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Arduino Alarm Clock Circuit

In this project, we designed an Arduino based Real Time Clock with alarm. A Real Time Clock or RTC is a battery powered clock that measures time even when there is no external power or the microcontroller is reprogrammed.

An RTC displays clock and calendar with all timekeeping functions. The battery, which is connected to the RTC is a separate one and is not related or connected to the main power supply.
Arduino Alarm Clock

When the power is restored, RTC displays the real time irrespective of the duration for which the power is off. Such Real Time Clocks are commonly found in computers and are often referred to as just CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor).

Most microcontrollers and microprocessors have built in timers for keeping time. But they work only when the microcontroller is connected to power supply.

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When the power is turned on, the internal timers reset to 0. Hence, a separate RTC chip is included in applications like data loggers for example, which doesn’t reset to 0 when the power is turned off or reset.

Real Time Clocks are often useful in data logging applications, time stamps, alarms, timers, clock builds etc. In this project, a Real Time Clock, which displays accurate time and date along with an alarm feature is designed.

One of the frequently used RTC ICs DS1307 is used in this project along with Arduino. The circuit, design and working are explained in the following sections.

Arduino Alarm Clock

Circuit Diagram

Arduino Alarm Clock

Alarm clock connectionsComponents Required

  • Arduino UNO – 1  [Buy Here]
  • DS 1307 RTC Module – 1
  • Push Buttons – 3
  • 16X2 LCD Display – 1  [Buy Here]
  • Buzzer – 1
  • 10 KΩ – 2
  • 10 KΩ POT – 1

Component Description

DS1307

DS1307 is the frequently used real time clock (RTC) IC for clock and calendar. The clock function provides seconds, minutes and hours while the calendar function provides day, date, month and year values.

The clock can operate in either 12 hour with AM/PM indication or 24 hour format. A 3V backup battery must be connected to the RTC so that the IC can automatically switch to the backup supply in case of power failure. A

32.768 KHz crystal is connected to the oscillator terminal of DS1307 for 1 Hz oscillations.

Circuit Design

The communication between microcontroller and RTC IC DS1307 is serial I2C bidirectional bus. I2C protocol is a method of communication between a faster device (Microcontroller or Arduino in this case) in master mode and a slower device (RTC) in slave mode.

There are two pins on Arduino for I2C communication. Analog pins 4 and 5 will act as SDA (Serial Data) and SCL (Serial Clock).

These are connected to respective SDA and SCL pins of RTC. Both these pins of RTC are pulled high using 10KΩ resistors.

An LCD is used to display the clock. 6 pins of LCD must be connected to Arduino. RS, E, D4, D5, D6 and D7 (Pins 4, 6, 11, 12, 13 and 14) of LCD are connected to pins 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of Arduino.

Three buttons are used to set the alarm. These buttons are connected to pins 8, 9 and 10 of Arduino. A buzzer is connected to pin 11 of Arduino that acts as an alarm.

Working

The aim of this project is to create a real time clock along with an alarm feature. The working of the project is explained below.

All the connections are made as per the shown circuit diagram. The code for Arduino is uploaded and the LCD displays the current date and time.

In order to set the alarm, we press the set button. It’ll go to alarm mode and asks for hours with current time being displayed. The increment button must be pressed must be pressed to change the hours.

As the clock is in 24 hour format, the hours will be incremented between 0 and 23. Once the hours of the alarm is set, we must press the next button to go to minutes tab.

Again increment button is pressed to change the minutes. Once the alarm time is entered, set button is pressed and the alarm is set.

The values entered as alarm are stored in the EEPROM of the Arduino. These values are continuously compared with the present time.

When the stored values and current value match, the buzzer for the alarm will be triggered. In order to stop the alarm, the next button is pressed.

Output Video

Code

NOTE

  • A simple Real Time Clock, which has an alarm feature is designed in this project using Arduino and RTC IC.
  • The time and alarm will keep on running as there is a backup supply to the RTC and alarm is stored in the internal EEPROM of Arduino.
  • Functions like snooze and multiple alarms can be added by modifying the code of Arduino.

49 Responses

  1. Sir what is the use of this line int tmp,Inc,hor,mIn,add=11;? is there other button that is connected to pin 11 of arduino maybe?

    1. Pin 11 of Arduino is connected to the Buzzer but it is declared as “#define buz 11”. The “line int tmp,Inc,hor,mIn,add=11;” is declaring some integer variables.

  2. Any one help plz i have made this project all circuit is complete when i turn on battery lcd is on but there is no display like no number is displayed. Can anyone sort this out?

    1. Hi, Try to check the connections once again. Adjust the Potentiometer connected to the LCD to vary the contrast.

  3. can u mail me the rtc library used here and how can i set multiple alarms at a time (up to 10 alarms)

  4. Can I Make this Using Arduino Mega???
    As I borrowed an Arduino Mega module from my senior and don’t want to buy UNO needlessly???

  5. THANK YOU FOR THE CODING !!
    The time on my lcd is showing 12 hrs apart from the current time. What should I do? I’m in desperate need for help.

  6. Cute little project but unfortunately uncomplete. Among all the stupid questions below the articje there is one that stands out, ant it is :”I’m getting wrong time please help me”!

    The project is useless if there is no way to set the clock, and you avoided it completely.

    🙁

  7. help! i downloaded the program that was given above and i have no luck it keeps giving me.

    C:\Users\cameron\Documents\Arduino\alarm_clock_new\alarm_clock_new.ino:3:20: fatal error: RTClib.h: No such file or directory
    #include
    compilation terminated.
    exit status 1
    Error compiling for board Arduino/Genuino Uno.

    how do i fix this i know i need a real-time clock but each time i add it doesn’t seem to work where would i put the rtc clock file and how would i address it?

    1. Hi,
      You need to download the library “RTClib” from this link https://github.com/adafruit/RTClib in zip format. Extract the contents and you will get a folder named “RTClib-master”. Copy this folder and paste in Arduino libraries directory (in your case, the path will be C:\Users\cameron\Documents\Arduino\libraries).
      Hope this will resolve your error.
      Thanks.

  8. How shall I connect these push to button switches to arduino and how to ground these switches ? What will be the technique to wire up these switches ?

  9. since the program does not allow for setting the RTC its use is very limited, since the day light saving switches require a time change as a minimum.
    clearly there ar a few programs to be found to change the time on a RTC but that requires a reprogramming of the arduino every time the time needs a correction.

    adding the set rtc to the program therefore will be most welcome.

  10. Can I use RTC DS3231 instead of DS1307? I have tried replacing the line “RTC_DS1307 RTC” with “RTC_DS3231 RTC;” and have the library for DS3231, but it does not seem to work. I get the error “RTC_DS3231 does not name a type”.

    Please help, thank you!

    1. Hi,
      Setting date and time is taken care by the code. When you upload the code to Arduino, current date and time is extracted from the system and uploaded to RTC.

  11. Hi
    Your code show me some errors, i edited the code, and theres only one error
    Hope that you can help me

    ‘class RTC_DS3231’ has no member named ‘isrunning’

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