Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “DIY Hacks & How To’s: Sunrise Alarm”.
There are a few things that are more annoying than the beep of an alarm clock. One alternative is to use lights to wake you up. For instance, a sunrise alarm clock gradually increases the brightness of a light near your bed at the set time. This helps some people wake up more gently. Unfortunately, commercial sunrise, alarm clocks can cost over $ 100, but you can make your own for about 10 here, the materials that you’ll need for this project.
The outlet timer acts as the clock, the USB adapter in cables supply the power to the circuit. The rest of the components are used to control the lights. This control circuit is essentially just an RC timer with a transistor amplifier. Here’S how it works when the power is turned on the capacitor begins to charge, as this is happening, its output voltage slowly increases.
This voltage signal is sent to the transistor, which sets the transistors output. This causes the LEDs to gradually increase in brightness. Over several minutes. You can adjust the fade in time by changing the values of the capacitor and its resistor.
Increasing their values would cause the LEDs to turn on more slowly decreasing. These values will have the opposite effect. The variable resistor is used to adjust the starting voltage of the capacitor. This lets you set the initial brightness of the leds. The MOSFET was chosen for the transistor because it requires very little input current and is capable of driving a large number of LEDs optionally. You can also add a snooze button to the circuit by connecting a momentary switch to the terminals of the capacitor.
When assembling the circuit. I first prototyped it on a breadboard, then after testing it I started the circuit together on a printed circuit board to power. The circuit plug the timer into the wall outlet plug the USB adapter into the timer and plug the USB cable into the adapter, set the timer for about 15 minutes. Before you want to wake up. When the timer goes off, it will activate the circuit. The LEDs will then gradually turn on and hopefully wake you up now.
You just need to figure out a way to mount your light. The simplest way is to just place it next to your bed on a nightstand. Another option is to mount it above your bed. In something like a hanging Lantern or if you want the light to be more directional, you can mount it inside an adjustable lamp.
If all else fails, you could just put the lights directly into your pillow. Do whatever you find works best to wake you up when you’re? First, trying out your sunrise, alarm clock, you may wish to have a regular alarm as a backup, just in case the lights, don’t reliably wake you up! Well, thanks for watching and check back next week for more DIY hacks and how to’s .