Flash the free, signed image onto a ~$15 Raspberry Pi Zero — about ten minutes, no terminal required. The iOS app conducts your lights from there. Local, no cloud.
One signed image, any microSD card. About ten minutes from download to a hub breathing on your network — no terminal, no soldering, no cloud.
Grab sdcard.img.gz. Leave it gzipped — every flasher reads it as-is, no unzipping.
Any image writer works. Both are free for macOS, Windows and Linux.
In Pi Imager, click the gear (⚙) before writing: set your Wi-Fi SSID + password
and the hostname rhythm. The Pi joins your network on first boot —
no monitor or keyboard needed.
Choose the .img.gz, pick your microSD, hit Flash. The writer verifies automatically — about five minutes.
Writing erases the card. Double-check you picked the microSD, not your drive.
Eject, slot the card into the Pi, plug in USB power. The first boot expands the filesystem — the green LED flickers, then steadies once the service is up (~5 min).
Open Rhythm on iOS — it auto-discovers the hub over your local network, then link Hue, Home Assistant or Matter. Want to confirm it first?
$ open http://rhythm.local:54448 Yes — local network only. Set RHYTHM_NO_TELEMETRY=1 to skip the install ping.
Yes. Backup → restore → repoint the app.
Hue, HA, or Matter. Tunable-white gets the full curve.
A Pi Zero W or Zero 2 W (~$15). A Pi 3, 4, or 5 works too if you already have one.