While some of us can fall asleep anywhere from a noisy auditorium to a brightly lit train station, others are more fussy, requiring quiet and dark to nod off. [Craig Lindley] likes to minimize light when he’s trying to sleep, and decided to build himself a simple clock that wouldn’t disturb his rest.
The basic concept was to build a clock that would only display the time on command. In this case, that command would be a wave of a hand in front of the clock. The build is based around a Lilygo ESP32 T-Display unit, which combines the ESP32 with an LCD display and a battery management system. The ESP32’s WiFi connection provides accurate time via querying an NTP server. A passive infrared motion sensor is used to detect the motion of the user’s hand in front of the clock.
While all kinds of clocks and clock radios are available out there, few are motion activated. [Craig]’s work is a great demonstration of building your own solutions to your problems. We’ve seen some other neat motion-sensing convenience hacks before, too!
My watch lights up when I touch it.
Oooh. Like those motion-activated LED watches from 1977. They were a pretty neat idea.
What’s a “train station” ?
Think Victorian self-driving cars
I’ve made something similar – OLED clock display that is normally off, triggered by a time of flight sensor set up to register a hand-wave gesture.
Now, how about a clock display with infrared gaze tracking: it only lights up when you’re looking at it.
Then add facial recognition: If I look at it, it shows the true time. If my partner wakes up and looks at it, it should show 30 minutes fast. So *they* will get up earlier and make the coffee for a change.
Several years ago one of my very first projects in the realm of electronics was to make a PIR motion detector circuit described by Zack Albus for a TI MSP430F2013 (inspired by tripping on a moonless night into a bathtub which resulted in a broken wrist). The nightlight has run flawlessly for ten years (Not on the same batteries!!!). So, why not adapt to a clock? My wife wants a clock in the bedroom, but when they are always illuminated it disturbs her sleep. This is a great idea and one well within my limited skills.
Or use an analog clock with luminous hands?