This is my Sunjar (code). Inspired by those (expensive) light alarm clocks, my Sunjar gently wakes me up in the morning to this (click to see a youtube version):

And then fall asleep to flames:

Features

This is my alarm clock, so I can put in the features that I want:

• NTP-synced time. Never forget about DST again. Always accurate.
• Wakeup by ocean light, with a 1-hour brightness ramp-up.
• Capacitive touch-sensitive override - snooze if I want to, just touch the jar
• 1-hour red-light sleep timer for going to bed
• Cool patterns during the day
• Over the air (OTA) firmware updates

Hardware

• An esp8266 (Wemos W1 Clone)
• 5 WS2812 LEDs
• 1 50M ohm resistor

Wakeup / Sleep Time Algorithm

I decided I only needed two different wakeup times, one for weekedays, one for weekends.

If you would like to see a fancier light alarm clock with a web interface to set custom alarms, check out this soothing alarm clock.

Capacitive Touch Sensor

The Sunjar is just a heavily frosted mason jar and it has a stainless steal rim. By connecting this rim to particular pins on the microcontroller, I can use the rim as a capacitive touch sensor, detecting when humans touch the jar.

The electrical schematic for this is extremely simple, requiring only two pins and a resistor:

My code easy to write thanks to a library that handles the hard parts.

This touch sensor serves to override the lamp, for when I want to sleep early, use it as a night light, or need to snooze in the morning.

A Love Letter to “Pacifica”, the ocean pattern

“Pacifica” is the name of the ocean pattern. It powers the wakeup mode (with the ocean-inspired palette) as well as the sleep mode (with a fire-inspired palette):

Written by Mark Kriegsman for the art piece “Beneath These Waves Lies Light”, it still looks beautiful on 5 leds:

Its beauty comes from its complexity and depth. There are four simultaneous “waves” intersecting each other with extra effects for darker hues and whitecaps.

Future Improvements

• I think eventually I will want an easier way to change the alarm times
• Maybe I can make the touch sensor detect long holds or double taps for more interesting commands
• Synchronized color schemes for special events copied from a different project