Another Cool Talking Clock

While most DIY clock projects focus on showing the time, this one speaks it! You also have the option of personalizing the face of the clock as per your wish. This means, you can have your own face or even Steve Jobs’ to tell you the time.

This talking clock uses Arduino Uno, Wave shield, SD card, either Real Time Clock DS1307 or a data logging shield, stacking headers, speaker (either a small 8ohm 1W or you can add an external amplified speaker for cooler effect), LEDs and resistors (1 resistor per LED, momentary buttons like tactile switches, a power source (your USB phone charger will do), and soldering material. The user gets to record their voice.

Be sure to run through their tutorials on wave shield. The wave shield can play up to 22 kHz 12 bit uncompressed files of any length. It adds quality to the audio. The LEDs act as the face and mouth. They blink while telling the time to produce that effect – in fact the brightness of the LED in response to audio being played can also be modulated. The resistors are soldered directly on to the LED on either anode or cathode.

To record new voices, a computer with sound input capability and audio software that can edit and save WAV files is required. A USB microphone can also be used. The SD cared is used to store high quality voice samples.

So here’s a clock which will wake you up with your own voice and your chosen face. Maybe this is just the inspiration you need to wake up early without hitting the snooze button?