Medicine reminder alarm with LED's

I have a very viable and useful project for which there is no commercial alternative that I am aware of. My father has parkinson's disease and needs to take medicine every four hours (at a minimum). The meds are different at every dose (8am, 12pm and 4pm) and sometimes he takes the wrong pills from the wrong compartments.

I was planning to build an organizer with 21 LED's. 7 days x 3 doses per day.
I'll use a DS1307 and DS18B20 (just for good measure). I'll have a 4x20 LCD which will display a message:
Saturday 1:55pm
next dose at 7:00pm


At each dose, the LCD will display a message:
Take your Saturday 7PM
Medicine


Also, an LED will light next to the compartment for that day and time.
I will also sound an alarm (via piezo speaker).

I will also need a button to cancel the alarm and mute the speaker. The LED will stay lit until the button is pressed. Processor will be 20x2.

There is enough code on these forums for me to figure out the clock display and alarm function. For now, I want to verify the LED matrix schematic.
I've modified Marks' excellent clock circuits accordingly. In my schematic, I've left out the download circuit, real time clock, and temp sensor.

Please let me know if i've done anything silly.
 

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techElder

Well-known member
I have a similar problem with my brother with Down's Syndrome. So ...

What will happen if the currently indicated medication is skipped?

I had entertained the idea of the law of increasing irritation. The longer the 'alarm' is ignored, the more obnoxious it gets.

How will you know when the medication was taken?

I intended to actually record the date/time so that I could recall it in some way.

What happens if the wrong medication 'bin' is retrieved?

I have been stymied in finding a mechanical means of distributing all shapes and sizes of medications. Sort of a vending machine for the correct assortment of meds.
 

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
Do you have 21 compartments each with a LED or 7 comparments with 3 LED's each ?
 

eclectic

Moderator
@Brian

What an excellent concept.
Genuine congratulations on your
attempts to help your Father.

What will you use for your power supply?
But, if it does fail, then you're
only back to the current situation.

Hmmm?
Cookery is a minor hobby, but,
this type of circuit could make the basis of a
high-tech cookery timer.

(And that is not demeaning your ideas).

e

e
 

Minifig666

Senior Member
@hippy probably 21 compartments, AM, Midday, and PM for a week. That would explain the multiplexing.

The schematic seems fine, but are the LED resistors a bit low?
 

eclectic

Moderator
@Brian

I should have seen this before.

DS1307 = I2C = SDA/SCL

You'll need to re-jig pin B.5

Or, depending on other inputs/outputs,
go to a 28X2

e

2nd thoughts.
Or perhaps not, depending on the code.
 

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I'm basing this design on Marks' 7-segment matrix LED clock which I have already built and it works perfectly. See attached circuit diagram from Marks. The BC557's are overkill. I guess I could do this without any transistors at all? The current limiting resistors will be adjusted once I choose the LED's. Apparently, The SCL and SDA lines can co-exist with the LED lines as long as you don't use them both at the same time.

I plan to use three 7-compartment pill boxes. I'll build a wooden tray to hold the three pill boxes. The LED's will be adjacent to the day of week for each pill box.

Once I have the code, I'll post it.
 

Attachments

@Brian

What an excellent concept.
Genuine congratulations on your
attempts to help your Father.

What will you use for your power supply?
But, if it does fail, then you're
only back to the current situation.

Hmmm?
Cookery is a minor hobby, but,
this type of circuit could make the basis of a
high-tech cookery timer.

(And that is not demeaning your ideas).

e

e
I plan to use a regulated power supply and a wall adapter. If the system fails, then yes we will be in "manual mode". The risk of a power supply failure is extremely low.
 
I have a similar problem with my brother with Down's Syndrome. So ...

What will happen if the currently indicated medication is skipped?

I had entertained the idea of the law of increasing irritation. The longer the 'alarm' is ignored, the more obnoxious it gets.

How will you know when the medication was taken?

I intended to actually record the date/time so that I could recall it in some way.

What happens if the wrong medication 'bin' is retrieved?

I have been stymied in finding a mechanical means of distributing all shapes and sizes of medications. Sort of a vending machine for the correct assortment of meds.
The system cannot be 100% fail-safe, however it should minimise (UK spelling) the potential for wrong meds taken at the wrong time. With my dad's meds, he can be +/- one hour and still be ok. If he takes a med from a bin which is NOT lit, then we have other issues and it is time for paid medicine reminders at his place (assisted living).

I do appreciate the comments. this is a brilliant gang here on this board.
 

NXTreme

Senior Member
I plan to use a regulated power supply and a wall adapter. If the system fails, then yes we will be in "manual mode". The risk of a power supply failure is extremely low.
You could include a small coin cell battery to back up just the DS1307, so you don't have to set it every time the power is out for a bit. You could also include a 9V battery and a few small voltage drop diodes as a "UPS" for the rest of the setup. However, you might be changing 9V batteries pretty often then, depending on how often/how long the power usually goes out for.


It looks great! Hope it works well :).
 

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
With only one LED on at a time you can get almost certainly get by without transistor drive, and you can drop down to just three current limiting resistors ( one per row ).

If you do light two or more LED's in each row you'll simply dim them all, no extra current, no damage ( or some of the LED's won't light if not a close match with each other ).
 

techElder

Well-known member
... I plan to use three 7-compartment pill boxes. I'll build a wooden tray to hold the three pill boxes. The LED's will be adjacent to the day of week for each pill box....

I have found that the translucent plastic pill boxes have a very neat glow when lit from below by an LED. You could make the whole bin blink with color.
 

marks

Senior Member
Great Project this should keep you busy for a while !
their has been good input from every 1 as always
here is a circuit based on some of the ideas hope its similiar to what you want
it can always be edited i cheated with the matrix part of the drawing not as good as yours lol
 

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techElder

Well-known member
Wow! You really used every available resource of the 20X2!

BTW, 21 bins is about the minimum for medicine distribution. Some folks commonly schedule much more than that. Actually 28 bins is more common. That makes the matrix much larger.
 
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Great Project this should keep you busy for a while !
their has been good input from every 1 as always
here is a circuit based on some of the ideas hope its similiar to what you want
it can always be edited i cheated with the matrix part of the drawing not as good as yours lol
Marks, thanks a LOT for the schematic. Yes, it is exactly what I had planned.
I'll use one of the LCD driver chips from phanderson.com.

Great use of the 20x2 chip. Also, being quite fond of clocks of all types this project will be very interesting for me.

@Texas, yes the translucent plastic 7-day bins will be ideal. Lighting each bin from below is a brilliant idea and very easy to implement. Thanks!
 
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