Building The Ultimate Alarm Clock

[FFTT]

As many of you know I'm really hard of hearing and I stay up way too late many nights
doing things like posting to these forums at all hours of the night.

That's fine until I need to wake up at 4:30 A.M. to get myself to work by 7:00 A.M.

I have two radio alarm clocks both set to " Wake The Dead " and once again, I slept through both of them the other morning making me 1 1/2 hours late to work.

My boss was cool about it, but I can't let this keep happening.

Since I can't really afford a wake up service, I thought it might be interesting to see what clever devices my fellow gearslutz members might come up with.

This could be the mother of all alarm clock challenges and something for less than $100.00 might just be marketable on a greater scale to deaf and sleepy people like me.

[the scum]

Get an old washing machine (or similar) large AC motor. Put an off-balance cam on the motor. Bolt the assembly to your bedframe. Put a plexiglass cover over it so you don't rick catching sleepy fingers/toes in the spinning cam.

It'll look like a cell phone vibrator, only much larger.

Then hack an alarm clock to find the signal from the controller that drives the alarm. My guess is that the clocks use a clock chip that you can find a datasheet for online to assist in this task.

Use that signal to switch a heavy duty relay to start the motor.

It might be nice to have a speed control or soft start circuit on the motor.

Come to think of it, my cell has an alarm function that activates the buzzer...could you just sleep with one tucked under your nightcap?

[Sounds Great]

Originally Posted by FFTT

This could be the mother of all alarm clock challenges and something for less than $100.00 might just be marketable on a greater scale to deaf and sleepy people like me.

A girlfriend/wife? Oh wait, that'll set you back a lot more than 100 bucks.

[FFTT]

It took me 29 years to get rid of the first one.

stike stike stike stike

[PhilRanger]

lots of cd-radio-alarm clocks have a headphone out. Connect it to your hi-fi, at disturbingly high volume. Want a wake-upo winner CD? "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith", by Mötörhead!!

[JohnRoberts]

Originally Posted by FFTT

As many of you know I'm really hard of hearing and I stay up way too late many nights
doing things like posting to these forums at all hours of the night.

That's fine until I need to wake up at 4:30 A.M. to get myself to work by 7:00 A.M.

I have two radio alarm clocks both set to " Wake The Dead " and once again, I slept through both of them the other morning making me 1 1/2 hours late to work.

My boss was cool about it, but I can't let this keep happening.

Since I can't really afford a wake up service, I thought it might be interesting to see what clever devices my fellow gearslutz members might come up with.

This could be the mother of all alarm clock challenges and something for less than $100.00 might just be marketable on a greater scale to deaf and sleepy people like me.

Try one of those drum throne shakers... feed from clock radio with appropriate power applied. Don't know price points, but easier than DIY.

JR

[tINY]

Do you sleep through them, or are they actually turned off?

If you turn them off and go back to sleep, you need 3-4 of them - one next to the bed, one across the room, one out in the hall and maybe one next to the shower.... Synch them so they go off in sequence about a minute apart. You'll soon train yourself to go and turn them all off in order and, since you are already next to the shower, turn it on and get in.

If you actually sleep through them, you need to get a plug-in timer for a light and connect an obscene amount of ligh to it (like a 750w wide flood). Again, make sure you have to get out of bed to actually turn it off...


Good luck.




-tINY

[FFTT]

Each alarm clock already has 2 alarm settings and I do have them sequenced to blast me out of bed.

I have to set them to music because I can't even hear the beeper settings on either of them.

I tried putting one alarm across the room so I'd have to get up to turn it off, but slept through it.

I suppose the powered speaker extension might be the most affordable solution
even if I have to buy yet another alarm clock with a headphone out.

It's either that or an Ampeg SVT Alarm!

[big country]

buy a sprinkler timer and rig a rocket ignitor to it pack some gun powder in some bondo put in bung hole.

if that dont wake you .

take your new sprinkler timer and rig a nice little coil from your daddys old chevy
and attach the wires from the coil to your nut sacks.

good luck

[max cooper]

Some random thoughts:

You think it may be because you're not getting enough sleep? What time to you get to bed usually?

I wake up at 4:30 to get to a yoga class five days a week, and I've had to change up my schedule to wake at that hour.

In the modern world, we have a lot more ambient light (streetlights, neighbours, etc.) and noise than we did for most of human history, so it's hard to get to bed at a reasonable hour..

Also, there are distractions like T.V., the internet, etc.

And plus, most of us drink more and stronger coffee than we did in the pre-coffee-house-on-every-corner world. Most of us drink coffee way into the afternoon, and for some of us, this makes it harder to get sound sleep at night.

I try to start dimming the lights in my house at least an hour before I need to be asleep. It helps get you in the "mood".

Also, regular, vigorous exercise makes it easier to get to sleep and to wake up early.

I dunno if any of this is applicable, though...

[Minion]

Maybe you can somehow wire the Clock so when the allarm goes off it shoots say 10,000v through your body...That will wake you up and the next time you will probably wake up by yourself before the allarm goes off so you avoid the Shock of the morning.....

When my allarm goes off it scares the crap out of me so my Brain has been trained to wake me up a couple minutes before my allarm goes off so I"m sure it would do the same for you if you got a Good shock when your allarm goes off...

Just a Thought.....

[nosebleedaudio]

A boxing glove comes out of the alarm and beat's the crap out of you until you get up...
And plays your worst favorite song of all time...

[Sounds Great]

I haven't used any alarm at all for many years now. My wife insisted on this and I did finally get used to it. I do generally wake up at whatever time I plan on.

[FFTT]

Originally Posted by Minion

Maybe you can somehow wire the Clock so when the allarm goes off it shoots say 10,000v through your body...That will wake you up and the next time you will probably wake up by yourself before the allarm goes off so you avoid the Shock of the morning.....

When my allarm goes off it scares the crap out of me so my Brain has been trained to wake me up a couple minutes before my allarm goes off so I"m sure it would do the same for you if you got a Good shock when your allarm goes off...

Just a Thought.....

Already plenty of shock looking in the mirror first thing in the morning..............

[Geoff_T]

Hi

This is too easy...

Buy one of those ancient, clockwork, alarm clocks with two bells on the top of them.

Place it on the other side of the room to your bed.

You'll need to wind it up every night but you won't sleep through it!

They cost about $20.

[Berolzheimer]

This AM a B-2, an F-15 & an F-16 flew over my house at low altitude, that sure got me up in a hurry. Maybe you could arrange something aong those lines.

[big country]

Originally Posted by Geoff_T

Hi

This is too easy...

Buy one of those ancient, clockwork, alarm clocks with two bells on the top of them.

Place it on the other side of the room to your bed.

You'll need to wind it up every night but you won't sleep through it!

They cost about $20.

some one of your skills can come up with a better way to wake the dead!

20 dollar alarm clock. come on we need caps and transformers some faders.

we need this guy flyin around the room or something of that nature.

Details

[Geoff_T]

Originally Posted by big country

some one of your skills can come up with a better way to wake the dead!

20 dollar alarm clock. come on we need caps and transformers some faders.

we need this guy flyin around the room or somthing of that nature.

Hi

Back around 1985 I bought a beautiful Mitsubishi hi-fi system that was entirely controlled by a remote control unit about 15" long and 2" high. It clipped onto the front of the amplifier when not needed as a remote control.

Anyway, I decided to get it to work as an alarm and set the volume as 8 (out of 100) but did not notice that I'd had set it for 88.

The following morning I nearly had a heart attack at the volume of music belting out of the system! I also had to mute it via the up/down volume bar that took for ever to scale the level down to a reasonable level!

[big country]

did you use a wall wort style timer?

[AlphaDingo]

the mill down the street burned down a few years ago. Firetrucks, explosions, everyone in town going over there. I slept through it. Cops called on someone in my building, slept right through it. I rarely oversleep because I go to bed at the same time everynight and get up at the same time every morning. There are exceptions of course, but the rule stands. I would also suggest an alarm clock that has a light that turns on at the appointed time. I think it's called the sunrise clock. VERY helpful.

EDIT: Here it is:

http://www.biobrite.com/products.php...e%20Clocks

[FFTT]

Well the most obnoxious sound I've ever heard in this house was the buzzer to the
septic alarm going off a few years ago.

Maybe I should find one of those buzzers and use it to replace the alarm clock's beeper that I can't hear at all.

Or maybe I should order a Mercury mod kit.

[Berolzheimer]

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/showt...17#post1062717

[tuckpunk]

I saw my friend's father, who'd been my trumpet instructor, a few years ago. He drove truck in the summers and taught high school band the rest of the year. As he's turning in, to go to bed, while we are in the back yard sharing beers and stories someone notices the can of spam in his hand. When asked what he was doing with the spam he replied " a spam sandwich just before bed sets nature's alarm clock."

Perhaps the way to make oversleeping unpleasant is not best approached with sound!

[FFTT]

Well folks it happened again.

Slept right through and ended up calling in sick for half a day.

I thought they were both set to go off EVERY Morning, but apparently
I was wrong.

We're really short handed and I needed to be there on time.

I need something absolutely reliable and loud to cover my hearing loss.

[jgrif08]

Originally Posted by Sounds Great

I haven't used any alarm at all for many years now. My wife insisted on this and I did finally get used to it. I do generally wake up at whatever time I plan on.

Call me crazy, but somehow I just don't think this is a realistic option for the man...

[tINY]

Did you make sure to get to sleep 7-8 hours before you had to get up? Think of it as a sleep buffer...



-tINY

[max cooper]

Do you hear the phone when you're asleep?

If it's really getting you in hot water, a two-dollar 976 wakeup call is better than not getting to work on time.

[max cooper]

Check this out:

The Sonic Boom Alarm Clock is a unique new alarm clock that is guaranteed to wake up even the heaviest sleepers and is ideal for the hearing impaired.
When the alarm goes off, the user can select to wake up to any combination of loud pulsating audio alarm, flashing lights, or shaking bed (vibrator sold separately).

Here's the link:

http://seniorshops.stores.yahoo.net/sonicboomalarm.html

Here's a cheaper one ($20)

http://www.brucemedical.com/exloudalcloc.html

You'll also find vibrating alarm watches at those links.

If the phone deal works, maybe someone at work can call you when they're getting up.

[poncival]

Originally Posted by FFTT

Well folks it happened again.

Slept right through and ended up calling in sick for half a day.

I thought they were both set to go off EVERY Morning, but apparently
I was wrong.

We're really short handed and I needed to be there on time.

I need something absolutely reliable and loud to cover my hearing loss.

If you're staying up too late and not getting enough sleep, you're screwing yourself! I know it's hard but you can't blame oversleeping on your inability to hear the alarm clock entirely... Being too tired makes it that much harder to hear the alarm clock no matter how good your ears are! Make sure it's set for the same time every day and make sure you go to bed at about the same time every day and this will help...

As for the "not loud enough" part, one thing I had good luck with in high school (when it was VERY hard to get up every day!) when I set up an automatic light timer (like you get at walgreens, etc) connected to my stereo system which was set at a very high volume. I couldn't get it accurate to the minute but usually it would come on a few minutes before 7 which was fine. My family got pretty sick of it but I was always up on time! After a while I rigged up a 110VAC "shop buzzer" (like the kind that announces a lunch break in a busy machine shop) to a fairly large aluminum chassis which amplified the sound of the buzzer many times over. I hooked this up to one of those "smart home" clocks which control light timers through the AC wiring in your house. This way I could get the time accurate to the minute and still get my extra loud alarm. You could use one of these things to control anything- electric shocks may not be so far off base here, you could thread a needle with some bare copper wire and run it through your pillowcase and hook it up to a spark coil and run that off of a timer... It's true you will begin to wake up a little early every day on your own to avoid the pain! It doesn't have to be something that really hurts but a good zap never hurt anybody and you may find yourself feeling somewhat recharged from the whole experience...

Another thing that I always try to do if I only have a few hours to sleep and HAVE to be back at the studio for a session: DRINK A LOT OF WATER BEFORE GOING TO SLEEP! usually this will make your subconscious mind a little more sensitive to the alarm clock going off even if you can barely hear it, you will still feel like getting up to take a leak and you will see what time it is.

I don't know if I would stake my reputation on this but it has worked for me a few times and I know my dad swears by it and he has been to work every day on time for the last 40 years with no alarm clock! He told me that before he goes to sleep at night he looks at the clock to see what time it is, makes a mental image of the time he has to get up (using the same numbers he just saw on the clock) and then while he is lying down in the dark he closes his eyes and pictures those numbers. Then he pictures himself picking up the numbers as a group and then tossing them into a big black hole in the ground. The next thing he sees is those numbers on the alarm clock, "to the minute" and he gets out of bed...

If all else fails, you can do what my roommate in college did before a big Japanese exam that he didn't want to take but had to... Set up a bucket of water over your bed which is rigged with a string to your alarm clock so that when you reach out to turn your clock off you bump the string and pull the whole bucket of water down on top of yourself... This worked great and saved him from being kicked out of the program which did not allow for 1 sick day... Then again, he did the same thing for his exam 2 weeks later and remembered that the string was there before he opened his eyes.. I was still awake from the night before and was hoping to see what happened when he woke up. He looked at the string, looked at me, and said "F!K it!! I HATE Japanese!!!" and reached around the string, turned off his alarm and rolled over. I went over and yanked the string a couple minutes later. What are friends for?

My 2000 cents

[Wavebourn]

Ask your wife to leave the door open when she goes to work in the morning.

Speaking seriously, don't do in the bed more than 2 things: sleep and ***...

No reading, nor TV watching, nothing. It helps to sleep well.