Smart Digital Alarm Clock

Yeah yeah yeah, I know... just use your smartphone like everyone else does, but there is a certain amount of charm in using one of the old 7-LED alarm clocks from the 80s...

How about if you hack (or make a new) retro-styled LED alarm clock, with nice big numbers (LCDs? Multicolor LED matrix? Lightpipe laser etching of Lexan?), two alarms, AM/FM radio OR more modern music sources, snooze, auto-sync with NNTP, WiFi, show weather forecast, scroll messages, auto dim for night time, accessible/programmable via web browser or smartphone app, smart battery back-up, solar...

Make it so.

D_Hersey over 8 years ago

Not 'sposta laser polycarbonate. Acrylic si. Polycarbonate no.
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1stage over 8 years ago in reply to D_Hersey

You are correct. Acrylic is the best for laser.
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beacon_dave over 8 years ago

I think you've pretty much just described a device based around an app running on a low cost tablet type device there, perhaps set into a retro style housing.

However I do like the idea of large LED type displays and something that came up here recently was for a large clock / countdown timer display for use in exam hall type applications where it had to be _big_ and with the option of playing back timed audio announcements.

I'm also intrigued by the idea of some sort of a LED type equivalent of the old nixie tube, either by using edge-lit etched Perspex/Plexiglas or perhaps the LED filaments now being used in the squirrel cage type retro lamps.
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