A minimalist Kintsugi-inspired digital alarm clock, built for Hack Club's BLARE YSWS.
DEMO VIDEO: https://youtu.be/bO5vRV_8sZE
This is a custom designed digital alarm clock inspired by the Japanese art of Kintsugi — the philosophy of embracing imperfections by repairing them with gold. Instead of hiding cracks, the front of the enclosure celebrates them, turning a simple bedside clock into a small desk piece.
Built for Hack Club BLARE using an ESP32-C3, a custom-wired ST7789 TFT display, five mechanical switches, a piezo buzzer, and a custom 3D printed enclosure.
- Digital clock with automatic Wi-Fi time synchronization (NTP).
- Alarm set and adjusted using 5 buttons.
- Loud siren-style buzzer alarm, with a quick confirmation click on every button press.
- Custom 3D printed enclosure.
- Kintsugi inspired front panel for the enclosure.
- Edit the firmware and add ur wifi name and password.
- upload the firmware.
- wait for it connect and sync time it would show status on screen on the clock.
- once synced it works as a normal digital clock.
- to set an alarm just click the top key it would switch u from clock view to alarm clock settings menu.
- there u can use keys on the front face of the clock to change stuff.
- top left key for am/pm toggle, top right key to change hrs, bottom right key to change mins.
- click top key again to save and go to back to clock view.
- the front bottom left key is turn on/off alarm.
- alarm rings click any key to stop alarrm
The enclosure consists of two main printed components:
- Front shell
- Removable back plate secured using M3×8 mm screws
The removable back plate makes assembly, wiring, and future maintenance much easier while keeping the outside clean.
| Component | Purpose |
|---|---|
| ESP32-C3 Mini | Main controller |
| TFT Display (ST7789) | Clock display |
| 5 MX Key/Switches | Alarm controls |
| Piezo Buzzer | Alarm output |
| Jumper Wires | Hand wired connections |
| 4 M3 x 8mm screws | For Attaching back plate to the case |
The firmware is written using the Arduino IDE and is built around the following libraries:
- Adafruit GFX
- Adafruit ST7789
- WiFi
- SPI
- time.h
Current firmware features:
- Automatic NTP time sync over Wi-Fi on boot.
- Alarm set/adjust via the 5 switches (hour, minute, AM/PM).
- Loud siren-style buzzer alarm (continuous pitch sweep), silenced by pressing any button.
- Short click feedback beep on every button press.
- Kintsugi-styled black background with white/red accent text; colors swap between the clock and alarm-setting screens.
Planned / not yet implemented:
- Persistent alarm storage (currently resets to a default time on every power cycle —
Preferences/flash storage support is planned). - Continuous Wi-Fi reconnect handling (currently syncs once at boot, then turns Wi-Fi off to save power).
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