PomoPad
Spring 2025
Design and fabricate a functioning timer for a specific purpose.
Ideation
Going into this project, I knew I wanted to design a physical pomodoro timer – the challenge was making the design innovative.
After ideating several pomodoro timer ideas and exploring the user journey of studying with a pomodoro timer, I concluded that a phone-activated timer was the direction to head in.
In order to make this design work, I needed two photoresistors whose inputs would control LEDs.
Electronics
Breadboard Model & Testing
The idea was to activate a short pomodoro timer when one photoresistor was covered, and activate a longer pomodoro timer when both photoresistors were covered. Shortened for demonstration, the short pomodoro would feature 25 min. of studying and 5 min. of resting, while the long pomodoro would feature 50 min. of studying and 10 min. of resting. The study and rest timer would be automated based off of whether an object was placed on or taken off the photoresistors. Everything was programmed using the Arduino IDE.
Components: battery pack, Sparkfun Redboard, Neopixel LED strip, breadboard, jumper wires, photoresistors, resistors
Integrated Model
After soldering wires to my LEDs, laser cutting all of my model pieces out, and mounting my photoresistors, I assembled and housed all of my electronic components inside.
