I made an alarm clock
Hardware
alarm clock
SHOW HN2021
271points
192comments
#135of 2,533 in 2021
Top 6%of 2021 by points
How HN took it
LovedMost comments that take a side are positive
21 positive, 44 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 3 critical, out of 69 comments about the project. Thread score +0.31.
Idea: 12 for, 0 againstDesign: 2 for, 2 againstExecution: 1 for, 0 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Clever octagonal design
From 1 comment
Nice job! (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…
TeMPOraL on HN
Objections
Needs constant power and internet; no battery backup
From 3 comments
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.
nip180 on HN> 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…
robocat on HNCable 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…
Fnoord on HN
Screen burn-in risk when kept on
From 1 comment
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…
harkal on HN
Requests
Add a battery for power outages
From 2 comments
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.
nip180 on HN> 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…
robocat on HN
Add a sunrise or wake-up light feature
From 2 comments
When Google Home wakes me up in the morning, it also turns on my Phillips Hue lights and slowly increases the color temperature and brightness. ( and does the usual things like…
Ice_cream_suit on HNYep, 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.
StavrosK on HN
Questions
Is the source code available?
From 1 comment
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…
e12e on HN
Will it be sold?
From 1 comment
Cool are you going to sell it?
brian_herman on HN
Alternatives named
Philips wake-up light
From 1 comment
There are tons of “wake up lights” out there. I use this one and it does just that: https://www.usa.philips.com/c-p/HF3520_60.amp/wake-up-light
fassssst on HN
Hatch baby night light clock
From 1 comment
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…
jedimastert on HN
Google sunrise alarm on Android
From 1 comment
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),…
jffry on HN