Introduction: Childs Neopixel Sunrise Alarm Clock

This is a simple alarm clock that switches between a day and a night image so children who can't tell the time know when it's acceptable to get up in the morning. It was thrown together out of necessity when I realised I had left our real clock at grannies. I thought I would share the details here though in case anyone else wants to try a clock for their own child.

Components:

Wiring:

  • Power for the whole arrangement comes through the USB connection
    5V, GND from both the RTC and the Neopixel Ring are connected to the Arduino.
  • Data in from the Neopixel Ring connects to Digital input 2 on the Arduino
  • SCL of the RTC goes to Analogue input 5 on the Arduino
  • SDA of the RTC goes to Analogue input 4 on the Arduino

Libraries:

Code:

Full source is available for download from here

  • The first lines of the setup function define the time that the alarm will go off
  • The RTC and Neopixel ring are initialised
  • Two alarms are created, one at the time previously specified another an hour later
  • The main loop of the program does nothing except create a delay that keeps the timer ticking
  • LightsOn function, creates the short sunshine animation when the alarm goes off
  • LightsOff function, switches the LED's back to night time colour