Jonathan Lister, a backer of the Anavi Light Controller campaign, built a Java-based “sunrise simulator” using a Raspberry Pi and the Light Controller. At a pre-set time, the simulator gradually cycles an RGB LED strip through the colors of a natural sunrise to wake you up gently and easily. After seeing his first version, Jonathan’s family was so impressed they all wanted one of their own. Now, they all use one instead of a jangly alarm clock!

The simulator is built from any Raspberry Pi (including the Pi Zero), RGB LED strips, an appropriate power supply, and the MQTT-based Anavi LED controller. The project requires Java 8 or above and is run from the command line. You can see all the details of the project, including code examples and configuration settings, in this GitHub repo.

Here is an example of the hardware assembled using an Ikea Holmo floorlamp. Wrap the self-adhesive RGB LED strips around a suitable tube that fits inside the Holmo lamp.

At the programmed time, the lamp will gently cycle through the colors of a natural sunrise.