Touchable Alarm Clock Module for MagicMirror²

Includes Instructions at the Bottcom for Integrating Screen Brightness That Matches Alarm Time

Dependencies

• An installation of MagicMirror²

Installation

1. Navigate to the MagicMirror/modules directory.

2. Execute git clone https://github.com/dbeltjr/MMM-TouchAlarm.git

3. Configure the module as per below

4. Restart MagicMirror

   {
       module: 'MMM-TouchAlarm',
       position: 'bottom_left',
       config: {
           snoozeMinutes: 10, // I want to snooze longer
           alarmTimeoutMinutes: 5, // Stop the alarm automatically after 5 minutes
           alarmSoundFile: 'blackforest.mp3', // Play some birds
           alarmSoundFadeSeconds: 60 // Increase the volume slowly
           // ...
       }
   }
   

(Currently) Known limitations

• If you hit snooze, the alarm time will be updated. So the next day you have to reset the alarm and reduce it by the snoozed time.

• If you close an alarm it will not be automatically reset for the next day, you'll have to click the bell again.

Config Options

Option	Default	Description
minutesStepSize	5	Increasing/Decreasing the minutes in the configuration screen with this step size.
snoozeMinutes	5	Alarm will be fired again in x minutes after snoozing.
alarmTimeoutMinutes	5	Stop the alarm automatically after this amount of minutes.
---	---	---
alarmSound	true	Should an alarm sound be played.
alarmSoundFile	'alarm.mp3'	Name and extension of your alarm sound. File needs to be placed in ~/MagicMirror/modules/MMM-TouchAlarm/sounds. Standard files are alarm.mp3 and blackforest.mp3. Alternatively specify a web stream http or https.
alarmSoundMaxVolume	1.0	The maximum volume of alarm (between 0.0 and 1.0).
alarmSoundFade	true	Should the alarm sound file be faded.
alarmSoundFadeSeconds	30	Within how many seconds should the alarm reach the configured alarmSoundMaxVolume.
Expert Options
debug	false	If set to true it will show some debug information in the console.
alarmStoreFileName	alarm.json	File name to store information even if the Magic Mirror restarts.

Alarm Sounds

There are already two alarm sounds:

• alarm.mp3 | From Alexander licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
• blackforest.mp3 | From Alexander licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

Outgoing

• MMM-TouchAlarm-ALARM-CHANGED -> will send hour: number, minutes: number, active: boolean, nextAlarm: moment-timestamp
• MMM-TouchAlarm-ALARM-FIRED -> will send hour: number, minutes: number
• MMM-TouchAlarm-ALARM-SNOOZE -> will send hour: number, minutes: number

Integration with Adjusting Screen Brightness with Alarm Time

Caveat - This was created for a Raspberry Pi 3B+ with the official 7" Touch Screen and may need to be adjusted for any other particular application

Dependencies

1. Go to home directory cd ~
2. Install jq sudo apt-get install jq

Setup Cron with Script

1. Move update_cron.sh to your home directory

2. Edit script to put in proper file paths sudo nano update_cron.sh

3. Modify these two lines for proper file path to alarm.json:

   newHour=$("$jqPath" -r '.hour' /home/dietpi/MagicMirror/modules/MMM-TouchAlarm/alarm.json)
   newMinutes=$("$jqPath" -r '.minutes' /home/dietpi/MagicMirror/modules/MMM-TouchAlarm/alarm.json)
   

4. If a different command needs to be used in cron to adjust screen brightness, it must be edited in the script as well under:

   # Construct the new cron entry
   cron_entry="$newMinutes $newHour * * * /usr/bin/sudo sh -c 'echo \"255\" > /sys/class/backlight/rpi_backlight/brightness'"
   

5. Save and Exit

6. Execute sudo chmod +x update_cron.sh to ensure script has execute permission

7. Edit Cron under root user sudo crontab -e

8. Add the following at the end of crontab:

   30 21 * * * /usr/bin/sudo sh -c 'echo 10 > /sys/class/backlight/rpi_backlight/brightness'
   */10 * * * * /home/dietpi/update_cron.sh
   
   # This is my special cron job
   0 6 * * * /usr/bin/sudo sh -c 'echo 255 > /sys/class/backlight/rpi_backlight/brightness'
   

   This reduces the screen brightness to "10" at 9:30 PM and then runs the update_cron.sh every 10 minutes. It copies the hour and minutes from alarm.json and updates the cron task after the phrase "# This is my special cron job" Anything edited below "# This is my special cron job" will be deleted and re-added each time the alarm is changed.

9. Save and Exit crontab