Wii Balance Board Alarm Clock
The phone rings. His eyes dart open and he grasps for the phone. Finding it on the bedside cabinet he answers the call.
“Hello?” he says.
“We are at the train station. Where are you?” Is the cold reply.
With growing dread, he glances at the clock. 11 am. He should have been on that train hours ago.
If your anything like me, you have trouble waking up. The story above is one of my many of the failed battles to wake up for a certain time. It’s almost like another brain has control in the initial seconds of waking, and that brain is very efficient at getting me back to sleep. Overriding my best made morning plans made the night before.
I’ve tried a few different methods for getting up. The best method I have found is putting my phone downstairs as this forces me to walk downstairs to switch my alarm off. With one small problem that it wakes the entire house up.
So I have a different plan, the core idea is simple. I’m required to stand out of bed for 60 seconds to switch off my alarm. This hopefully should allow enough time to let the sleep brain dissipate.
The Plan
My plan is to have a Wii Fit Board connected to an alarm clock. Every morning the alarm will cause a buzzer to sound.
On stepping on the board, the buzzer will stop. If I get off before the period of 60 seconds has passed the buzzer will continue sounding.
A side benefit of using the board is that it can measure my weight, which I plan to record and store. Allowing me to track my weight over time without even thinking about it.
Parts
This is going to be a multipart post that follows along as I complete various aspects and get the project working.
- Raspberry Pi and initial setup
- Breadboarding the electronics
- Closing the lid
- Software and Setup
- Outcomes and six month review
Final Look
This is the alarm clock in it’s final position. Read my thoughts about it in the six month review.
The alarm clock in it’s final position.