First boot & the OLED

The controller boots straight into its default configuration and starts rendering. A freshly wired strip lights up on its own, with the built-in pattern engine running, before you’ve touched anything. Everything from here is refinement.

The OLED display

The screen is 128×64. The top row is a header showing the current screen or mode; the rest is a scrollable list, with a thin scrollbar on the right when the list runs past the screen. Three row states:

• A selected row is filled and inverted (highlighted, not yet being edited).
• An editing row gets an outline box while you change its value.
• An info row has a bar down its left edge and is read-only.

Controls

Buttons, a rotary encoder, or both:

• Up / Down moves the selection. Hold to repeat; keep holding for fast scroll.
• Enter opens a screen, or starts and commits an edit.
• Back leaves a screen, or cancels an edit in progress.

Note

Edits apply live, so you see them on the LEDs as you make them. Enter commits the value and writes it to non-volatile storage, so it survives a reboot. Back before committing throws the change away.

What persists

Your active configuration — mode, pattern, strips, slices, elements, sensors, network — is saved automatically and restored on reboot. Named presets are separate snapshots you load on demand. User presets are your own saved configs and patterns, managed in the Files tab or on-device. Factory presets are read-only starting points; loading one doesn’t touch your user presets. A factory reset returns the active config to defaults, but it’s an explicit action. Normal use never loses your setup.

If something goes wrong

If the device can’t bring up its configured state, it falls back to a safe mode that keeps the UI reachable, so you can fix the config instead of being locked out. The network is on demand, so an idle device often shows as disconnected — that’s normal, not a fault (see Getting on the network).

Next steps

1. Check the operating mode on the main screen. It decides what drives the pixels — see Operating modes.
2. Get on the network for the full UI — Getting on the network.

The OLED handles quick changes well enough. Pattern design, sensors, and file management live in the web config app.