This alarm clock is one of a kind and it's Linux-based

Jun 2, 2015 07:23 GMT  ·  By

A developer has built a custom alarm watch powered by the Linux kernel with NTP synchronization, touch keypad, and network connectivity.

When you think of an alarm clock, you don't necessarily imagine it being powered by a Linux kernel, but it turns out that it makes a lot of sense. One developer took it upon himself to build his own smart clock after the old one broke. He didn't just go to the store to buy one, he figured out that he could build one that would be not only better but also superior in any respect.

The market for smart alarm clocks is not a big one, and it's hard to find good ones, especially if you want the quality of the one built by Benoit Frigon. What he achieved is really impressive, and it would fetch an excellent price if he ever decides to turn this into big business.

Alarm clock powered by Linux is not just a concept

The amount of work that Benoit put into this project is really impressive, and he thought about everything, starting with the software, going through with the design and ending up with the included hardware.

"I based my design on a processor capable of running Linux because it is more flexible and already offers reliable tools for many of the features I want and also the one I have not thought of yet. I realize that running Linux on a simple alarm clock is a bit overkill, I’m sure there is a way to do all that with a microcontroller, but I don’t have much experience in programming on MCU. Also, this project was an excuse to stick Linux into yet another device," wrote Benoit.

As you can see from the images, he built the entire clock himself, and he didn't use anything premade, with the exception of the hardware. The alarm clock is based on an Aria G25 SOM (System-On-Module) that has an ARM AT91SAM9G25 CPU at 400MHz. The Linux kernel used is 3.18, and Buildroot has been used for a custom distribution.