Arduino (or similar) based wake-up light?

panyan · 22 Oct 2017 at 09:16

I would really like a simple wake up light - something that just starts to power an LED at 6am and is at full brightness at 6:30am.

No RGBs, no sounds, no clock functionality. Just a light.

And I would love if it could be powered by a mobile phone charger (microusb) as i have one by my bed already.

I was thinking something that takes in 5v from microusb, has a programmable chip and can power LEDs, like this?

I have no prior experience with programming any of these arduino or similar things - can someone give me some advise please?

E.g. circuit diagrams, LED types, code

Thanks

BaroUK2 · 22 Oct 2017 at 10:32

Seems like lot of people used Arduino...
https://www.openhardware.io/view/269#tabs-instructions
http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Arduino-Sunrise-Lamp/

badgeruk · 23 Oct 2017 at 21:09

Just did a bit of quick googling(?) for you This covers the most basic idea of how you would do this if you did want to learn a bit about how it would work. https://programmingelectronics.com/...ith-pulse-width-modulation-using-analogwrite/

Basic idea is you use PWM to control how bright the led would be and as it get closer to 6:30 you would change the PWM so it got brighter. Off the top of my head I am not sure what Arduinos (if any of the basic ones) have a real time clock but you will need one to be able to set the time and have it run at 6 each day. This page would give you a rough idea of what you would need to add to an Arduino https://playground.arduino.cc/Main/DS1302

I haven't used Arduinos in years (since the first couple of boards had come out/ I am a PIC man) so someone may know of a shield that has leds/RTC on it already.

Evilpaul · 24 Oct 2017 at 19:38

Instead of an Arduino you could look at using an ESP8266. They are dirt cheap, can run Arduino code and have WiFi so you could do without an RTC and just use NTP instead.