Introduction: Wake-up Light (using Microprocessor Controlled Dimmer)

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Winter is knocking on the door again in Europe.
I hate getting up in the dark, therefore I need a wake-up light...
Now normal persons would probably cough up the E90,- for a Philips Wake-Up Light.
Or get a cheap rip-off for E40,-

But I happened to have a microprocessor controlled multifunctional dimmer laying around. Yay!
(Bought it years ago for a project, never quite got around to soldering the kit together though)

Now, i do have a clockradio, but i hate waking up by the radio. So i use my cellphone as an alarm.
So actually, all i needed was a light to go slowly on, say 15 to 25 minutes before i have to wake-up.

Plans started forming in my head...

Step 1: Soldering and Shopping Time!

Well first of all i had to solder the dimmer (Velleman Kit 8028) together. Easy enough! It all worked, so that was step 1. Now i needed to get a timerclock. I went to a local store (Action, i love the place...) where they have all sorts of stuff for cheap. Found myself a timer! It's in german, but what the heck, not important. (btw. It looked pretty hackable: screws on the back, so it would open up easily)

Now i needed something to stuff it all in. box... wooden box... a Tea-box! Hooray, only 1,- !
The 'glass' was actually plastic and was very thin as well. Probably doesn't matter.

Also a few lightbulbs to see which colors would be pleasant (classic (yellow-ish), terracotta and clear). Found a nice usable lampbase in the shed.

Step 2: Connecting It All

I bridged the input (circuit always closed). Connected a powerplug to the timer and rigged it so it would power-on the dimmer. Hooked up a light bulb. Selected the function according to the manual to function 14: Select delay Times. I set up the delay_time_1 (and 2). After this i selected the function "Slow on dimmer".

This went way too easy! It works!

Now for the Timer. I opened it up and found how everything was connected. Pretty simple and customizable. (See drawing haha) From here on it's all pretty simple: hookup the board to the timer and it all works as planned.

Step 3: Finishing Up

I drilled two holes, one for the powercord and one for the lightbulb socket. Sawed some scrap wood to make spacers, which could accomodate the PCB and the timer. Glued it all in. Nice enough!

Now the tea-box looked ok, but i don't want it to stand out to much, so it was in need of some black paint. Put it all together again and flipped the 'lock' around to make it all a little bit nicer to access.

Finished!

Now i only have to look and see if the 25W bulb will provide a nice enough light. Else it will be replaced by a 50W.

Update: 25W Terracota lightbulb is enough, it wakes me up a few minutes before the nasty alarms go off! And i added the lampshade, so i won't look directly into the light when walk through the bedroom door :-)

Update 2: Saw a cheap wake-up light for 30,-.... That's half of what this light cost me in total hahaha Anyway, i had most of it laying around the house already and most important had good fun making it, hope you'll have fun reading it!

(sorry for the crappy cellphone pics, i'll update soon)