Wooden Overhead Alarm Clock Features Ingeniously Simple Interface

When you go to bed, you likely set an alarm clock of some kind or your phone to wake you up at a prescribed time. This, of course, requires some procedure of pressing and holding down certain button combinations or swiping around, but why not a simpler interface with physical buttons and dials to do exactly what’s needed? And while you’re at it, why not place the clock above you like a sort of bedtime heads-up display?

As Kurt Andros demonstrates with his Overhead Alarm Clock — AKA Überkopf-Wecker per the German version of this write-up — there’s no reason you can’t have both. His clock is mounted on top of a bed in a wooden housing, and features “+” and “-” buttons for both the current time and alarm time, along with dimmable time displays. No menus are needed, and instead of a snooze button, you can reset the alarm time (Alarmzeit) by simply poking a button. Brightness of the LEDs as well as the MP3 alarm volume are set via rotary potentiometers.

The device is powered by an Arduino Mega with an RTC module that accounts for temperature variations for every accurate timekeeping, and a custom PCB is used to connect everything together. It’s a clever design, and the menu-less interface gives you one less thing to think about when you’re trying to get a good night’s sleep!