For me, if I see the time, I'm awake. Something about seeing the time makes me go into work mode and I have to get up. I think I'd like something like a "color clock" so when I wake up early, it'll show a blue screen, meaning I should go back to sleep, but if it's close enough to when I should wake up, it shows a yellow screen or something.
Sunrise alarms are definitely a thing. They slowly turn up a lamp when it's time to get up.
What you're describing is a toddler alarm. MAde for children that can't yet tell the time, but you put in the room and they show one color for sleeping and another for awake. Look up "toddler alarm" or "ok-to-wake clock" Here's the first one I found via google (non-affiliate link)
As he was learning numbers, we taught our 3 year old that he could only come into our room once it was 6 AM.
Along the path, we got woken up at 4:46 (there’s a 6!) and once to “Mommy, Mommy, it’s not 6 yet in your room either!” as he excitedly learned that time was the same everywhere.
That is more fundamental than we realize, as there is literally no other value in time except the fact that it's the same everywhere. The entire concept is that it's something we can all agree on, but we've lived with it for so long that we don't really realize that.
This reminds me of the following:
Imagine you had some items, and you gave each item a unique name, and then used the unique name you gave to the last item to describe their amount.
That's what numbers are, a commonly agreed upon way to label items so the last label indicates how many you have.
I'm not saying that having standardized time isn't important for its usefulness (although if I know that my tea tastes well after 30 of my minutes, that's already useful to me).
But you wrote "there is literally no other value in time except the fact that it's the same everywhere". This is wrong.
I kind of have this already, using the "Sunrise Alarm" feature built into Google's stock Android clock app.
15 minutes before my phone alarm goes off (not configurable sadly), the whole screen comes on a very dim red, and slowly fades through medium orange to a bright yellow at the time of the alarm.
With the phone laying flat on top of my dresser, this provides a great lighting cue.
Wouldn't you want the opposite color progression? To avoid blasting your eyes with blue light when you need to go back to sleep. That's why operating systems have the night light feature.
I like the idea though... I think I've got an RGB light strip I pulled out of a pc case (not a fan of rainbow vomit styling...) around here somewhere. I'll put it on my growing pile of projects I should probably do.
Check out Andrew Huberman's podcast, I cannot recommend him enough.
Turns out it's not really the color that is the most important factor for wakefulness-shifting, but the amount of light your eyes perceive. Yes, the cells responsible are more sensitive to bluish light, but a ton of not-so-bluish light would keep you awake just the same, and just a little blue light wouldn't be that harmful.
That being said, 'blue for Go' still makes more sense to me instinctively :D
An older version of this lamp didn't work for me. My brain got used to the increasing light within a week, so that I'd only wake up when the gradually amplified bird chirping got to the "screaming flock of ravens" part.
Same, I still have mine and the light itself is nice, but the light never woke me up, always the shrill / tinny sounds. I hope they've built a newer version with better speakers / sound. Still an improvement over the old clock radio though. Those things would already be improved with a gradually increasing volume over just startling you into waking up.
Yep, that's what the LED functionality was supposed to do (no light for sleep, light for "wake up"), but the lack of a good UI option deterred me from adding it.
That was hilarious! And it's such a cool project.
Just copy & paste this entire post in a Kickstart page and watch the money pile up. Seriously. (but omit the "liar" part)
I was actually contacted by the CEO of Pimoroni a while back, you can give them the product and they'll handle sales and manufacturing and give you a percentage, which is a great deal for a lazy guy like me. Unfortunately, he hasn't replied to my last 3-4 emails, so I haven't pursued it further.
Thanks for the link! I don't know, he asked for information initially, I sent him a reply almost immediately and then he just never replied. I don't know if my messages end up in spam, it doesn't seem very likely that he's getting them and just ignoring me..
Yeah, I've surprised myself that I remembered this, but he posted on some Raspberry Pi threads back in the day, and I noticed because I usually buy my raspis from them.
Hey man! Miss you too... If you ever get bored of taking amazing pictures of the universe, you should come fix healthcare with me (and Ed (and Cory, but he came after you left))
Nice write-up. No (ed: full) source code? I was somewhat qurious to see how much of it there ended up being.
In high-school I did the almost opposite of this - I taped down the play button on my hi-fi CD remote, and wired the battery through the switch for the alarm of an old alarm clock (and cut the wires to the actual alarm). Allowed me to wake up to whichever CD was in the player, rather than an alarm.
Most cd players would wake up from power off playing, but mine didn't - so I couldn't just make do with a timer on the mains. Plus, the analog alarm clock was easier to set for a time, than my timer-plug.
Do you keep the screen constantly on (with dimming but still on)? I had the same for a thermostat I made and the pixel burn on those screens are terrible. I would add offsetting to mitigate it. (Periodically render stuff with small random offsets) kudos!
Yep, I do. I used this kind of screen in another project, but it took years to burn in (and that one was completely static). The screen only costs $3-4 or so, so I can just replace it if it becomes an issue, but you are quite correct that it's going to be a problem.
Not nearly as nifty as this, but it reminded me that in college my alarm clock was cron job on my desktop that would launch a program every day at 8am which beeped the system bell once a second until I leapt out of bed and hit Enter.
Making that sound stop was a great motivator for getting out of bed.
For a long time I had a similar setup, but I was just playing Thunderstruck by AC/DC. It stars quietly, the volume of the song increase slowly, and you have like a minute to get up and turn it off before they guy start to cry and wake up all your family.
I used 'To live is to die' by Metallica.
It starts with a nice tune, and you have less than one minute to turn it off before the music changes (slowliy) with the drums and distorted guitars ;-)
My high-school alarm clock was a power amp on a hardware switch that would activate roughly around 0630, plus a Windows timer on the desktop that would wake the computer from sleep and proceed to blast an mp3 through the (now powered) speaker columns.
The motivator for getting up was as much to stop the mp3 as it was to prevent the rest of my family from killing me. I eventually retired the system, after my half-awake brain developed an acrobatic routine, where in one smooth movement, I would raise, hit the power button on the power amp, and fall back to bed.
I've heard a story about one guy who tried everything to wake up to go for college on time. He even got to surround clocks with some pans and cutlery, so that when clock started ringing and he got to turn it off, he would be awake enough to not fall asleep again. One morning he was found by roommate snoozing on sofa, but already half-clothed for exit.
Sometimes I wonder if playing with old obviously obsolete computers is a waste of time.
Been working on replacing the BIOS on a 386EX single board computer with a custom monitor / "hypervisor" I'm writing in Rust as kind of a demonstration of how low level you can get with Rust. I want to post a Show HN after cleaning it up a bit.
To be honest, the main reason I went for something so old is that 1) I had them in my collection of random electronics and 2) the newest computer that full documentation for every component in the system is available for is not a new machine.
Current computers tend to be massive black boxes. I've learned so much about random hardware by reading Linux kernel drivers when the documentation is under NDA.
(For some reason, when I saw the submission title, I immediately guessed it's you, Stavros!)
One question: since your design called for "A screen that wasn’t too bright and wouldn’t disturb sleep", have you considered colors like orange or (I guess old-school) red? They have a benefit of not messing up your night adaptation[0].
The octagonal shape is very clever. On a tangent, this reminds me of a cleverly designed clock my sister bought in IKEA [1] - it's a square device with bunch of functions, which are selected by turning the device to stand on an appropriate side.
Thanks, Jacek! Yeah, I did think of adding a color that's less offensive, but blue/white is all I had available at the time. Since I ended up using this a lot, you make a good point, I should order a red one.
> On a tangent, this reminds me of a cleverly designed clock my sister bought in IKEA
Oh yeah, I have seen that! It's very interesting indeed, I think it has a mercury switch (not even an accelerometer), but it's been a while since I saw it and I only played with it for a minute.
Yeah, since I need to be getting weather updates I'll definitely be using NTP. 5% is pretty bad, though, that's more than an hour off a day. I guess it's not bad for short durations, and I'm assuming it mainly uses it so it can wake from deep sleep states, which is extremely useful.
Tangential, but do you have a favorite ESP32 project or documentation? I bought a bunch of them on a whim and I'm looking for interesting applications.
> Say I want to set the alarm for 9:30, just in time to be ten minutes late for tennis.
Haha. What a ridiculous time to get up - from my perspective at least having young children that are up at 6:30 the latest. That’s the reason why I won’t need your clock. I wholeheartedly agree though that it’s “sexy”. Niiice!
Oh man, 9:30 is my "this is inhumanely early" time. I usually get up around noon. Having kids will either be terrible or super easy, as I can keep the kid until 6 am, while my wife sleeps, and then we can switch shifts.
You’d earn gazillions of sleep deprived parents opening their deep pockets out of sheer desperation if you’d invented something like that. Maybe your next project?
I mean. I'm pretty sure I've got delayed phase sleep and I don't particularly enjoy waking up that early, but out of everything that'll do the job this one involves the least grumbling and the walk helps me get my brain in gear.
Thanks! Go for it, I'm fairly sure the dimming will work for you, but I think the other similar screen I have doesn't work with that code entirely, it needed some small change that I don't remember now.
Yeah, it's a pretty simple build, which makes it much better because the payoff is large compared to the work. I didn't need an internal temperature sensor because I have a hypothalamus, but the rest sounds great!
Inspired by a board I found in a local jun/recycling shop and impulse-bought.
It's been upgraded since then to a "Time From Space!!! Clock" since I got bored of needing to reset it because the Arduino doesn't keep very good time, so I added a spare GPS module from my junk drawer (probably one from an old drone that got upgraded to a GPS with faster than 1Hz updates). It still has breadboard and wires hanging out...
> One thing I’d like to improve in the future is to add a battery, because right now it’s solely USB powered and will obviously die if there’s a power outage. Adding a small LiPo battery and a charger circuit will be pretty easy
¿Maybe just use a USB powerbank if you want a quick n dirty solution?
Cable management and requirement of power are not my cup of tea. Nor is a 24/7 requirement of internet connectivity. I would instead only manually sync time (with a button), or once a day at (what it believes is) 3 AM. User replaceable battery is also a big plus. Thing is, we already got all these features in 'dumb' clocks.
Agreed. Reading the time off the ceiling when it's dark is the way to go. I bought one years ago, and it comes with a normal clock and the projector added to the side, and it reads the time via the WWVB time signal.
I 95% like it, but: the normal clock part I never use, and the WWVB syncing sometimes goes out (happening more after 7 years of use), and it reads a time 1-3 hours wrong.
I LOVE the projector part, it's basically all I use. I've been tempted recently to pull it apart and hook it up to some microcontroller that NTP synced and just ran the projector.
Well, I think blue light less disturbing if the kid sees it in the middle of the night, and more likely to get back to sleep. Also, orange looks more energetic and more appropriate for when the kid can get up. But that kind of perception is culture-dependent. I'm from Europe and this scheme seems natural to me.
I'm from Europe too. Blue(ish) is daylight colour while red(ish) is night colour. Staring at blue light hinders melatonine production, affecting the sleep cycle. Hence the existence of products like Redshift [0] and Twighlight [1]. Increasingly, this is built into visual interfaces, both my Gnome and Android have things called "night light" or something similar.
I'm aware of that, but that was an afterthought. Anyway, it's not made to be stared at, and with light modulation it's quite faint when the room is dark. so I don't think it matters in the end.
> Octagonal shape so I can lay it down on its side instead of having to crane my neck up to check the time when lying down (I really did think of everything).
I actually didn't understand this part. Why an octagon? How does it help this?
Yep! That really is its killer feature, and it's very interesting how, when I'm lying with my head perfectly horizontal, it's easier to read the clock when it's at 45° rather than entirely on its side...
A Method and System for telling the time and waking up using a clock embedded in a higher order regular polygon - using a computer.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
One embodiment of the present invention provides a clock embedded in a regular polygon of order 8. The method includes the steps of: (a) orienting and affixing the clock display with respect to the polygon (b) weighting the polygon such that it can be balanced on any edge (c) rotating the polygon to orient the display at the desired angle; and (d) reading the time on the display.
PRIOR ART
Traditionally, alarm clocks have been embedded in circular enclosures (polygons of order infinity) or rectangular enclosure (polygons of order four). The innovation of clocks embedded in polygons of order 5 and higher (excluding infinity) is new and non obvious.
One small design suggestion. You should include a battery so that if the electricity were to go out you could still see the time or be alerted at the time of the alarm.
Additional small design suggestion: fade in the beeper too instead of starting full blast.
I'd suggest checking out the Android app Talalarmo, which gets most things right (no snooze, same time every day). Specifically my fork, which adds press-and-hold-to-dismiss. I can build you an apk if you don't have an Android environment set up https://github.com/smichel17/talalarmo
Fading in the alarm is the only way to go, IMHO. I don't even use my alarm clock, I just set my phone. The stock Android clock now includes a fading in feature, and lots of aftermarket ones have it as well.
Cool! What sorts of things have you 3D printed that give it such a high ROI?
I've got one too and it's fun to tinker with and I've printed a couple useful things, but not a lot of useful things. I'm always curious what people do with theirs, especially when they say they use it all the time!
Once you learn to design (which is pretty easy), it changes your life. You can get custom-built components tailored exactly to your problem in minutes. Computer cables being rowdy? Design a hook in five minutes, done. The other day I designed and printed a custom mobile phone holder for my laptop so I can use my phone as an HD webcam with DroidCam. Cat opens the door at night? Print a small doorstop and that problem is solved.
A lot of problems just go away when you realize you can make custom components for them.
I love this mindset. I definitely think this way about software, and more recently, about things I can make out of wood.
Plastic or machined parts have always felt out of reach so I'm not in the habit of believing I can fix things that way yet. I think it'll take some practice to get that idea to sink in. Thanks!
> I definitely think this way about software, and more recently, about things I can make out of wood.
Yes, exactly. Though, I have to say, going from software to hardware was quite magical: You can suddenly affect the physical world, which is amazing. Plus, if you already know software, adding hardware to the mix rounds you out very well, and opens up a large array of things you can make.
> Plastic or machined parts have always felt out of reach so I'm not in the habit of believing I can fix things that way yet.
I very strongly recommend designing a few things in OnShape or FreeCAD or SoveSpace and getting a 3D printer once you get the hang of that (it shouldn't take you very long at all, maybe a few evenings).
Machined parts I find pretty hard, but then again I also found plastic things impossible before getting a printer and they turned out to be quite easy.
Thanks! I have a Wanhao Duplicator i3, but it's a few years old now. The good thing about 3D printers is that they're so simple they just won't get obsolete, since they're 99% software.
I think the current recommendation is either an Ender 3 (for a budget one) or an Ender 5 Pro (if you can afford something a bit better). I would recommend the 5, it looks much sturdier. You might want to eventually add a BLTouch so it automatically levels, and you definitely definitely want to get the "silent" package (it really is entirely silent), the normal one makes way too much noise.
You're welcome! I use OnShape because I'm on Linux, but I'm waiting for FreeCAD to get a bit better (or for me to learn it well enough) to use. You can also use Fusion 360 if you're on Windows/Mac, it's free for hobbyists and very powerful.
In addition to the Ender, you might want to look into the Prusa printers, like the Mini+. They're a bit more pricy but easier to set up and use, fewer issues to tinker with, have great documentation and are more reliable in general.
I was asked this same question in a HN comment a week ago or so. A few days later I was filling the coffee grinder and again annoyed that it'll hold most but not all of a 12oz bag of coffee...
If you want to get into 3D printing, it's hard to beat the Creality CR-6 SE at $400. Or if you want to take more of a journey, a Creality Ender 3 Pro at $200, and upgrade the motherboard, extruder, and add a bed leveler. I did the latter, and it is a great little printer. Reminds me of back when I was a teen and doing car modding.
I have an old Folgertech based on the Prusa i3 design. I think it's a bit wonky compared to the newer designs but it seems to work ok.
I've been upgrading parts the last few weeks, like adding a BLTouch for bed leveling and proper leadscrews instead of the threaded rods it came with. So far I've spent more time printing parts for the printer than anything else, haha.
Funny you mention the coffee hopper, I tried designing and printing a new wider holder for my Aeropress! It came out a good size and shape but the walls weren't thick enough, and the whole cylinder detached when I tried to take it off the bed. Gotta get back into Blender and make some changes before I reprint it.
Funny you should mention Aeropress. Years ago, before I had a printer, my girlfriend gave me her old aeropress, but had lost the cap. So I 3d printed one at the makerspace (our makerspace was full of Lulzbot printers, because they are just down the road from us).
It worked great maybe 10 or 15 times, until it violently failed during the press. Let me tell you, that makes an amazing mess! Luckily it was at the breakroom at the office. ;-D
The bltouch upgrade took me something like 30 hours to get the software right (because I had no idea how it looked when it worked, everyone seems to cut that out of their videos). But since then, that has really made printing trouble-free. I have almost no print failures since that.
Not OP but most of my savings have been on time, rather than money. It did save some money.
* When installing a portable AC, I noticed that the included window kit didn't extend far enough. Similarly, another window was small, and the window kit would have to be sawed off. They retail for approximately $50 for a piece of plastic. Printer cost me $150. Plastic costs were under $10. Thats close to 2/3 of the printer price right there.
* One of the air conditioners came with a broken caster(bought online). Store didn't help. I could return the entire unit, but I would have to endure a heat wave without one. So I just printed an adaptor to use with some other furniture casters I had laying around. Designing was quick, so in a couple of hours I had my issue fixed.
* Printed a Raspberry Pi case. A few more bucks.
* My mom is starting a business and she needed some tools (really, they are guide pieces, ridiculously simple but you need relatively precise measurements). Some people would either purchase them (double digit dollars for one) or create crappy versions using cardboard. I designed and printed those for her and saved almost a hundred bucks, for something that almost looks like it came from a store. Plus I can further customize to her needs.
* Printed a stand for my soldering iron. It's a DS-80p so it is tiny, the 'normal' stands are incredibly bulky. Printed a version I found on Thingiverse. While at it, why not print a nice case for it too, right?
* Wanted to use the macbook upright, in clamshell mode. I could buy some stand, costing $20 and up. I didn't need anything fancy, so I just printed one. For about one tenth of the price of the cheapest option I could find. I got it in the same day even.
* Due to COVID, printed a bunch of face shields.
* Holders for a variety of things.
Then there are some pure convenience:
* Bike reflector holder piece broke. I wanted to go out to ride. Printing a replacement took less time than going to the store and back. Debatable if money was saved but not having to leave the house (or wait for a package) was certainly nice. Doubly so after COVID.
* I wanted some desk grommets of a specific size (and length). Checked Amazon, they were either overpriced or came in larger quantities than I need and I would end up with an assortment of surplus pieces. Whatever, Thingiverse, fired up the printer, off I go. I even customized for the exact thickness of the desk.
* Decided it would be cool if my Steam controller rested upright on a desk. Absent-mindedly queued a job remotely to the printer. Estimated costs around $1.
I could go on and on for a day. But it's not a matter of seeing what I or others have printed and going "Oh I need that". It's about what it brings to the table.
The bottom line is this. Assuming you have:
* Some time to learn the basics of a CAD tool (any tool).
You most likely don't need anything too complex. Most useful objects have simple shapes, you just need the ability to adapt them to your situation.
You can get pretty far with downloading models online - sometimes I get surprised of what niche objects you can find. But often you can't find some specific thing you are looking for (the AC examples above) and you need to design.
* Some time (and patience) to learn the basics of 3D printing and to do some troubleshooting when things go wrong. There's all sorts of communities that can help but you still need the basics.
Then what you end up with is the ability to just conjure up stuff when you need a problem fixed. Anything. Maybe you need to hang something, maybe something moves and it shouldn't. Or maybe it doesn't but should (I've used skate rollers with 3d printed pieces, works great). Maybe some tiny plastic piece broke and the manufacturer is charging an arm and a leg to replace. You can just find it (if you are lucky or if it is a common thing) or you can design it yourself.
This also allows you to come up with a bunch of DIY projects as this thread shows.
If it is made out of plastic and fits in the build plate, odds are you can make it, unless it requires a more exotic plastic.
Exactly agreed. It's not so much what you've printed, it's that it changes your mindset to one where you realize that annoyances you wouldn't have thought twice about are now actually easily solvable.
Before, the charger cables would roll off my desk, and I'd think "damn cables". Now I think "I can design and print something in 5 minutes that will solve this problem exactly". For many, many problems.
i have a thing, if i have the same alarm "audio" for more than one day, my brain ignores it and next day i hear nothing. i have tried "music" ones but they waste battery a lot more than resident apps
It's interesting how that song in particular instantly zones-out the listener. Even though I've heard it hundreds of times, I had to look up the second line to make sure I had the right one.
Nah, I can't be bothered with sales and stuff. I estimate the effort left to make it an actual product someone can use to be about ten to thirty times as much effort as I put into this prototype, and I don't think many people will want it.
>This symbolizes the futility of human existence and its incessant search for meaning in a cold and unfeeling universe that’s ultimately profoundly devoid of such, and then you die.
>Not having to wake up to a buzzer is cool, though.
You've turned microhumor [1] into something akin to a spoken accent that pervades the entire blog post. I'm unsure how to handle this.
However, I was particularly amused by your closing sentence that mentioned how a LiPo could keep it running for "hours". That sounds about right for a 20 mA OLED and an 80 mA ESP8266, but it's remarkably shorter than an old-fashioned LCD alarm clock in which an alkaline battery could last for months.
By the way, I'd recommend an 18650 LiIon instead. If you want, the charge circuit can be as simple as putting the LiIon and a silicon rectifier in parallel with your 3.3V regulator output (assuming the linear regulator has an internal PNP body diode and doesn't backfeed) and then just charge the cell outside the alarm clock in an off-the-shelf battery charger. You don't need the current density of a LiPo, you want low current but high capacity, and cheap LiPo pouches have an annoying tendency to puff up and go bad. Going bad may result in burning down your nightstand, which is never a good way to wake up.
I also. I'm fairly sure it's a compliment, though, so thanks!
> it's remarkably shorter than an old-fashioned LCD alarm clock in which an alkaline battery could last for months.
It certainly is, but an LCD alarm clock is much less fabulous, since it has to be pressed or otherwise activated to produce light, and that's my main need here (a clock that I can read in the dark without moving).
> it's remarkably shorter than an old-fashioned LCD alarm clock in which an alkaline battery could last for months
That's a good suggestion, but it loses some of the "set it and forget it" factor, and I will very definitely forget it (especially when there's no low voltage warning). I have some ESP32 boards with a built-in charger, so that's more hands-off. Also, the length of the clock is shorter than a 18650, so I'd have to make the clock larger and the screen would look even smaller in comparison. I appreciate the suggestions, design is fun and getting feedback from others makes it even better!
> cheap LiPo pouches have an annoying tendency to puff up and go bad
Oh, don't worry about that, they're all already puffed up.
Sun Inc. also said "The network is the computer." To which DEC Inc. replied "The network is the network and the computer is the computer. Sorry for all the confusion."
Thanks! It did make me think of Sun Tzu-styled wisdom, but I thought it may be some well-know phrase that was parodied here that I was not familiar with. In any case, the joke was great even without me getting this part!
Awesome! The world needs more NTP-powered (alarm) clocks. If you want a self-setting clock traditionally that meant an atomic clock, but those are expensive. Google Home / Alexa based smart devices (like the Lenovo Smart Clock) are cool but are a bit overkill (and a bit questionable from a privacy aspect). It'd be nice to see more NTP clocks that do little more than show the time and have basic alarm functionality.
Agreed, I guess people don't prefer them so much because they need WiFi. Another interesting suggestion from this thread was to use GPS to always have accurate time, but that would probably ~only work outdoors and be fairly battery-heavy.
