Google Calendar in Self-Setting Alarm Clock

Overview

The project has been renamed to Dynamically Programmable Alarm Clock (DPAC) which connects to Google Calendar through Wi-Fi and collects events for next day to calculate the best time of alarm.

Details

An Arduino platform is the basis of the alarm clock which comes along with some peripherals including WiFly wireless module, RTC, x10 to control light, audio amplifier, FM radio, and 6.4” LCD screen. All necessary settings such as Google calendar login, locations, and destinations are entered in a specially written Web user Interface where the alarm clock is connected.

The improved frequency response and minimal distortion of audio was due to the design of fiberglass speaker baffles. Every option imaginable, in organized and logical menus was provided by tweaking and refining the user interface. To inform the user on the next scheduled alarm, last minute smarts were added to the web UI to provide feedback to the user.

The LCD display includes a backpack translator based on an ATmega168 processor where basic UART commands are accepted and translated to the interface of LCD. This minimizes I/O requirements on the microcontroller. The LCD is large enough to display a time from far.