Arduino Projects For Dummies

Chapter 7

Building an Arduino Clock

In This Chapter

Using a real-time clock module

Using a 16 x 2 LCD display

Programming your clock

Adding an alarm switch and piezoelectric sounder

Everyone seems to be running short on time. You can’t make more time, but by building this project you can at least keep track of time and set an alarm with a pitch and duration of your choice.

The Arduino is at the heart of this project, but its right-hand man is a Real Time Clock (RTC) module. After you have an idea of how the RTC works, you can add timekeeping to other projects where it’s important, such as putting a timestamp onto data that you collect. When you are finished with this project, you will have a working clock that keeps time reasonably accurately. You can set an alarm and program your own messages to display. You also find out how to use an RTC module, how to display text on a 16 x 2 LCD display, and how to accept user input with buttons and switches.

This project is built in stages. You add hardware, and then you add some code to test that it works, and then more hardware, and so ...