In a project that was really only slighly less creepy before the singer’s untimely death in 2017, this alarm clock built by [Rafael Mizrahi] awakens its user to a random selection of Chris Cornell’s signature screams. Not content to be limited to just the audio component of the experience, he contained all of the hardware within a styrofoam head complete with a printed out facsimile of the singer’s face.
An Arduino Uno coupled with a seven segment LED display provides the clock itself, which is located in the base. There’s no RTC module, so the Arduino is doing its best to keep time by counting milliseconds. This means the clock will drift around quite a bit, but given that there’s also no provision for setting the time or changing when the alarm goes off short of editing the source code, it seems like accurate timekeeping was not hugely important for this project.
Audio is provided by an Adafruit VS1053, which contains a microSD card full of MP3 samples of Cornell’s singing. This is connected to an X-Mini portable capsule speaker which has been installed in a hollowed out section of the foam.
Unconventional alarm clocks are something of a staple here at Hackaday. From ones which physically assault you to mimicking sunrise with OLEDs, we thought we had seen it all. We were wrong.
was kinda hoping his mouth moved like a south park canadian
>Unconventional alarm clocks
I am at a loss. What exactly do you call a clock that can not keep time?
“What exactly do you call a clock that cannot keep time?” – Timeless
Vetinari
First: nothing creepy about wanting to hear one of the more interesting and distinctive vocalists of the last half-century. If nothing else, his unmistakable tone is sure to be different enough from any dream as to make it a great wakeup method…unless you were dreaming about a Soundgarden show or something.
Second – not so familiar with that audio. Sounds like a studio track. Happen to have those for Badmotorfinger, if you’d like. Cliche title, but JCP is hauntingly awesome.
Last – have to ask the question: what good is an alarm clock that doesn’t keep time well? Don’t mention the scale for ‘drifting quite a bit’ so I can’t make an assumption there. For my part, wouldn’t hesitate to make the same a la Waits, Mojo or Joe Jackson. But would not if those dulcet tones chimed at indeterminatenumer:goodluck a.m., dig?
My alarm clock sounds like a HV transformer shorting out.
It has never failed to wake me up.
Oh dear ….
Ah ha ha ha! Can the snooze alarm be Gilbert Gottfried yelling “Sonofabitch” with the 3rd alarm shifting to Sam Kinison screaming?
Many moons ago, I stayed in a house where an old wind up alarm clock was moved to random locations, with the alarm set for rather unfriendly times.
This rig would have been awesome for said usage!
Given the low cost (sub £1 on eBay) and ease of use of DS3231 RTC clock modules (which include the ability to set 2 alarm times) the choice not to bother with a hardware clock is baffling.
Did you miss the recent HaD article about bad crystals?
Did you miss the fact that was about mismatched crystals in radio modules, and that the DS3231 has an integrated TCXO in the package?
Yes, I sure did miss that, Sweetey!