If you don’t have a 9-to-5 type of job you might find yourself constantly resetting your alarm clock as your calendar commitments change. [Lucas] finally got fed up with the nightly ritual and decided to build his own alarm clock which has unique settings for each day of the week (translated).
The display itself is an LM044L 20×4 character display. This provides a viewing area that is about 3″x1″ and since it’s an HD44780 compliant LCD screen, writing data to it takes very little effort (and RAM) compared to a graphic LCD. A PIC 18F2550 drives the device, taking input from a half-dozen buttons, driving the display, and turning on the enclosed buzzer when it’s time to get up. There’s a backup battery which will keep the settings when power is lost. The daily alarms, current time, and back light brightness can all be adjusted from the four screens that make up the settings menus. The only thing that it’s missing is a precision timekeeper, but that should be easy to add either by measuring the frequency of the mains or by using an RTC chip.
I have one of these already. I call it a phone!
I have one of these clocks:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/PURE-Siesta-DAB-Clock-Radio/dp/B000SO0846
You can set a different alarm for each day, and also multiple alarms for each day. For example if you get up at 6am and the wife needs to get up an hour later.
Digital radio is very nice too.
The point is, that instead of using a standard customer device to use as an alarm, he built it himself.
seems like quite a few visitors of HAD forget that not everything needs to be bought, you get quite a bit of enjoyment from designing and building a device of your own.
on topic:
That case looks awesome. It looks like its laser cut wood.
Um, I’m sorry does that say screen is 3″x 1″. Dont think so. That watch in the background is a least and inch around or bigger. That screen is closer to 3″ x 6″ I like to know where got that screen.
@say_what! for more info about the screen :
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=lm044l
(It shows the part number LM044L in the schema diagram)
Oh, and if you can be bothered to read the first hit which is a PDF of the data sheet it’s 76*25mm which is pretty close to 3″x1″
I’m wondering if that’s a typo or if it’s a different model because if the screen is 76mmx25mm that watchband is about a quarter inch or less (not going off the above picture – going off the one where the back is off the clock and they are in the same plane.
A cool hack but if you just added a network connection you could have it use SNTP and you could even possibly have it interface to an iCal server so you could set the clock from the internet. Throw in a battery back up and you are good to go. If you don’t have a network cable you could use BlueTooth, or ZigBee to interface to a desktop PC or if you have a server. Throw in an MP3 chip, amp and some speakers and you have a networkable clock radio :) A bit pricey but if you are going to do the project why not?
http://www.amazon.com/American-Innovative-Neverlate-Executive-Alarm/dp/B0010DX8MI/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1305823286&sr=1-1
Cheaper, better, and probably keeps time better as well.
Good to see my favorite writer back to work.
I use a PC software called “Citrus Alarm Clock”, it works for me becasuse I never power off my PC.
I already have an alarm clock that does this for me. It is called my girlfriend and as an added bonus, after waking me up for work, she makes my sammiches.
I’ve been building a clock coming from the opposite side – starting with a precise timekeeper (GPS receiver) and adding an LCD.
Another nice little clock. using a pic instead of the normal arduino
I hope he publishes the code and eagle files.
Hi, i’m the one who made this…you are right..it’s not an LM044L, that was just the code of the display in the schematic software, i forgot to hide it..
the display has a viewing area of 1.7×5 inches. it’s a very nice display..
the timekeeping is made with a 32.768khz crystal and a timer interruption.. it’s pretty accurate..i didn’t need an external rtc,everything was made in software.
the case is laser cut wood.
@fartface
“Cheaper, better, and probably keeps time better as well.”
Anyone who suggests on HAD that someone could have bought a product rather than making it themselves has totally missed the point of the site. Perhaps you’d fit in better to the Engadget crowd.
@Lucassiglo21
Is there a light for the LCD? Is it readable at night?
I love the look of the laser cut wood.
@at myself…
I guess I should rephrase that, Is there a brightness control for the light on the LCD?
yes, there is a blue backlight, you can change the brightness via software.
this guy obviously has no smart phone. Get an android phone. one of the many time saving uses.
@Lucassiglo21 nice hack.
Mains frequency is a /terrible/ time source; other then being rather more dangerous to work with when integrating it with your LV circuitry, it’d be MUCH less accurate than a 50 cent 32.whatever crystal. Only way to get more accurate time is atomic clock references, but mains? It’s whack, it’s never exactly 60/50hz, it changes with load all the time, up and down.
funny my name is lucas and i was thinking the same thing
@TheKhakinator:
Sure, it’s never exactly 50/60 Hz, but it is regulated to be very accurate over the course of a day, for exactly this purpose. That’s why a majority of the off-the-shelf alarm clocks out there use it as a timebase.
i didn’t use the mains frequency, it has a 32.768khz crystal.
i have an android phone..i just did this because i can. and i wanted to do some hacking.
“i have an android phone..i just did this because i can. and i wanted to do some hacking.”
No better reason needed.Good work
Get a Chumby One, you can program any alarms you want.