Raspberry Pi-Powered Lamp Reacts to Local Air Quality

Raspberry Pi
(Image credit: Guillaume Slizewicz)

Looking for something with atmosphere and function? Check out this beautiful Raspberry Pi-powered lamp, known as Canari by maker Guillaume Slizewicz. Not only does it feature a unique, brassy design, but it also shows real-time changes to local air quality by changing the light pattern of its bulbs.

According to Slizewicz, the name comes from the stories of coal miners releasing canaries into mines in order to test the air quality. In the same spirit, the Canari lamp will notably flash when air quality is higher than usual.

It doesn't take much to control the lamp. Slizewicz used a Raspberry Pi Zero W in the final build, as the project requires internet access in order to retrieve real-time air quality data.

The Canari lamp also uses an Adafruit 16-channel PWM Servo Bonnet to address the individual bulb,  which are constructed using LEDs, glass globes and propped on top of brass tubes. Some of the best Raspberry Pi projects use 3D-printed assets, so it's not surprising to see this one use a custom 3D-printed base.

The code for this project is open-source and available for anyone to use and explore at GitLab. Interested parties can also read more about the project through Slizewicz's website.

Ash Hill
Freelance News and Features Writer

Ash Hill is a Freelance News and Features Writer at Tom's Hardware US. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting.