NodeLight Manual

01Getting connected

You need three things: a phone with NodeLight (iPhone or Android), an Art-Net node (for example a Pknight Wireless WiFi DMX EasyNode), and DMX lights wired to that node.

First start

1. Join the phone to the node’s Wi-Fi network. Many wireless nodes make their own network; the Pknight EasyNode answers at 192.168.4.1.
2. Open NodeLight. On iPhone, when iOS asks to find devices on your local network, tap Allow; without it the app cannot reach the node. Android doesn’t ask.
3. Watch the status light at the top of every tab. Within a few seconds it should turn green and read Online.

NodeLight looks for nodes on its own. It asks every address on the current Wi-Fi network whether it is an Art-Net node, and lists the ones that answer under Setup → Nodes Found. With Find Node Automatically on (the default), it switches to the node it finds whenever the saved node IP stops answering. That covers a node that changed its Wi-Fi mode and got a new address.

What the status light means

02Lights

The Lights tab lists every light in the show. Each row has the light’s name on top and its controls underneath.

Adding a light

1. Tap + at the top right, then Add Light.
2. Give it a name and, if you like, its Brand and Model (for example Chauvet, SlimPAR 56): they show under the name in the list and on the light’s screen, so you know which fixture is which. Then set the Universe and Start Address set on the light itself. Use Next Free Address picks the first free channel after the lights you already have.
3. Choose a Type: Dimmer, RGB, RGBW, Dimmer + RGB, Dimmer + RGBW, Dimmer + RGBWA+UV, Moving Head, or Custom with your own channel count.
4. Set Quantity to add several identical lights at once. They get consecutive addresses and continue in the next universe when one fills up.
5. Rename or retype any channel in the Channels list, then tap Add.

Controlling a light

• Fader: sets the brightness. By default (left-oriented) 0% is on the left; Setup → Layout can turn it round. For a precise level, tap the percentage next to it: − and + move it one step (of 255), and holding a button keeps stepping.
• Round color button: opens the color window (chapter 03).
• Tap the name: opens the light’s own screen with every channel.
• Touch and hold the name: Edit, Duplicate, Move to Section, Move Up, Move Down, Arrange Lights…, Delete. Holding the fader never opens this menu, so you can’t trigger it by accident while fading.

Overlapping addresses show an orange warning triangle on the row and in the light’s screen.

Fine tuning

Faders are quick but coarse under a finger. For an exact level:

• On a light’s or group’s screen, every fader has − and + next to its value. Each tap moves it one step (a DMX value from 0 to 255); hold a button to keep stepping.
• In the Lights and Groups lists, tap the percentage next to a fader to open a small window with the exact value and − / +.

Reset puts every channel back to its default value. Delete always asks first with a red confirmation; deleting a light also removes it from groups, presets and effects.

03Color and Locate

The color window

Tap any round color button: on a light row, a group row, or a light’s screen. Drag on the wheel or tap one of the 14 swatches. The lights change while you choose.

• ✓ keeps the new color.
• X puts back the colors the lights had before you opened the window.

On a group, the color goes to every light in it that has red, green and blue channels.

Locate

Locate helps you find a light on stage. Tap Locate on a light’s or group’s screen and its lights blink full white once a second. The button turns yellow, pulses and reads Stop, and the color dots in the app blink along with the real lights.

• Locate overrides Grand Master and Blackout, so it works even when everything is dark.
• It only changes what is sent to the lights. When you stop, or leave the screen, they go back to exactly how they were.
• Only one thing blinks at a time: locating another light stops the previous one.

04Sections

Sections are headings on the Lights tab: a room, a side of the stage, a type of light. They only organize the list. Unlike a group, every light in a section keeps its own controls.

• Add a section: + → Add Section, then name it.
• Put a light in a section: touch and hold its name → Move to Section. The list offers every section, No Section and New Section…. You can also pick the section in the light’s editor, or use Add Light Here from a section’s menu.
• Fold a section: tap its name. The arrow shows whether it is open, and the app remembers it.
• Fold or open all: the button next to + folds every section, or opens them all when they are already folded.
• Section menu ⋯: Add Light Here, Rename, Move Up, Move Down, Delete Section. Deleting a section keeps its lights; they move to No Section.

With no sections at all, the list is grouped by universe instead.

Ordering lights

• One step at a time: touch and hold a light’s name → Move Up or Move Down moves it one place within its section.
• Drag anywhere: + → Arrange Lights (also in a light’s hold menu) lists every light with a handle. Drag a light up or down, under another section, or under No Section. Without sections, lights can be reordered within their universe.

Until you move a light, the list is sorted by universe and address. After that your order is kept and saved with the show.

05Groups

A group controls several lights together with one fader and one color button.

1. Tap +, name the group and tick its lights. All and None speed this up.
2. Use the row’s fader and color button to set every light in the group at once.
3. Tap the group’s name for its screen: Color, Locate, Reset, one slider per attribute (dimmer, red, pan…) with − / + for fine tuning, and the list of its lights.

• Touch and hold the name: Edit, Move Up, Move Down, Delete. Deleting a group never deletes its lights.
• The ⋯ button on a group’s screen offers Record Preset (with the group already picked) and Edit Group.

06Presets

A preset saves a whole look: the values of the lights you choose, and the effects that are running. Recalling it crossfades the lights to that look and starts those effects (and stops the others). A preset shows ✨ when it has effects; a preset without them stops any effect that is running.

Recording a preset

1. Set the lights to the look you want.
2. Tap the record button ◉ at the top of the Presets tab.
3. Name it and choose the Transition: Snap, 0.5 s, 1 s, 2 s, 5 s, or any time up to 60 s with the stepper.
4. With a time set, pick a Style (see below).
5. A preset saves every light as it is now, and recalling it brings them all back.
6. Tap Save.

Changing presets

Touch and hold a preset for Update from Current (save every light into it as it is now, also lights added since), Edit…, Move Earlier and Move Later, Arrange Presets… (drag them into any order) and Delete. The editor also changes the name, transition and button color, moves the preset earlier or later in the grid, and has Recall and Update from Current Values.

Grand Master and Blackout

The panel at the top of the Presets tab scales every light’s brightness with the Grand Master fader. BO is an instant blackout; it turns red while active. It sits at the end of the fader where 100% is: on the right when left-oriented, on the left when right-oriented (Setup → Layout). With the phone sideways they become a vertical strip on the right (chapter 08). Neither changes the lights’ saved values. For lights without a dimmer channel, they scale the color channels instead.

07Effects

Effects play moving patterns on any lights and groups. Like Locate, they only change what is sent to the lights: stop an effect and its lights return to how they were.

Touch and hold an effect’s name for Edit, Duplicate, Move Up and Move Down, Arrange Effects… (drag them into any order) and Delete.

Making an effect

1. Tap + on the Effects tab.
2. Choose Single for one pattern, or Multiple to tick several that play together.
3. Adjust each pattern:
   • Speed in BPM, 10 to 240, or tap Tap in time with the music.
   • Depth: how dark the low point gets. For Rainbow it is Color Strength.
   • Spread: 0% keeps all lights together, 100% spreads them into a wave.
   • Color (brightness patterns only): ◐ keeps each light’s own color, or pick one of eight.
4. Tick the groups and lights it should play on.

The colour dots on screen follow the running effects too, so you can see an effect even with no node connected. While the editor is open, the effect plays on the lights so you see every change (a new one as soon as it has a light). When you leave, it goes back to how it was: Save keeps the changes and Cancel drops them, and either way the effect is running again only if it was running before. Start it from the Effects list.

Playing and mixing

• Press the green ▶ to play and the red ■ to stop. The square button at the top stops every effect at once.
• The row’s speed fader moves all of an effect’s patterns together and keeps their ratio.
• Brightness patterns and Rainbow mix: Blink + Rainbow makes the rainbow blink. Two brightness patterns multiply, so Pulse + Sparkle twinkles while it breathes.
• A brightness pattern with its own color picked replaces Rainbow’s color.
• A light that is off or black opens to full white so the effect is always visible. Grand Master and Blackout still apply.
• Effects are saved in the show but always start stopped when you open the app.

08The desk (phone sideways)

Turn the phone sideways and NodeLight becomes a small lighting desk: every light gets a vertical fader, with 0% at the bottom and 100% at the top. Turn it back and the lists return.

• Lights: one strip per light, grouped by section. Each strip has the name (tap it to open the light), the color button, the fader and its percentage (tap it to fine-tune). Tap a section name to fold or open it.
• Groups: the same, one strip per group.
• Moving a fader: drag up or down. The fader moves with your finger from wherever you touch it, so it never jumps; you feel a click at 0% and 100%.
• Scrolling: swipe sideways to see more lights. A sideways swipe never moves a fader.

• Presets: the buttons stay as they are; the Grand Master and BO move to a vertical strip on the right. They are only on the Presets tab, so the Lights and Groups desk has room for more faders.
• Effects: each effect has its play/stop button and a vertical speed fader (10 to 240 BPM; up is faster). Tap the name to open the editor.

09Setup and shows

The gear button opens Setup. Changes apply as you make them.

• Art-Net Output: output on or off, the node IP, port (normally 6454), refresh rate (1 to 44 Hz, default 40) and the status.
• Nodes Found: tap a node to use it. Find Node Automatically switches by itself when the node IP stops answering.
• Appearance: Dark (default) or Light. It switches instantly.
• Layout: Left-oriented (the default) has faders start at 0% on the left, with the color button on the right. Right-oriented puts 0% on the right, the color button on the left and BO on the left of the Grand Master. Names, menus and bars stay where they are. With the phone sideways, faders always go from 0% at the bottom to 100% at the top.
• Current Show: name, number of lights, universes and channels used, plus Export and Import.
• Saved Shows: tap to open, swipe to delete, New Show, Duplicate Current Show.

Saving and files

Your show saves itself after every change and when you leave the app. The folder button at the top left has Save, Save As…, Rename…, Open, New Show, Import File…, Export File… and Send to Phone….

Shows are plain files named after the show, for example Demo Club.json. On iPhone they are in the Files app under On My iPhone → NodeLight → Shows; on Android they stay inside the app, so use Export and Import to move them. Renaming a show renames its file, and two shows with the same name become Name.json and Name 2.json. On iPhone, if you delete a show’s file in the Files app, NodeLight notices when you return and removes it from the list.

Free and Full Version

NodeLight is free to download. The free version controls one light, with Groups, Presets, Effects, Locate and sharing all working, so you can try it with your own node. It doesn't save or open shows: when you close the app the light is gone, and only the node settings are kept. A show with more than one light can't be controlled in the free version — NodeLight then offers the Full Version or a new, empty show, and sends nothing to the lights.

The Full Version is a one-time purchase in the app (Setup → Unlock Full Version, or whenever you reach a limit). It adds unlimited lights, saving and opening shows, Import and Export, and sending shows to other phones. What you built in the free version is kept as your first show. On a new phone with the same Apple or Google account, tap Restore Purchase to get it again for free. Got a code for the Full Version? Tap Redeem Code next to it (Setup, or the Full Version screen) and enter it; NodeLight unlocks as soon as the code is accepted.

If the app closes or the Wi-Fi drops

• Levels and colors are saved within a second of every change, so they are back when NodeLight opens again, and the lights get them straight away.
• Grand Master and Blackout are remembered on the phone.
• Effects start stopped when you open NodeLight — except after a crash (the app closed while it was on screen): then the effects that were playing carry on.
• Wi-Fi drops: everything stays as it is in the app, and NodeLight sends again as soon as the network is back. Most nodes hold the last values meanwhile.
• In the background: on Android NodeLight keeps sending to the lights and shows a notification (“NodeLight is controlling your lights”, with Stop). An iPhone app can’t keep sending in the background, so the node holds the last values until you return.

10Sharing with other phones

Several phones can run the same show together — for example one at the desk and one on stage. iPhones and Android phones work together.

1. Put every phone on the same Wi-Fi network.
2. Open the same show on each phone: send it with Send to Phone… (below).
3. Leave Setup → Sharing → Share with Other Phones on (it is on by default). The other phones appear in the list below it.

Every fader, color and preset change on one phone shows on the others within a tenth of a second, and Grand Master and Blackout are shared too. When two phones change the same light, the newest change wins.

• Joining a running show: a phone that opens NodeLight while another one is already running takes over the current state first, for up to 3 seconds, so the lights don’t jump.
• New lights start from the values the other phones are sending. A light’s or group’s screen has Read Current State to take them over again.
• Effects and Locate stay on the phone that starts them. Run them from one phone at a time.
• Other controllers: NodeLight also follows a lighting desk or another Art-Net app (such as StageLight) that sends DMX on the network, and takes over its state when it starts.

Sending a show to another phone

To give another phone your show — lights, sections, groups, presets and effects — open the folder button and tap Send to Phone…. NodeLight lists the phones running NodeLight on the same Wi-Fi (iPhone or Android); tap one. A green check means it arrived.

On the other phone a message asks what to do: Open or Decline. Its own show is saved first. If that phone already has the show (it was sent before), it can Replace its copy with the new one or open it as a new show next to it. Nothing opens without a tap on the receiving phone.

• NodeLight must be open on the other phone, with Art-Net output on.
• The show goes straight over the Wi-Fi: no internet, account or cable needed.
• Sending and opening received shows need the Full Version on that phone. To send a show further away, use Export File (Mail, WhatsApp, Drive…) and Import File.

11Troubleshooting

12Quick reference

Protocol: Art-Net 4 · ArtDMX (OpCode 0x5000) on UDP 6454 · status by ArtPoll / ArtPollReply every 2 s · universes are Art-Net port-addresses, 0 = first.