That Confusin' Middle Part Fixer

When you tap on Mess With Lights or Torture the Brightness, you're dragged to a screen called Plug Into Your Shiny Bulbs. Here you can enable lighting systems by connecting to a bridge (fancy word for "the thing that makes it all work").

A bridge is basically a middleman between your WiFi & your smart bulbs. It's probably a little box sitting somewhere collecting dust & resentment.

DMX

DMX or Digital Multiplex is what the pros use to make stage lighting do literally everything except your laundry—colors, intensity, strobes, you name it.

OnSong talks to DMX through something called ArtNet, which requires a hardware widget that plugs into your router like it belongs there. We're fans of the stuff from DMXKing.com.

Once you've got your ArtNet hardware set up & pretending to work, tap the row labeled ArtNet Interface to flip the switch. Then tap it again to boss around your fixtures & groups.

Use the toggle switch on the right to turn that bridge on & off whenever you feel like it.

Philips hue

The Philips hue smart bulb situation uses a physical bridge to connect your network to bulbs in your home via some ZigBee magic mesh nonsense.

Once the bridge is online, tap Scan For Bridges & let it hunt for the bridge on your network. When it finds one (if it finds one), it'll show up in the list with its IP address so you can tell 'em apart if you're that person with five bridges. Tap the bridge to connect. Then press the button on top of the actual bridge because apparently we still live in 2005.

Toggle the switch on the right to turn that bridge on & off. Tap the row to fiddle with the lights & groups plugged into that bridge.

LIFX

LIFX smart bulbs are lazy—no bridge needed. They just connect straight to your network like freelancers who "work from home."

To enable LIFX, just tap the LIFX row. Boom—a switch appears so you can flip it on & off. Tap again to manage lights & groups on the LIFX network. Fair warning: it might take a hot minute for all your LIFX bulbs to show up.

Note: OnSong can juggle lights from multiple bridges at the same time. Overachiever vibes, honestly.

Export

Setting up lights & fixtures takes forever & a half.

Save your blood, sweat & tears by tapping the export icon in the top-right corner. Pick where you want the DEVICE_NAME.onsonglights file to live. Import it later & your whole lighting masterpiece comes roaring back.