{"id":19707,"date":"2024-01-19T13:40:23","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T18:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/?p=19707"},"modified":"2025-05-23T09:26:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T13:26:32","slug":"sunrise-like-alarm-clock-via-home-assistant-android","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/2024\/01\/19\/sunrise-like-alarm-clock-via-home-assistant-android\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunrise-like Alarm Clock via Home Assistant + Android"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bedside Sunrise Alarm Clock Setup<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Quite a few years ago I came across Lighten Up!<\/a>, which was a dawn-simulating alarm clock module that got connected between an incandescent lamp and used gently increasing light instead of noise. Coupled with a halogen bulb (that’d start out very yellow at lowest brightness) I had a wonderful sunrise-like alarm clock and it was much, much nicer than a beeping alarm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LCD displays in the Lighten Up!<\/em> units began failing so I couldn’t change the programming, which was a hassle as the clocks in them drifted by a couple minutes per month. With a combination of COVID-19 remote work eliminating the need for an alarm clock and the devices dying, in the trash they went. (They also didn’t work right with LED bulbs, and now the person making them has closed down the business.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been trying to use an alarm to stay on a more regular sleep schedule and while a bunch of other wake-up lights are available, they are dedicated units that are basically alarm clocks with built in lights. I really liked the elegance of the Lighten Up!<\/em> and how it’d use an existing lamp, and outside of dedicated smart bulbs + an app I couldn’t find anything else like it. For a while I thought about developing my own hardware version that’d also work with LED bulbs, but never got around to it.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lighten Up! (Image from Pintrest)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This winter I’ve been experimenting with Home Assistant<\/a> (HA), and it turns out that with a couple cheap Zigbee parts (bulb and pushbutton from IKEA) it allows for a wonderful replacement\/upgrade sunrise alarm idea. A next-generation Lighten Up!<\/em>, if you will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With everything put together the lamp next to my bed will now slowly come up to brightness 15 minutes before the wake-up alarm on my phone, reaching final as the normal alarm triggers. If I change the alarm time on my phone, or shut it off, the light-up alarm in HA will follow suit. Additionally, a physical button on the nightstand turns off the light off while replicating a sunrise alarm, or otherwise toggles the light on and off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even better, if I’m not home or if the alarm is set for other than between 3:00 AM and 9:00 AM (times during which I’d likely be in bed and wanting to wake up) the light won’t activate. This allows me to use alarms during the normal day for other things without activating with the light, or while traveling without waking Kristen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between this and the gently-increasing volume (and vibration) alarm built into the Android clock which triggers at the end of the sunrise cycle it’s a very nice, gradual wake-up system. And, all of this happens without any cloud services or ongoing subscriptions. My HA instance is local; the phone app communicates directly with it across either my home or the public networks. Communication between the physical controls and lights is a local, private network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this post I’ll document the major building blocks of how I did this so that someone else with basic Home Assistant experience (and a functioning HA setup, which is beyond the scope of this writeup) can do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For reference, my Home Assistant hardware setup for this piece is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n