Do you have a hard time waking up like I do? TK takes us though a simple Arduino setup that creates a sunrise alarm to help you wake up to a simulated sunrise.

He’s using an Arduino Uno and an Ethernet breakout board to hook it up to the network. This allows him to send text messages to himself when the alarm system is armed, disarmed, or triggered.

The project is aimed at Arduino-based circuits, but any chip with an ADC will work. The 555 timer is used as a free running oscillator.

However, if you’re just looking to catch a sandwich thief at work or a cat spilling over all you water bottles, then Make shows you how to build an alarm system with an Arduino and a USB camera.

If you want to make your own system for doing so, Instructables user ICStation shows off how to use an Arduino to do it. The system here monitors temperature, humidity, and smoke levels and alerts ...