Clock/Weather station (Concept)

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Basicboy
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Clock/Weather station (Concept)

Post by Basicboy »

image.png
After having seen Peter's very nice [Local Link Removed for Guests], I remembered a story my dad told me when I was a toddler many decades ago, about a fantastical clock that shows a sun and a moon, and I am thinking of making something similar. This would have been unthinkably hard for me a mere month ago, but now with Annex I have become able to make projects overnight! (Thanks to all of you)

A basic outline is above.
1- Dot matrix clock/ weather station (8 panels side to side)
2- A sun figurine stuck on a thin wire that moves in half a circle on a servo. Sunrise and sunset times retrieved from internet (API) and the angle of the sun is calculated using the current time. On sun set the clock pays "The sun has gone" from Sound of Music and the sun sets.
(The sun is swiftly moved back to the right overnight at 3am when nobody is around to notice :mrgreen: )
3- A moon figurine affixed on another servo is shown over night.
4- A flip display that changes according to the weather
5- A figurine that bangs a bell every hour (3 bangs at 3pm, 4 at 4pm) etc

On top of that:
* Clock turns on 9am to 10pm. Overnight only displays time but is in a "quiet" mode
* clock speaks to tell the time, a quote of the day
* Throughout the day, the clock displays news
* The clock has countdown to birthdays of family members and on the birthday a special mode is activated to congratulate the member, send them a congratulatory birthday email, and the flip display shows his pictures
* The clock has a similar special mode for Christmas and Easter and Jan 1st (Xmas songs, flip showing Xmas and Santa...etc)
* The clock has 20 second count down to New year (at midnight)
* I want the background to be either a celestial blue during the day or mystical starry at night. I was thinking of printing both pictures in strips back to back (like a strip blind) and switching back and forth using a servo
image.png
Further ideas not officially embraced (yet?):
* Astrological signs like horoscope and zodiac wheel (Don't want to encourage kids to believe in this)
* Baby night light of a starry sky during the night mode (Not sure how or where that will fit)
* Moon phases (Not sure how to implement. The moon I have will be a figuring stuck on a wire!)
* Interactive voice commands (Will probably include, but need to know how)
* Relaxation mood with ambient music and light shows or mist/fog
* Some special mood if someone passes in front of it
* Eclipse mood ( show sun and moon at the same position?)


DISCLAIMER: I have a day job, so I can't promise that I will be indeed finishing this project anytime soon, but I will probably indeed have it done!
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Basicboy
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Re: Clock/Weather station (Concept)

Post by Basicboy »

I would be very happy to get ideas from you at this stage, before I decide on a final design.

Material needed (So far)

1- ESP32
2- Dot matrix 8 panels
3- I2S audio module and speakers
4- 4 Servo motors (Sun,Moon, figurine banging the bell, blinds at the back)
5- 1 Step motor (flip display)
6- Led lights

(depending on further features:)

Baby night lights
image.png
Mister (?)
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Re: Clock/Weather station (Concept)

Post by cicciocb »

[Local Link Removed for Guests] wrote: [Local Link Removed for Guests]Sun Aug 11, 2024 4:58 am I would be very happy to get ideas from you at this stage, before I decide on a final design.

Material needed (So far)

1- ESP32
2- Dot matrix 8 panels
3- I2S audio module and speakers
4- 4 Servo motors (Sun,Moon, figurine banging the bell, blinds at the back)
5- 1 Step motor (flip display)
6- Led lights

(depending on further features:)

Baby night lights
image.png

Mister (?)
Looks like a nice project; I think that all can be done with Annex
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Re: Clock/Weather station (Concept)

Post by PeterN »

The real challenge for a moment was getting the sun to move from right to left for use in Australia - I feel like I've been caught out by habitual thinking.😂
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Re: Clock/Weather station (Concept)

Post by Basicboy »

Thanks Francesco and Peter for your replies. It means much to me.
If anybody has feedback for further improvements or hints on how to make it all work, please don't hesitate to tell me
I am particularly interested in knowing how to
1- do the Flip mechanism
2- talk to the clock (the BLE phone app wasn't a success)
3- somehow implement the moon phases and baby light
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Re: Clock/Weather station (Concept)

Post by PeterN »

[Local Link Removed for Guests] wrote: [Local Link Removed for Guests]Sun Aug 11, 2024 11:15 am Thanks Francesco and Peter for your replies. It means much to me.
If anybody has feedback for further improvements or hints on how to make it all work, please don't hesitate to tell me
I am particularly interested in knowing how to
1- do the Flip mechanism
2- talk to the clock (the BLE phone app wasn't a success)
3- somehow implement the moon phases and baby light

Hi Basicboy,

I've noticed that we tend to add too many features, which can overwhelm the average user, as we might have a completely different perspective on such a technical project. A friend of mine implemented my airplane banner in a restaurant to provide useful information like time, date, sunrise, sunset, weather, temperature, humidity, news, and whether the restroom is occupied. However, this turned out to be too much, so he scaled it back to just showing the time and restroom occupancy.

Regarding voice control: Nowadays, it's very common to carry a smartphone. Therefore, a well-designed web interface and a QR code on the object can be a useful alternative to ensure quick access. I even tried some RFID-tags to directly address some functionalities via the web-interface respectively message event functions.

If audio output and limited amount of peripherals are needed, consider the M5Stack ATOM ECHO, although it has limitations with available pins for peripherals. If you're thinking about controlling multiple servos simultaneously, there are examples of using specialized peripheral hardware interfaces for this purpose. However, outputting several PWM channels on some pins may also work and is implemented in Annex.

Reflecting on my personal software construction kit and tinkering storage box, I would use my word clock project as a software skeleton. I would replace one of the NeoPixel display software routines with servo and LED display control, combine it with an ESP32 dev kit, and an external I2S board. Some servos should handle the mechanical tasks, while NeoPixels will provide the lighting. However, be cautious, as I found these servo devices to be quite loud in a bedroom setting.


I hope this helps!
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Re: Clock/Weather station (Concept)

Post by Electroguard »

It's not going to all fit into a matchbox, nor all the power supplies, so I would be inclined to do it as several independent projects which could be synced together, which would be much easier to evolve.
Also, I would probably use small stepper motors instead of servos, because they have 360 degree continuous rotation, therefore will not need a sneaky overnight reset return.
Servo would probably better for a weather barometer where either a flower girl or man holding an umbrella comes out of their doors.
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Re: Clock/Weather station (Concept)

Post by Basicboy »

Hi Peter
Thanks for your feedback. A few minutes ago I tested the ESPnow function and it worked perfectly well and at once! (I was surprised tbh!)

I think that may be very beneficial specially because I was indeed leaning towards what Electroguard suggested: Breaking down the project into smaller modules and having the main module communicate with them. It would be a good chance to put the smaller ESP8266's that I bought to good use...

I will have to find out how to make a flip display and this will probably need 3D printing (I'll outsource) . That will certainly need a stepper motor.

I am still trying to figure out how to draw images on the dot matrix (balloons for kids birthdays or bells for Xmas) The ESPhelp only shows how to print or slide text, but not graphics :cry:
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Re: Clock/Weather station (Concept)

Post by PeterN »

I remember some of our friends discussing that topic here [Local Link Removed for Guests]
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Re: Clock/Weather station (Concept)

Post by PeterN »

and this was very fascinating too in that context: https://wokwi.com/projects/346886186659218003
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