For now, it uses the D1, a (nice green) 4x8x8 LED matrix display, a rotary encoder and a buzzer. On startup it connects to Wifi, reads the current time, determines DST and goes into the main loop mode, displaying the time and full date and time alternatively. The alarm can bet set on or off with the encoder and it can also be used to set the alarm time. The alarm settings are stored in EEPROM so will be reread after a power failure.
It is still a work in progress and I'm looking at ways to expand the functionality, maybe a webinterface for setting alarms and options, maybe the latest news and weather forecast after the alarm went off (I did something similar in a previous project, a LED matrix message Board).
zoomx:
If you want to show more information maybe you should use an SPI TFT LCD screen.
You can add a light intensity sensor for automatic screen brightness.
Hey, thanks for your feedback. The light sensor is a good idea.
I think it would need covering up the led matrix with a dark shade foil because I have the brightness set to a minimum as default already because otherwise I find it too bright in a dark room.
Another thought would be a PIR sensor so the display would switch off after a couple of minutes with no motion and on again when you wave your hand (etc). And of course also when the alarm is triggered.
The LCD would be nice and I did consider a nice color screen. It would take a pretty large screen to be able to read it from a distance though. And that would draw quote some power, not so suitable for battery power. Maybe a Nextion display would do but it is slow to update, scrolling text cold be an issue. Therefore I figured the led matrix seemed the best fitting for this project, for now.
An addition I already did was unlimited (well, limited to the EEPROM size) alarms with optional text messages to display as the alarm triggers (so like Feed the dog at 12:00 every day). I also added day, week of the day, weekdays, weekend days and month options.
Another thought in progress is to add actions to the alarm, like triggering GPIO pins to (de)activate other devices.
A final thought is recurring alarms, like every 15 minutes, a beep every hour or whatever.
If you want to go on battery ESP8266 isn't a good choise. I use ESP8266 for the same reason, NTP time set, but, maybe you can use an Arduino pro mini (with some modifications), an DS3231 RTC and an ESP8266 as a WiFi shield that you turn on only when you need set time. There is a sketch for ESP8266 so it became a WiFi shield or it can be done with a sketch that, when the ESP8266 is turned on get NTP time and print it on serial. You can turn on ESP8266 once a day.
You have to remove all small leds in RTC module and Arduino.
zoomx:
If you want to go on battery ESP8266 isn't a good choise. I use ESP8266 for the same reason, NTP time set, but, maybe you can use an Arduino pro mini (with some modifications), an DS3231 RTC and an ESP8266 as a WiFi shield that you turn on only when you need set time. There is a sketch for ESP8266 so it became a WiFi shield or it can be done with a sketch that, when the ESP8266 is turned on get NTP time and print it on serial. You can turn on ESP8266 once a day.
You have to remove all small leds in RTC module and Arduino.
Yes, chosing for battery power with max battery life will mean making some choices for the setup and coding.
I'll give it some thought.
As of today, I finished the recurring alarms from seconds to months.
The next challenge will be the webinterface. Besides hardcoding HTML (and maybe javascript) I don't have a smart and easy solution for that yet.
