Sunrise alarm clock with RGB LED and RTC

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi all,

I'm basically a beginner when it comes to electronics and programming and i'm trying to model the basic concept of a sunrise alarm clock using an RGB LED and a RTC module.

All I want to do initially is get LED simulating sunrise (gradually brightening and changing from red to blue light) starting at a set time.

  1. Do I need any additional components?

  2. Does anyone know of a tutorial for this kind of thing? I've found a lot but they are either doing way more complicated versions of this or don't use a RTC.

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  1. Do I need any additional components?

Do you want an LCD time-of-day display? If not, you can use the computer to re-set the time or alarm-time.

For a small "model" with a regular-little RGB LED, you can connect drive the LED directly from the Arduino. If you're going to light-up a room with a high-power LED, you'll need 3 "constant current" dimmable LED power supplies and a little driver circuit for the 10V (industry standard) PWM dimming control voltage.

  1. Does anyone know of a tutorial for this kind of thing?

I'm not sure, but you can find examples of how to control/dim an RGB LED and other examples of how to use a real time clock, and then it's up to you to put everything together.

BTW - I built a sunrise dimmer several years ago with a different microcontroller. Mine works with a regular incandescent bulb (which presents some other challenges). And, mine doesn't have a clock built-in... It runs from an external timer that's part of my existing home-automation system (which I didn't build). It's just starts dimming-up when it's powered-on. (I could also work with a regular-plug-in lamp timer.)

And... I STILL HATE getting up in the morning! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: