A futuristic bed headboard has a continuous light with a hexagonal grid overlaid on top of it that wraps around the bed, much like an ovoid MRI machine.

This Headboard Contains An Artificial Sun

October 12, 2022 by Navarre Bartz 22 Comments

Despite the proliferation of artificial lighting, humans are still highly dependent on sunlight for regulation of our circadian rhythms. Accordingly, [Sector 07] has built a futuristic headboard that can help with the waking up side of things whether you’re headed to space or just in the dead of winter.

The interior of the headboard includes custom 3D printed panels to mount the electronics and a light diffusion screen made of nylon fabric. The printed parts were all joined by “welding” the pieces with a soldering iron and extra filament. Besides the futuristic hexagon motif in the diffusion screen, the most eye-catching part of this build is the curved ends making it look like a set piece from Star Trek: TNG. [Sector 07] was able to get the unique shape by kerf bending the plywood ends before joining them to the flat sections with dowels and wood glue.

Since this build also includes an integrated coffee maker and voice assistant, there’s a bit more going on with the electronics than you might have in a normal circadian lamp. Powering the project are two Arduino Mega boards and a SpeakUp Click that handles the voice commands. Wake-up times are controlled via a keypad, and the voice assistant, Prisma, will ask if you are awake once the 30 minute sun simulation has completed before your alarm goes off. If you don’t confirm wakefulness, Prisma will escalate alarms until the system is sure you’re awake and then will ask if you want coffee. If you want a deep dive into the system’s functionality, be sure to checkout the video after the break.

We’ve covered artificial suns before, so if you’re interested in trying to build you’re own you should check out this Hugely Bright Artificial Sun, a Sunrise Alarm Clock Mounted Above the Bed, and this Artificial Sun Via Old Satellite Dishes.

Continue reading “This Headboard Contains An Artificial Sun” →

‘Tiny Wake-Up Light Is Hugely Bright

November 6, 2021 by Kristina Panos 26 Comments

Let’s face it — waking up is rough no matter what time of year it is. But the darkness of fall and winter makes it so much worse. In the past, [Maarten] has used music with increasing volume, but depending on the setup, it can be dodgy if you want to hear a different song each day and don’t have all your files volume-leveled.

Wake Up Bright is the latest in a line of wake-up widgets [Maarten] has made to help rouse them in the morning. Their write-up covers all ideas they’ve had on the subject over the years, as well as the electronics, firmware, debugging, and all the upgrades made after using it for awhile.

Slowly brightening an LED doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. [Maarten] originally used an Atmel 90S2313 AVR and later upgraded to an ATtiny 2313, which was easy because the two are pin-compatible. The 2313 outputs PWM, which duty-cycles the LED to create a nice fade-in of white light that is way more gentle than that classic 1980s alarm clock buzz-beep.

Over time, this project went from one IKEA enclosure to another. We really like the newer one, which looks like it was designed for people to hack into a wake-up light.

Our eyes perceive brightness increases logarithmically, but PWM is linear. We can get around this by multiplying the PWM value by some factor every so often, but the problem is that this AVR never learned its multiplication tables. So how, then? [Maarten]’s answer is byte shifting using a 16-bit register — one byte for PWM, and the other as a scratch pad to do logarithmic math. [Maarten] multiplies the 16-bit register by 1/256 every couple of seconds, which results in a logarithmic increase of brightness. It’s calculated for a 15-minute sunrise, which required some experimentation to get right.

Whereas [Maarten] started with a 3 W RGB LED, the current version has three 10 W LEDs and uses a power supply from an old monitor. Daylight Saving Time is coming to an end in the US, and it’s gonna get worse quickly. Lucky for you, this project is completely open source down to the firmware.

You think that 1980s alarm clock buzz-beep is bad? How about some repeated slaps to the face to wake up?

Fake Window Brings Natural Light Into Basement

February 29, 2016 by James Hobson 27 Comments

Do you have a depressing basement? Maybe you still live with the parents? You need a fake window to cheer things up! As it turns out, it’s pretty easy to make a convincingly real-looking day-light window — plus you could totally mess with your circadian rhythm!

[thatdbeagoodbandname] has an office in his basement with no windows, which is why he set out to brighten up the room with this project. Apparently you can buy fake LED windows, but they’re expensive and don’t look that good. His goal was to build a cartoony “classic” window that would feel bright and uplifting — and to keep it well under $200.

In the end he ended up buying everything he needed from Home Depot for his project; some 2 x 4’s for the frame, a sheet of acrylic, and a set of LED plant grow-lights. Continue reading “Fake Window Brings Natural Light Into Basement” →