This project's source code and electronic designs are available on Github.
All dates and times follow the ISO8601 (YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss) standard.
However, due to limited screen space of the LCD, the main screen of the GUI
needs to use the forbidden format with the year omitted (MM-DD).
This feature allows you to inhibit all alarms for a set amount time (see the
Alarm_inhibit_duration compile-time option). I plan to use it when I get up
before the alarm rings, so that I don't have to wait for the alarm to activate
nor disable it (I know that I'd forget to re-enable it).
If an alarm with option "Enabled: Single" is inhibited, it gets disabled the same as if it started ringing normally. The same thing applies for "Enabled: Skip": is gets enabled even if it was inhibited.
This feature can by enabled by clicking on the i button in the GUI. The
button should change to uppercase I, indicating that the feature is on. It
disables automatically after the set amount time, but it can be manually
disabled by pressing the same button again.
There are 2 types of ringing: "regular" (used when the snooze button can be used) and "last". These differ in frequency and period.
Please note that it can happen that the "last" ringing sounds even if "regular" should be used, but this is only if there are multiple alarms active at the same time and only one of them is stopped (e.g. it times out). Even though the remaining alarm may have requested "regular" ringing, "last" is used if the timed-out alarm requested it because it has a higher priority. This is not considered a major problem and will likely not be fixed.
An LED can be connected to the device. It slowly lights up when the alarm enables it. PWM is output by the microcontroller, but the hardware setup I use (AlarmClock-hardware) converts it to constant current reduction linear dimming. It can also be controlled manually trough the Serial CLI and the LCD GUI (home screen).
Ambient is turned on Alarm_ambient_dimming_duration before the alarm
triggers, so that it already has full brightness when the alarm triggers.
This is not a full activation, and thus does not handle Single and Skip (will
be handled once the alarm triggers at the set time). If you notice the
ambient is on, but the alarm hasn't triggered yet, you can use the stop button
to stop the ambient. This will not inhibit the full activation, you need to
use the inhibit function for that.
If the alarm only has "Signalization: Ambient" enabled, you can use the LCD
backlight to determine whether the alarm is active or not. If the backlight is
permanently on, the alarm is active.
If only one alarm is stopped (e.g. it times out), it disables ambient even though other alarms may still be active. However, this shouldn't happen in normal use and thus will likely not be fixed.
An output pin that can be used to control a lamp. It can be controlled from the GUI (home screen), the CLI and by the alarms.
A timer that counts down and then does some events. It can be configured trough the CLI or from the GUI.
It can operate in two modes:
- If the timed events do not contain buzzer, it just does the events and stops. The stop button does nothing, and the only way to revert the changes is to use manual control - CLI or GUI.
- If the timed events do contain buzzer, the stop button stops the ringing and turns everything else off.
Note: the remaining time updates each 800ms (only if the seconds in the current time have changed since the last update), so it may seem imprecise, but this only causes a few hundred milliseconds of error at most, which should be negligible compared to the timed timespan.
The maximum time the timer can be set to is 18:12:15.
If you have a speaker connected to the alarm clock, you can define a melody
that will be used instead of standard beeping. This melody is stored in the
EEPROM and can be read or written using the Serial CLI (currently only using
direct EEPROM access commands eer and eew).
If you specify that an alarm should use a melody that is not enabled (does not have valid data stored in the EEPROM), standard beeping is used instead.
See melody.md for more info on how melodies are stored in the EEPROM.
Edit include/Settings.h.
Do not modify include/Constants.h unless you know what you are doing.
RTC (real-time clock) time can be set using the Serial CLI. Use the commands
sd and st (type help for more information).
Use the RTC screen to set date and time from the GUI. The changes are applied once you press the apply button, so you can set the time to now + 10 s and press the button on time to set it precisely.
The entered date is checked for validity when the apply button is pressed. If the entered date is invalid, nothing happens.
| Option | Values | Type | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| enabled | (OFF|SGL|RPT|SKP) | enum | OFF, Single: only rings once, Repeat, Skip |
| days | (1-7):(1|0) | bools | Days of the week the alarm is enabled for |
| time | (0-23):(0-59) | time | |
| snooze: time | (1-99) | min | How long is the alarm in snooze |
| snooze: count | (0-9) | count | How many times can the snooze feature be used |
| signalization: ambient | (0-255) | Ambient LED intensity (0 = disabled) | |
| signalization: lamp | (0|1) | bool | Is the 'lamp' output activated |
| signalization: buzzer | (0|1) | bool | Is the buzzer activated |
Notes:
bool: boolean
days of week: Mo = 1, Su = 7
Ambient LED dimming: PWM
If "Enabled" is set to "Skip", the next activation is inhibited. The alarm returns to "Repeat" afterwards.
The backlight of the LCD turns off automatically after GUI_backlight_timeout
milliseconds. To turn it on again, you need to press the rotary encoder
button, rotate the knob or press the snooze button. First press only lights up
the display very dimly without allowing further interaction with the GUI.
This is useful when the user wants to know the time at night. Another press of
the button or rotation of the rotary encoder will result in full display
brightness and unlock the GUI.
If the backlight is set to permanent (e.g. an alarm is active), it won't turn off automatically. Once the alarm is stopped, the backlight returns back to the timed mode.
Use the encoder to move the cursor under the item you want to change, then press the encoder button. Boolean type values and buttons react immediately, otherwise the cursor starts blinking and you should be able to set the value by turning the encoder. To stop changing it, press the button again.
On the alarms screen, the change is applied immediately. This can lead to an alarm activating while you are setting it. The changes are written to the EEPROM once you return to the home screen.
See screens.md for more details.
There is a CLI (command line interface) available. To access it, connect to the Arduino's USB port and use a terminal (eg. PuTTY or Arduino IDE's Serial monitor). Select the correct COM port and baudrate (9600). Individual commands (messages) must be terminated with CR or LF or both.
For info about available commands, type help.
For information on how to interact with the CLI programmatically, see
documentation of AlarmClockCLI class.
When a command is executed, it prints a hexadecimal error code. If everything is ok, 'err 0x0: OK' should be printed. If something fails, 'err 0x{n}: {explanation}' is printed. The explanation matches the error code, but error codes should be easier to decode in scripts.
Error code meanings can be found in src\AlarmClock\AlarmClockCLI.h,
the constants in the enum represent individual bits in the error code.
(An error code can contain multiple errors.)
There is an autosave feature that saves the changes after long inactivity
(the interval is a compile-time option - Serial_autosave_interval)
sel0
ls
en-rpt
dow2:1
sel
sav
Explanation:
sel0selects the alarmlslists the alarms configurationen-rptenables the alarmdow2:1enables the alarm for Tuesdaysseldeselects the alarm (optional)savsaves the changes (optional - see Autosave)