“How often have you used a screen for hours, only to find your eyes feeling strained, tired, and sore? Especially with the pandemic we’re all working and studying using our computers more than ever before, and because of this eye care is even more important than normal. To protect your eyes when using screens, you may have heard of the 20-20-20 rule. What this means, is that you should look away from your screen for 20 seconds every 20 minutes, to a distance of 20 feet or more. This helps relax your eyes, and helps ward off eye strain.
Remembering to do this every 20 minutes sounds difficult, right? That’s what the Arduino Eyesight Guardian is for! This unobtrusive little gizmo clips over the top of your monitor, and every 20 minutes gives you a reminder to look away for those recommended 20 seconds. It takes USB power from your computer, and has a tiny push button for you to register when you’ve looked away, so it’ll reset the clock and sleep until the next reminder is due.
You can see the whole project summarised in this video, but also please read on for the full details!
Safety: This project is quite straightforward, but some risk is posed by heat from the 3D printer and soldering iron that is required. Make sure you solder in a well ventilated environment, and also exercise care when using the wire cutters/scalpel that you will need for trimming wires and cleaning up the printed parts. Electrically, only 5V USB power is used.
yesight Guardian
Arduino Pro Mini
Adafruit 1.14” 240x135 Color TFT Display + MicroSD Breakout - ST7789
Adafruit CP2104 Friend - USB to Serial Converter(or another FTDI programmer)
Tactile Switch Button (6mm x 3.5mm)
USB Noodle Cable
MicroSD Card
Male and Female Header Pins
Hookup Wire
PLA Filament
Consumables
Lead-free Solder
Electrical Insulative Tape
Glue (for gluing plastic printed parts together)
Software
A PC, running;
Arduino IDE
Slicing Software - as you use to set up files for your 3D printer
Graphics Editor, e.g. Paint.net - if you want to make your own graphics to display
Tools
3D Printer
Soldering Iron, Wire Strippers
Scalpel/Craft Knife, File, Side Cutters”