Having to brush someone’s teeth ranks only slightly higher than wiping their butt.

Since one hurdle in brushing one’s teeth seems to come from completing the proper duration, and because I like LED lights, I decided to put together a timer for the kids. Plus, since we’re using their bathroom until ours re-emerges from the renovation rubble, I can use it too.

It’s a string of addressable LEDs from Adafruit, controlled by an Arduino Leonardo. Pushing the button triggers the lights to fill the bar with green, divided into quarters by blue dots. As the timer runs down, the bar turns from green > yellow > red. Then when it’s done, it fills up with blue and fades away.

These are the first videos I was able to grab; neither shows the finish because my iPhone camera likes to lock up: