Uitstelleritus Deletus Or... Beat Your Procrastination With an Arduino Uno

If you're a huge procrastinator like me, you might need to make this handy device I've created called "Uitstelleritus Deletus", which roughly translates to "Procrastinator Terminator". I often have this problem where I say I am going to start something, for example write this instructable, and then just. Do not do it. This device has a timer and when the timer runs out, I'll face the consequence of hearing the annoying buzzer (which I really hate and would be heard by my roommates), something I really do not want.

In this instructable I explain how to make this device for yourself using an arduino uno and some basic supplies. It's fairly simple, the hardest part is soldering all the LCD screen parts.

For this project you will need a couple of things:

Tools:

• Soldering iron
• Craft knife
• Hot glue gun

Supplies:

• Arduin Uno
• USB-B Cable and USB Adapter for macbook
• 16x2 LCD screen
• Piezo speaker / buzzer
• Push button
• Push button cap
• PotVal meter
• 2 Solder-able breadboards
• Handful of jumping wires
• 2 220Ω resistors
• Breadboard (for testing)

For the exterior:

• Foam board
• Cardboard scraps
• Decoration material of your liking (you're the one who has to look at it)
• Cut up disposable chopstick

I started off by putting the needed supplies all on a breadboard to see if I could get them to work with each other. For a while I was tinkering around with an LCD screen with an I2C backpack, which would've made the whole proces a lot smoother, but sadly I couldn't get it to work. In the first picture there is a button missing since i was trying out just getting the timer to work at first, but as you can see in the digital bread board, I did add it later.

I struggled with the code for a little while, since I am not the best at coding. I ended up using the help of chatGPT to make my code fully functional after fighting with it for a couple of days, which was super helpful since it suggested ways to fix my code but also explained to me how and why, which will help me solve future problems I might face!

The code is easily adapted to fit any amount of time you might need in hours, minutes and seconds. Just enter the time at the top of the code, upload it and it should work!

This was my first time soldering a bigger project like this, so sorry if it's not the tidiest or if it does not make a lot of sense. I've tried to explain it with the colors yellow and blue, blue going to GROUND and yellow going to the 5V. I've used 2 solder-able breadboards, one small and one large. The small one holding the button, potVal and buzzer, the large one holding the LCD with its many connections.

The small board has 2 points connecting it through the larger board to the 5V and ground, highlighted with blue and yellow (as explained before).

The large board is an extension for the LCD screen connected at the bottom, with small jumper wires connecting to either 5V, GROUND, the potVal or to their digital pins.

WARNING: do not put your arduino straight on the breadboard like I did! This will cause it to short circuit. Do not do this. Add a piece of cardboard underneath instead :-) (see the last picture!).

To make the exterior, I first sketched out a rough design and then adapted it to the size of the electronics together. I wanted it to be a little larger, so it could sit on my desk and I couldn't easily ignore it. I then glued the whole thing together and later cut out parts for the screen, start button, potVal (which i took the knob out of later) and a hole for the stick to the reset button up top. The back door is removable :-). The push button cover is also removable, it has a hot glue knob that fits in the hole, but easily presses down to push the button and stays in place well while still making the entire thing easy to disassemble.

For the reset button I used a piece of a cut up chopstick with some hot glue at the end to press the button. This is quite a nice way of resetting it, since it's very satisfying to press a funny button at the top (almost like ringing a bell).

The electronics are all held up with a cardboard construction on the inside. I did this so it was easy to take apart in case I needed to fiddle with it if something came loose. This construction is very steady and won't budge unless you're really rough with it.

I then decorated it to my liking, since this is something that was going to sit on my desk I wanted it to be something I'd like to look at. I added some inspirational dogs to keep me going through tough times and designed a sticker of myself trying to motivate myself, because I know the consequences are something I do not want.

Now that everything is soldered, the construction is put together and decorated it is time to put everything together and to put it to use. The project is made to be connected to arduino IDE so you can edit the timer in the code. This makes it so that you can edit the timer very easily and then upload it to use it.

Watch this video for a demonstration and the whole project in use :-)

This was my first larger arduino project like this, and I feel like I learned a whole lot. My original plan was to make it a bit more expansive, adding bigger consequences if I didn't do my work. This ended up being a bit too difficult for the time being. The soldering was very fun to do and I liked thinking about the whole lay-out of all the electronic parts and executing it. I also learned a lot coding wise, as this also was my first time coding a project like this. The timer part proved to be really difficult and I could not get it to work for quite some time.

All in all I really liked doing this project, though I spent many sleepless nights working on it and occupied my mind by thinking about the different ways I could've soldered it together. I now have a bit more confidence in my arduino skills and cannot wait to see what the future holds.