Spectralite Controllers

The Spectralite Controllers panel lists every Spectralite hardware controller it can hear on the lighting network. Discovery and configuration both travel by broadcast, so a controller appears and can be reconfigured even when its IP sits on a different subnet from the host. Each row shows the controller's current state and opens a configuration dialog when edited. For a walkthrough of every option, see Network Setup.

Search: filter controllers by name or IP address.

Controller table

Columns

Each column sorts when its header is clicked.

Name: display name of the device.
IP: network address the device currently reports.
Uni: starting universe the device consumes, a 1-based number matching the patch panel. Studio converts it to the correct Art-Net or sACN wire universe for the device's protocol.
Status: connection state badge, described below.

Telemetry is not shown as columns. Hover the Status badge to read the node's firmware version, temperature, uptime, free heap, DMX frame rate, render mode, and dropped-frame count in a tooltip, or open the Edit dialog where the same figures appear as a live block. Each shows a dash for nodes whose firmware does not report it. Render mode and dropped frames stand out when they need attention: a node painting its test pattern or locate blink instead of live DMX, or one dropping frames because its strip is too long for the configured rate.

Status indicators

Nodes broadcast every five seconds, so the states correspond to how long it has been since the last packet. Hovering any badge opens a tooltip with the node's full telemetry.

Online (green): heard within the last five seconds.
Missed (outline): no packet for more than fifteen seconds.
Offline (red): no packet for more than twenty seconds.
Rebooting (outline): the device flagged itself as rebooting, usually after a save that requires a restart.

Row actions

Edit (pencil icon): open the configuration dialog for this controller. Firmware updates and factory reset live inside this dialog.
Quick add fixture (plus icon): create one multi-part Fixture (a generic-led-bar with one part per controller output) starting at the next free DMX address and linked to this controller.

Editing controller configuration

The Edit dialog groups fields into identity, output, and network.

Read-only fields

Device ID: unique hardware identifier burned into the device.
Device Type: firmware build identifier (for example, spectralite-node).
Telemetry: live read-out of the node's firmware version, temperature, uptime, free heap, DMX frame rate, render mode, and dropped-frame count. The values update while the dialog stays open; each shows a dash when the firmware does not report it.

Identity and output

Name: one to sixty-three characters; empty values are rejected.
Start Universe: a 1-based universe number matching the patch panel, minimum 1. Studio converts it to the correct Art-Net or sACN wire universe for the device's protocol. The number of universes actually used is derived from strip length and color mode.
LEDs per Strip: integer from 1 to 1000. Must match the physical strip length; a value higher than the real length truncates output, a value lower than the real length leaves trailing pixels dark. Changing this setting triggers a device reboot.
Color Order: byte ordering for the attached strips. Thirty options, split between three-channel (RGB, RBG, GRB, GBR, BRG, BGR) and four-channel orders for RGBW strips. The default for a stock Spectralite Node is GRBW.
Protocol: the protocol the device receives pixel data on, Art-Net or sACN (E1.31). Art-Net is the default. The change applies live, with no reboot, and the device holds its last frame across the switch. Discovery, identify, and RDM stay on Art-Net in both modes. A device set to sACN with no matching enabled sACN output covering its universes holds its last frame; the dialog flags this case and the Network Setup walkthrough covers the switch IGMP-querier requirement for sACN multicast.
Test Mode: when enabled, the device runs a rainbow pattern locally and ignores incoming pixel data. Used to identify which physical device matches a table row.

Network

Use DHCP: when on, the device asks a DHCP server for an address and falls back to an AutoIP link-local address if no server responds. When off, the three static fields below are applied on every boot.
Static IP: IPv4 address for the device. Required when DHCP is off.
Gateway: IPv4 address for the default route. Required when DHCP is off. Can usually be left at the subnet router address.
Subnet Mask: IPv4 mask defining the local network size. Required when DHCP is off.

Click Save Configuration to send the updated settings. The dialog tracks delivery live: Configuring… while it waits for the device to acknowledge, Applying configuration… while a device that needs a reboot comes back, and Configuration applied once the device confirms it adopted the settings. If delivery fails, the reason is shown inline and a Retry button appears; with the dialog closed, a failure surfaces as a toast naming the controller. The same delivery status also shows as a badge next to the device's Status badge: an orange Reconfiguring while the push is in flight, a red Config failed that opens the editor when clicked, and a brief Applied once the device confirms. For changes that require a reboot, the device reappears in the table within roughly five seconds. See Network Setup for the full walkthrough.

Device actions

Below the network fields the dialog carries two device-level actions, separate from saving configuration.

Update firmware…: open the firmware update dialog for this controller, described below.
Factory reset: wipe the controller's saved configuration (name, universe, network settings, LED setup) and reboot it to firmware defaults. A confirmation dialog guards the action because it cannot be undone. The device's provisioning credential and its anti-rollback firmware-version floor are preserved, so a reset never strips the node's identity or lets it accept older firmware; the node drops off the network briefly and rediscovers after it restarts.

Updating firmware

The Update firmware action pushes a new firmware image to a node over the network, without opening the enclosure. A network update never touches the node's identity credential, which lives in EEPROM and survives both a network and a USB re-flash.

Before you start

The node is provisioned and reachable on one host interface. The image transfer is a direct (unicast) TCP stream, so the node must share a subnet with exactly one host network interface. A routable node needs an address on the same subnet as one host NIC. A node on a bare direct-attach cable works too: with both ends unconfigured each picks a link-local address (169.254.x.x), and the desktop dials the node over the interface its discovery arrived on, no manual addressing required. A node on a foreign subnet, behind two overlapping host NICs, or on link-local addressing that the desktop cannot match to one directly-attached interface is refused with a reason that names the case.
The interruption is acceptable. An update starts the moment you command it, and the node's output freezes and may go dark during the flash and reboot. Plan updates for a dark stage.
You have a firmware bundle. Spectralite ships each firmware release as a single signed bundle (.slfw) carrying the image together with its version, size, digest, and signature. The node only flashes images signed by Spectralite, so an unsigned or tampered image is rejected and the node keeps its current firmware.

Running an update

Compare the node's reported firmware version, shown in the Status tooltip and the Edit dialog, against the bundle's version.
Open the node's Edit dialog and click Update firmware…, then Choose bundle… and select the .slfw file. The dialog shows the bundle's target version and digest; a corrupt or unreadable bundle is refused with a reason here, before anything reaches the node.
Leave Canary checked for the first node. The desktop requires a single canary node to reach Healthy before it allows a batch of further nodes, so a bad image is caught on one node before it reaches the fleet. Once the canary confirms healthy, batch updates unlock and the checkbox can be cleared for the rest.
Click Start update and watch the phases: Connecting → Transferring → Rebooting → Confirming → Healthy. The same state appears as a small indicator on the node's row.
Let the confirm window run. After the reboot the desktop confirms the node reports the expected version, answers a fresh challenge, and matches its config; this takes up to about thirty seconds. Do not abort early.

During the flash the node's output freezes for a few seconds and its LEDs may go dark. This is normal. Do not power-cycle the node during a flash — cutting power mid-write is the one action that requires a USB recovery. A re-run is always safe: the node advances its anti-rollback floor only after it confirms healthy, so the prior image stays re-pushable.

When an update fails

The dialog shows a typed reason on failure. Node not eligible / wrong subnet means the node needs a routable address on a host subnet, or, for a link-local node, a direct attachment to a single host interface that has a link-local address. Could not reach the update host means the node never connected; check power, network, and the host firewall. Rejected: signature / version means the image failed verification on the node, which kept its working firmware. Version mismatch means the node returned on a firmware version other than the one pushed; confirm the right image and re-run.

Troubleshooting

Devices not appearing

Check the power and Ethernet cables.
Confirm the device and the host share the same physical lighting network (the same switch or VLAN). Discovery is broadcast, so the device does not need an IP on the host's subnet to appear.
Check firewall settings on the host; UDP port 46244 must be reachable inbound.
Watch the device's LED strips during boot. A cyan flash means the Node fell back to AutoIP. See Boot Indicators.

No output to device

Verify Start Universe matches what Studio is sending.
Confirm the output network interface in Edit > Outputs matches the subnet the device is on.
If colors look wrong, check Color Order. If pixels at the end of each strip stay dark, check LEDs per Strip.

Intermittent connection

Check cable quality and connector seating.
Monitor for packet loss on the switch or router.
For busy networks with many universes, prefer gigabit switching and wired connections over Wi-Fi.

RDM Devices: sibling tab in the Fixtures workspace; discovers third-party RDM responders behind Art-Net nodes.
Address Space: universe allocation across all outputs
Fixtures: fixtures patched to discovered controllers
Network Setup: full walkthrough of every field
Art-Net Setup: host-side Art-Net configuration

Spectralite Controllers

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