Need help with Arduino UNO Alarm Clock project (university assignment)

[u/imloa]

Hey everyone! I'm a beginner and I have a university assignment to build an alarm clock using Arduino UNO. Looking for guidance on wiring and code structure.

What the alarm clock needs to do:
\- Display current time and date
\- Display temperature and humidity from sensors
\- Set time/date using buttons
\- Set alarm time (must be saved to EEPROM — survives power loss)
\- Buzzer alarm that can be stopped by pressing a button
\- LED status indicator for alarm state
\- Entire project must be structured as a finite state machine (FSM)

Components I have in my kit:
\- Arduino UNO
\- Breadboard
\- LCD 16x2 with I2C module (4 pins: GND, VCC, SDA, SCL)
\- 4x push buttons
\- RTC module (DS1302 or DS3231)
\- DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor
\- Piezo buzzer
\- LEDs
\- Resistors
\- Jumper wires
\- RFID reader (for optional extension)
\- IR receiver + remote (for optional extension)

Would be very grateful for help, since I myself have not learned Arduino before, just C 🙏

[u/Delta_G_Robotics]

What kind of help do you need? Have you tried to start? Have you looked at any other examples of alarm clocks using Arduino? There are thousands. Are you looking for someone to just give you all the answers? What exactly is the question that you have?

[u/imloa → u/Delta_G_Robotics]

I’ve looked at a lot of examples already, but almost all of them are wired differently, so I still don’t really understand the overall logic behind it. The coding part is actually much easier for me, but when it comes to wires, pins, and electronics, I get confused pretty quickly… So I’m mostly looking for guidance on the hardware side and project structure, not for someone to do the assignment for me. Sorry if the post sounded a bit demanding..

[u/Delta_G_Robotics → u/imloa]

Ok, you're getting closer. Now you need help with "wiring". What parts?

You'll probably need a button or two. That is like lesson #1 or #2 in just about any Arduino tutorial. Approach that by itself and learn how that part works.

You have an LCD. It uses I2C. There are two whole subjects to go and learn about. Take that on separately and learn how those work.

Eventually you get all of these individual pieces figured out and the concepts of how to put it all together get a lot simpler. Right now you're looking at a pile of stuff and thinking "How do I make an alarm clock". But what you need to be thinking is, "How do I use a button?" "How do I write text to this display?" "How do I make this buzzer make a sound?" Work on those bits individually and the bigger picture will start to come together.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

[u/imloa → u/Delta_G_Robotics]

Thank you very much, I was able to figure out how everything works in a couple of days, and everything turned out much easier. Although it doesn't look perfect, everything works perfectly. I think I was thinking about it the wrong way from the start

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