Overview
The sound machine is a device I created to help my kids fall asleep at night and know when to wake up in the morning. It has several functions.
1. Plays music while the kids are falling asleep
2. After a while it plays white noise to keep the kids asleep by blocking out other ambient noise.
3. Provides a red/green light that indicate when kids should be asleep and when its time to wakeup
4. Provides a dim nightlight
5. Collects data from other sensors to provide temperature, humidity and pressure information live on a display
1. Plays music while the kids are falling asleep
2. After a while it plays white noise to keep the kids asleep by blocking out other ambient noise.
3. Provides a red/green light that indicate when kids should be asleep and when its time to wakeup
4. Provides a dim nightlight
5. Collects data from other sensors to provide temperature, humidity and pressure information live on a display
Conception and design
The idea came from my wife. She didn't like the current sound machines available on the market; they didn't provide all the features that the kids needed.
For this project I used a Raspberry PI 3. This was convenient because the PI3 can be programmed to generate music and sound. It also has enough GPIO for a number of different functions.
In addition to the PI3 I added a ILI9341 LCD screen, connected to the PI via SPI. The LCD screen does NOT display the PI's desktop but is setup in user-control mode.
The device also has an RTC; the DS3231. The PI has been setup to use this as it's hardware RTC. The RTC keeps time if the network connection is ever lost.
For this project I used a Raspberry PI 3. This was convenient because the PI3 can be programmed to generate music and sound. It also has enough GPIO for a number of different functions.
In addition to the PI3 I added a ILI9341 LCD screen, connected to the PI via SPI. The LCD screen does NOT display the PI's desktop but is setup in user-control mode.
The device also has an RTC; the DS3231. The PI has been setup to use this as it's hardware RTC. The RTC keeps time if the network connection is ever lost.
Design considerations
The first problem that occurred was the built-in audio chip for the PI3 had a hardware problem. An external USB sound-card was required in order to allow constant audio to be produced over long periods of time.
The sound machine had an issue with temperature that was overcome by installing a fan.
There was also a problem where some songs were just louder than others. I added a remote volume control accessible from a webpage.
Status
After 2 years of service the sound machine reached its end of life. I developed a new sound machine to replace it. The old sound machine was recycled; all the parts have been repurposed. I still have the code and use it as a reference for other projects.