[DuoList] Better End Than a Landfill

[Ken Gillett]

Just joined the list as I think it's about time I had a go at a project 
I have in mind to make use of my 2300. Maybe I can get some more ideas 
from you all.

I want to use it as an alarm clock.

Thing is, I've not yet found an alarm clock that does what I want, i.e. 
perfect time keeping, different weekday/weekend alarms, auto turns off 
after a preset period, station AND time shown in 'easy to read' 
display, preferably stereo. Quite frankly Sony need shooting for the 
utter crap they flog and the nearest I've come to finding what I need 
is a Grundig unit that costs about 80 UKP and still isn't stereo.

My basic idea is to use the Duo, connected to the house ethernet 
network (via the Ethernet Micro Dock I have) and with an ADB connected 
FM radio by D2 that I also still have (I think it's stereo) and a pair 
of AppleDesign powered speakers. Keeping the time correct is easy as I 
run an NTP server that the other machines sync to and the radio works, 
but it's the screen display that's trickiest. What I need is a screen 
saver that will display the time and other text that I want (i.e. 
station name - maybe that's not so important), probably slowly moving 
around to avoid screen burn and I need to ensure the HD spins down and 
stays down as much as possible and to ensure it doesn't 'wake up' (the 
Duo, not me) at the slightest brush of the trackpad.

Physically I may also want to re-position the screen, possibly wall 
mount with the Duo base in the drawer. That would require about an 18" 
extension to the screen connecting cable - possible? I also have in 
mind that in the future maybe I'd use X10 to turn the speakers on/off 
as appropriate.

First of all I need to fix the ticking PSUs I've collected for the Dock 
(they're ALL doing it now) although of course the Dock will only be 
used for setup purposes. But in the meantime, has anyone any bright 
ideas about my Duo alarm clock?



Ken  G i l l e t t

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