Cockatoo

    Project Information
  • Category: Embedded
  • Employer: University Project
  • Project date: 2021

Cockatoo

We were tasked with creating a mechatronic project from scratch based on an Arduino Uno during the peak of COVID. The specific project: Cuckoo Clocks.

Yep, the clocks everyone thinks are cool but no one would want to own.

But after a while, the project idea grew on me, and I saw a few opportunities to add some cool features on top of what it needed to have.

The mandatory features the clocks had to have were:

  • Moving hour hand

  • Leds showing minutes

  • Screen with the time on it

  • Mechanical cuckoo that comes out and chimes ever hour

  • Alarm funtion

  • Connectivity to Node-Red

What I decided to add was:

  • FM Radio

  • DCF77 module (Automatic time seeking)

  • Sunrise alarm functions

  • Radio alarm

I didnt really realise at the time how much more work I had added on to this project, as I hadn't had much embedded experience at the time. But once we had handed in our specifications it was too late to do less than I had promised.

Luckily, I managed to uphold all of the promises I made, even though I had to get creative for some solutions.

Time seeking function

Cockatoo time seeking function

The time-seeking function utilizes a DCF77 module. I simply had to interpret the pulses coming from the module and convert them into a time format the clock could work with. The reception isn't great; the antenna is only small after all. But after about 1-5 minutes, it can usually get a signal.

Because the clock uses an extremely cheap stepper motor, there is no way of knowing where the hour hand is pointing. This is why there are two wires sticking out under 12 o'clock. The hour hand has a thumbtack under the tip, and when it passes over the two wires, they connect, and the Arduino knows that the hour hand is at 12.

Radio

Setting the radio preset

The radio function was easier to tackle, other than the not-so-studio sound quality from this speaker that I had lying around (which was probably why).

Alarms

I actually ended up making two alarm modes, as I had a lot of components to work with, such as the RGB LEDs, the radio, and the buzzer. This resulted in a kind of sunrise alarm clock (for demonstration purposes, I had it come on all at once) and a masochist alarm for those who need a more firm wake-up call.

Sunrise alarm with radio
Masochist alarm

Hour Chime

And finally, the thing that makes a cuckoo clock a cuckoo clock.

Cuckoo hour chime

I had to work with a lot of the things I had lying around in my apartment due to COVID, but I am quite happy with the solutions I managed to come up with despite that.