This is a project I came up with that was inspired by my love for bacon!

This is an alarm clock that is designed to wake you up with the smell of bacon. With the help of an arduino the alarm clock will already have the bacon aroma filling the room to wake you up before the alarm, or it will make you just want some bacon when the alarm goes off.

Step 1: Materials

1. Arduino Uno (can be found at Newark/Element 14)

2. RTC ( Real Time Clock ) shield with Bluetooth -( You will also need an Android device with the Blueterm app )

3. Mini Dual LED Matrix shield

4. Bacon scented oil

5. A 5" mini frying pan ( found at wal-mart )

6. Unscented candle wax

7. Oven bake clay ( for the bacon )

8. Sink strainer set

9. Electric Candle warmer

10. USB and AC receptical outlet combo - 120v / 15 amp ( Can be found online or at Home Depot )

11. 3~32VDC SSr-25 DA Solid State Relay ( Found online )

12. Wood to build your box

13. Plexiglass to build your display box

14. Spray Paint ( optional )

Step 2: Programming Your Arduino and Heating Pad

I used a sketch found in another instructable for the Silly Clock. This is also where I was able to order my shields for the arduino.

Links to Sketch and Parts:

http://timewitharduino.blogspot.com/2011/08/illycl…

https://www.instructables.com/id/Building-IllyClock…

I also attached the file for the updated sketch for this project below

Once I was able to get all of my parts for the Arduino and had the sketch uploaded, it was just a matter of tweaking the code. Because the RTC shield had bluetooth, I was able to control the clock wirelessly with the Android app Blueterm. This can only be done with an Android device and will not work with anything other. Once you have connected to your device via bluetooth, you can control your alarm with these commands:

ALARM TIME=00:00

TIME=00:00

ALARM ON

ALARM OFF

STOP ALARM

SHOW ALARM

The alarm clock is also set to show colors as: 3 hours before wake-up time, color changes from green to orange; 1 hour before wake-up, the time is shown in red.

Once you set your alarm time, the relay can be set in the sketch to switch on the heating pad before your alarm goes off. Once the alarm does go off, the relay will switch back to off and the heating pad will no longer be active.

Heating pad:

Next I took apart the Electric heating pad. The heating pad that I decided to use for my clock had an on/off switch which I decided to keep connected just to have the option of keeping it on or off regardless of the relay. I can also tell wether it is working or not by the small light that was attached to the switch. ( shown in the second and third photo ).

BaconClock.zip
Download

Step 3: Making the Bacon

What I did for this step was I found some bakeable clay that could withstand the heat from the pad and wax. Once I formed my bacon strips, I baked the clay as directed.

My next step was to melt my wax beads on the Electric candle warmer and add my bacon oil. Go with your judgment on how much oil to add.

This can also be a good time trial stage for you to find out just how long it will take the warmer to melt the wax and put off a good aroma. Once you find out how long it takes to do this, note the time to later put in the sketch.

Step 4: Wiring the Components

The first thing I did at this point, was check to make sure my relay was working. After taking apart my candle warmer and removing my heating pad, I hooked up my arduino and shields to the relay through an output that was attached to my RTC Shield ( output shown above in the first photo ).

Next you neet to supply your combo outlet which will go inside your box with a plug that can go from your clock to the wall plug. The outlet inside your box will supply both the Arduino and the heating pad. With the cord from the heating pad, you want the ground part of your cord running directly to the pad and the Positive wire going in one side of your relay. Then you connect a wire going from the other side of the relay to the positive side on your heating pad.

Once this is done correctly, you can connect your arduino with the usb cable to your outlet that will go inside your box and plug in your heating pad to the same outlet as well. ( shown in the second photo ).

Step 5: Build Your Box

My inspiration for the shape of my clock came from this little oven we have in our kitchen. Using the curves from the mini Iron oven, and the carpentry skills of my dad, we were able to build cut the wood to have that oven look. We build it just big enough to hold all of the components and to fit my mini skillet inside the display.

Once we had all the wood cut, we cut a hole the size of the sink washer and fitting to hold our heating pad. ( shown in photo 4 and 5). We used the sink fitting and washer to keep the pad from heating the wood and because it fit the size of the pad perfectly.

Next we cut a square for the display to fit in perfectly and attached a small strap over the Arduino and shields to hold it in place.

Once we had our box built and had all of our components fitting inside, I glued the sides of the box then used some brad nails for reinforcement.

After everything was enclosed, I taped my wire, display, and heating pad so that I was able to spray paint my box. The paint I used was a similar texture and color to the cast iron oven. Once this was dry, I peeled off all of the tape.

Step 6: Build Your Display

My next step was to build the display case to fit over the box. I bought a decent sized piece of plexiglass from home depot for around 20 dollars and a small plexiglass cutter and silicone. We measured the size the final box and used those measurements to size the display case. Once all of our sides were cut, we put holes in them using a drill. By adding the holes, the bacon aroma is able to fill the room.

The next step was gluing all of the sides of the display together using the silicone. I also used tape for reinforcement.