festaboard also respects your operating system's reduced-motion setting automatically. That combination is why it runs comfortably as a dedicated clock on a Raspberry Pi, from a Pi 3A with 512MB of RAM up to a Pi 5, as well as on RK3568-based Android displays.
What makes it a real clock, not a screensaver
Auto-updating time, day, and date on the board, in your choice of 12-hour or 24-hour format.
A real flip sound modeled to be gentler than a station board, with a one-key mute (M) when you want quiet.
Press F and the chrome hides so only the 6×22 grid of tiles shows, ready for a monitor or TV.
Classic Amber, Terminal Green, Clean White, Cool Blue, and Warm Red to match the screen and the room.
Add ?kiosk=1 to the share URL for a chrome-free, sound-off display that never sleeps and updates in about a second.
?anim=lite and ?anim=off keep the clock smooth on an always-on tablet or a Raspberry Pi.
Frequently asked questions
Is the split-flap clock free?
Yes. Festaboard is a free browser web app with no subscription. You add the Clock integration and run it as a split-flap clock on any screen with a browser, with no hardware to buy.
Does the clock update on its own?
Yes. The Clock integration is live and auto-updating, so the tiles flip to the new time, day, and date on their own. In kiosk mode, edits you make from the dashboard also push to the screen in about a second with no reload.
Can I choose 12-hour or 24-hour time?
Yes. The Clock shows time, day of the week, and date, and you pick whether the time reads in 12h or 24h format.
Can I leave it running all day on a tablet or TV?
Yes. Use fullscreen with the F key for a TV, or the kiosk URL (?kiosk=1) for an always-on display. Kiosk mode holds a screen Wake Lock so the device never sleeps and starts with sound off by default.
Will it run on a Raspberry Pi?
Yes. It runs in a browser in kiosk mode on single-board computers from a Pi 3A with 512MB of RAM up to a Pi 5, plus RK3568-based Android displays. For very low-power hardware, use ?anim=lite or ?anim=off to reduce or remove the flip animation.
Can I turn the flip sound off?
Yes. Press M to mute at any time, and kiosk mode starts muted by default. Leave the sound on if you want to hear the mechanical flip as the clock ticks over.
Put a split-flap clock on your screen
Open Festaboard, add the Clock, and press F for fullscreen. Free, browser-based, no hardware required.
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