Sean Carney's Website

Late in the summer of 2005 my alarm clock broke. It was very sad because I had been using that same alarm clock for four years without any problem. I could still use it, and it was used until the end of this summer. The problem was the only way to change the alarm time was to stuff a pen into the back of it an wiggle it around a lot until the clock decided to change to the correct time.

At the end of camp this year when we were cleaning house on the rock I found a broken alarm clock. As usual with shampoo and broken alarm clocks, no one claimed it as their own and it got dumped into my stuff. The face was broken and a button was missing but I used it for a few days as my clock became even less cooperative.

Today Girish and I went to Value Village to see what stuff we could scare up. He really didn't see anything that caught his fancy but I saw a few things which cried out to be worked on. The first was an old portable radio which really wanted to house a CD player. I decided that it would be a bit much work and moved on. Next I saw some old alarm clocks and joysticks. Now there's a project just waiting to happen. I had seen a similar project in Make using a Nintendo light gun, so I figured a joystick would be just as good.

I started work on it when I got home with Girish looking curiously over my shoulder. I managed to get it finished and working in relatively short order. It has one small quirk that I haven't been able to figure out, but for the most point it works perfectly. When you press the button on the controller it has the same effect as pressing the snooze button. You can set the clock time and the alarm time by simply moving the joystick back and forth. From now on the gloomy feeling of having to set my alarm clock for early in the morning will be partially offset by the fun of playing with the joystick to set the time.