nowfound

Dev tools · January 8, 2026

ADHD Focus Light

Two years ago, someone on HN shared an interesting ADHD hack: a tiny LED that blinks at 120 bpm and gradually slows to 60 bpm, supposedly helping your brain sync and calm down into focus mode. I found Qiaogun's implementation (ADHD_Blink) for M5StickC Plus, and adapted it for the newer M5StickC Plus2 with some tweaks - simpler 50% duty cycle flash, configurable ramp-down, auto sleep, etc. Honestly, I'm not sure if it actually works. I'll be trying it out myself to see. But the building process itself was quite fascinating. I used Claude Code for the entire implementation - from reading the…

ADHD Focus Light launched on January 8, 2026 with 16 votes, #777 of 14,584 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches.

In plain words

ADHD Focus Light is a firmware implementation for the M5StickC Plus2 that displays a blinking LED pattern, starting at 120 beats per minute and gradually slowing to 60 bpm, intended to help users enter a focused state. Designed for people with ADHD seeking alternative focus techniques, it features configurable ramp-down timing and auto-sleep functionality. The creator adapted an existing open-source implementation and built the entire project using AI assistance, though effectiveness remains unverified through personal testing.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

A red LED heartbeat blinker for M5StickC Plus2 to help people with ADHD improve focus and concentration - zonghaoyuan/adhd-focus-light

In the maker’s words, at launch

Two years ago, someone on HN shared an interesting ADHD hack: a tiny LED that blinks at 120 bpm and gradually slows to 60 bpm, supposedly helping your brain sync and calm down into focus mode. I found Qiaogun's implementation (ADHD_Blink) for M5StickC Plus, and adapted it for the newer M5StickC Plus2 with some tweaks…

Does a similar job

all alternatives →
  • Slate2025 · apps.apple.com · ▲35

    minimalist to-do with timer

  • AI focus app for ADHD brainsJul 2026 · play.google.com · ▲9

    Turn overwhelm into tiny first steps Your AI focus companion

  • DayZen: Visual day planner for ADHD brainsJan 2026 · apps.apple.com · ▲17

    Hey HN, I've struggled with time-blindness my whole life. ADHD means I can write 14 tasks on a to-do list and genuinely believe I'll finish them before lunch. Reality disagrees at 11 PM when everything falls apart. DayZen is my solution: your day as a 24-hour radial clock. Tasks become colored arcs. When the circle fills up, it's full. No more lying to yourself about what actually fits. Just shipped 1.4 with Focus Mode The new version adds features I've wanted since day one: Focus Mode: Full-screen timer that zooms into your current task. Distractions fade, simple controls keep you on track.…

  • The Focus ButtonAug 2026 · button.focusbear.io · ▲15

    Hardware device for ADHDers that blocks digital distractions

  • TinyTasksNov 2025 · tinytasks.life · ▲15

    Productivity tool for ADHD brains.

  • Focus NinjaJan 2026 · apps.apple.com · ▲5

    Turn screen time into focus time with your ninja companion

More dev tools this month

the category →
  • /dev/null▲490

    a social network for devs

    Dev tools · 3d ago · dev-null.sh

  • open-source IDE for thoughtful software design. Contribute to devdotfast/whiteboard development by creating an account on GitHub.

    Dev tools · 28d ago · github.com

  • Contribute to reladraw/reladraw development by creating an account on GitHub.

    Dev tools · 26d ago · github.com

  • OpenBot▲362

    Grok Bot alternative: free, local, open-source, multiplayer

    Dev tools · 23d ago · openbot.run

  • Talanoa▲346

    Hi HN, I’m a fullstack developer, and honestly, I’ve lost count of how many side projects I’ve worked on over the years. But one idea kept coming back to me: a different kind of email client. It first came to me in 2014: “What if we could handle emails more like conversations?” Every year, I’d revisit this concept in my “Build Notes.” Ten years later, no one had built exactly what I had in mind — so I finally decided to do it myself. That’s how Talanoa was born. I wanted something focused on people, not timelines. I was tired of marking messages as unread just to remember to reply later, or…

    Dev tools · 21d ago · talanoa.email

  • CoreSpeed▲332

    One MCP for everything your agents need: apps, memory, tools

    Dev tools · 29d ago · corespeed.io

Source: Show HN post ↗ · launch text quoted in part

Launched alongside, January 2026

the whole month →
  • IN

    Hey HN! I wanted to share something I built over the last few weeks: isometric.nyc is a massive isometric pixel art map of NYC, built with nano banana and coding agents. I didn't write a single line of code. Of course no-code doesn't mean no-engineering. This project took a lot more manual labor than I'd hoped! I wrote a deep dive on the workflow and some thoughts about the future of AI coding and creativity: http://cannoneyed.com/projects/isometric-nyc

    AI · Jan 2026 · cannoneyed.com

  • Cowork▲1,088

    Turn Claude into your digital coworker

    AI · Jan 2026 · claude.com

  • DataFast▲867

    Revenue-first analytics

    Growth · Jan 2026 · datafa.st

  • OpenClaw▲836

    The AI that actually does things

    AI · Jan 2026 · openclaw.ai

  • Automatic AI-powered code reviews the moment you open a PR

    Dev tools · Jan 2026 · kilo.ai

  • AI Content Maker, for Social Media Publishing

    AI · Jan 2026 · postsyncer.com