November 13, 2013

November 13th, 2013 Blog Entry

All members present. This week has been an exciting one for the team. As a group we decided to build a programmable alarm clock that performs the following functions:

• Displays day and time on LCD screen
• Programmed to initiate alarm sequence at prescribed time
• Alarm consists of synchronized LED light and Piezo element sound maker
• Push button serves as snooze feature that pauses alarm for 10 minutes
• Reactivated alarm flashes and beeps even more obnoxiously as well as turns on a fan to blow on user’s face
• If snoozed again, final alarm sequence drives alarm clock away from user, forcing them out of bed to fetch it.

We began compiling example and open source code that could be used to perform the above functions. Code for blinking the LED is readily available. We have successfully laid out an LCD display on the Arduino board that we can manipulate (see picture) as well as acquired code that explains how to import a computer’s internal clock time to the Arduino board. (http://playground.arduino.cc/Code/Time). We have found a basic layout and code for making sound using the Piezo element, as shown in the video below.

Moving forward, we have the following goals for this next week:

• Acquire an old desktop computer fan
• Salvage the components of some old remote control cars for a battery pack, wheels, lights and platform.
• If a sufficient battery back cannot be acquired, we will need to purchase a 9V battery adapter for Arduino (see picture).
• Program the LCD to properly display the day and time
• Code has been found, just need to plug it in
• Figure out how to activate alarm mechanism at a prescribed time
• Sync flashing LED and sound to desired pattern
• We've read that this is harder than you’d think
• Connect push button so it can terminate alarm sequence and initiate timer that waits 10 minutes before activating alarm again.

This will undoubtedly keep us busy for a while. Some important things we need to remember are:

• Figure out if we need to have any Arduino parts ordered in Professor Sullivan’s bulk order on Monday November 18th.
• Figure out how we connect multiple arduino/ bread boards and whether we’ll have one large program or multiple.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for next week

RGHG808