Project: The best morning alarm ever - Need opinions

Hello everyone!

Introduction
First off I would like to say that I have briefly read the forum rules, if my post is unsatisfying please let me know, I would really like to become a part of this community :slight_smile: I'm totally new to Arduino. I do however have a pretty good skill set in programming, I learn fast and I'm always open for new ideas! I have done some software hacking in the past but never made software to interact with hardware (this is basically what I want to learn by doing these projects).

Brief summary of my skills:

  • Fair amount of experience in Java, Python, Objective-C and some HTML/CSS.
  • Never soldered(?) anything in my life.
  • I do not actually own an Arduino but are familiar with the concept. (I have ordered one).
  • Read through some starting tutorials on programming with Arduino
  • English is not my primary language, I apologize in advance for spelling and grammar mistakes!

What i want to make
I want to make an alarm that gradually increases the light in my room over a duration of my choice. I hope that this will be a better and more natural way of waking up.

What I'm planning on using:

  • A simple digital alarm clock
  • Arduino board
  • Remote control dimmers (and for increasing light) link.

How I plan on setting it up:
Digital alarm connected to Arduino
Remote control for dimmers connected to Arduino
Lamps connected to dimmer receiver which is connected to wall power-socket.

Challenges
1: Hacking of the digital alarm clock which will include fetching the current time and the set alarm-time.
2. Hacking the digital remote that controls the wall-recievers.

So my I would basically appreciate any feedback regarding my plans here. Do you guys think that this is do-able?
As i mentioned in my introduction I dont actually have an Arduino as of know which means that I don't fully know about the limitations of this device.
Obviously this project requires my Arduino to be running all night while i sleep, is this considered safe?

Welcome!

Ansvar:
1: Hacking of the digital alarm clock which will include fetching the current time and the set alarm-time.

That's probably quite difficult. Even if you can hack into the buttons, finding out what the alarm time is set to is likely to be hard. It's easier to build an Arduino alarm clock. Add a display and a real-time clock module to the Arduino, and some means of setting the time, such as a rotary encoder. Interface it to a radio IC or a buzzer.

Ansvar:
2. Hacking the digital remote that controls the wall-recievers.

You can hook up an IR receiver to the Arduino, and use it to record the pattern sent by the remote. Then it's easy to have the Arduino generate the same IR pattern. So no need to hack into the remote control unit either.

Obviously this project requires my Arduino to be running all night while i sleep, is this considered safe?

I have one that's been running 24/7 for a year or two, barring power outages. Given the voltage it runs at, it's pretty much intrinsically safe. This may not be true of whatever you attach to it though, particularly if you're using mains voltages - for you dimmed lights for example.

Are you convinced that the increasing light will wake you? There are no curtains in my bedroom, but my waking up when no alarm is used doesn't seem to be related to it getting light outside.

dc42:
That's probably quite difficult. Even if you can hack into the buttons, finding out what the alarm time is set to is likely to be hard. It's easier to build an Arduino alarm clock. Add a display and a real-time clock module to the Arduino, and some means of setting the time, such as a rotary encoder. Interface it to a radio IC or a buzzer.

Hmm, I guess I'll have to look into that then.

dc42:
You can hook up an IR receiver to the Arduino, and use it to record the pattern sent by the remote. Then it's easy to have the Arduino generate the same IR pattern. So no need to hack into the remote control unit either.

That's convenient!

wildbill:
Are you convinced that the increasing light will wake you? There are no curtains in my bedroom, but my waking up when no alarm is used doesn't seem to be related to it getting light outside.

Well, I live in Norway and it's pretty much dark 9 months a year. During winter-time I have used an alarm similar to what I'm making though only one pathetic lamp. This one should light up the whole room. It really makes it a lot less painful to go wake up.

Thanks a lot for the input to both of you.

wildbill:
Are you convinced that the increasing light will wake you? There are no curtains in my bedroom, but my waking up when no alarm is used doesn't seem to be related to it getting light outside.

There used to be an alarm clock that woke you up with a blinking light - although it also had a buzzer than cut in after a few minutes if you didn't acknowledge it.

Well, reading a German site was interesting. :slight_smile: TG for google translate. :smiley:

If I'm reading the translation correctly, you wouldn't be able to communicate using an IR transmitter as it is picking up signals from a radio transmitter. I think that there are radio transmitters available, but you'd have to look it up.

As for hacking the alarm clock. It could be done by (assuming you have a digital clock) pulling the voltage off of the display. Doing that may be doable, but given that you've never touched a soldering iron before, I'd recommend against it. I'd go with dc42's suggestion and build an Arduino clock. It might be slightly more expensive as you'd have to buy a display, but cheaper then buying a new clock because you fried it. :smiley: Unless its super cheap, then maybe just cannibalize it for its display. IIRC, most displays use a similar if not the same way of lighting the LEDs. It would take longer as you would be doing a bunch of testing though.

I've seen such alarm lights before. My bro has one actually, though it is a table radio alarm clock/lamp combo. It's kinda cool, but I don't know if it's much better than a regular one though. Didn't do much for me when I used it. :slight_smile:

I agree that that hardware hacking is probably the trickiest part. I built a similar "sunrise dimmer" several years ago with a different processor. Like yours, mine doesn't have a time-of-day clock. It plugs-into a regular AC timer (actually an X-10 system). However, I built the AC dimmer circuitry into my gizmo and the lamp plugs directly into it.

Are you convinced that the increasing light will wake you?

Mine has a 2nd part... The lamp is set to start coming-on 10 minutes before "wake-up time". After 10 minutes when the lamp is fully-on, it gives a gentle short-beep (adjustable with a volume control). It beeps again every 30 seconds. At the 2 minute mark there are two beeps, and two beeps again at 2.5 minutes. 3 beeps at 3 minutes, etc., and this goes on for 15 minutes.

DVDdoug:

Are you convinced that the increasing light will wake you?

Mine has a 2nd part... The lamp is set to start coming-on 10 minutes before "wake-up time". After 10 minutes when the lamp is fully-on, it gives a gentle short-beep (adjustable with a volume control). It beeps again every 30 seconds. At the 2 minute mark there are two beeps, and two beeps again at 2.5 minutes. 3 beeps at 3 minutes, etc., and this goes on for 15 minutes.

After that, does your mom/wife slap ya and tell ya to get your ass out of the bed? XD

wildbill:
Are you convinced that the increasing light will wake you? There are no curtains in my bedroom, but my waking up when no alarm is used doesn't seem to be related to it getting light outside.

Alarms that do this are sold to people with SAD (Seasonal affective disorder): Dawn simulation - Wikipedia

It may be that you don't suffer from SAD, but a lot of people do, including my wife (who uses a sunlamp, but not dawn simulation).

adrian_h:
After that, does your mom/wife slap ya and tell ya to get your ass out of the bed? XD

I can think of a much better way of being woken up, that involves a wife or girlfriend and, perhaps, some slapping, but I doubt that the moderators would let me post the details :wink:

adrian_h:
Well, reading a German site was interesting. :slight_smile: TG for google translate. :smiley:

If I'm reading the translation correctly, you wouldn't be able to communicate using an IR transmitter as it is picking up signals from a radio transmitter. I think that there are radio transmitters available, but you'd have to look it up.

The link was mainly to describe the concept, I'm sure I'll be able to find a similar product that uses IR which from what I understand is simpler/cheaper to hack.

I'll be sure to update you guys along the way.

Why do you need to hack the alarm clock. Just let the clock do its job of keeping time and setting off the alarm. Connect the arduino to the speaker on the alarm clock. The speaker is driven by a voltage. Just check these voltages and see what would be the best way to connect to input pin on the arduino.

You may be able to make your alarm clock work together with your arduino. You can get the wires from the clock to its Buzzer or speaker and get it into the Analogue port and check the voltage. Once the alarm rings, the line gets some voltage which can be used to trigger rest of the stuffs.

Ahh, those are smart ideas. Got too close and didn't see that. :slight_smile:

Not sure what happens if you don't use a ground that isn't connected between the clock and the Arduino though. Or how a common ground can be connected between the two. I'm too new to the hardware side to know about this stuff.