What does all the different pins mean?

When using the app to control, and/or configure Astera fixtures, there are three different pins that are important to be aware of.

This video explains them in detail, but I will also explain each of them here.

The Bluetooth Pairing Pin

This is the first pin you will come across when using the AsteraApp. The Pairing Pin is the pin that lets you connect the ART7 AsteraBox to the app, so it can act as a "bridge" to transmit commands from the app to the lights and information from the lights back to the app.

This pin is derived from the serial number of the box, so each pin is individual and can not be changed by the user. You can find the Bluetooth pairing pin in the top left hand corner when you are looking at the back of the ART7 AsteraBox.

The Radio Pin

The Radio pin is the pin that actually ties the lights and the app together. This is a four digit pin. You set this in the app. Then when you BlueMode your lights, and press the "Pair With Lights" button, this pin gets transferred to the lights, so they know they are supposed to communicate with this particular app and no other apps within RF Range.

This pin is user definable, so it is important to communicate with each other if two or more individual setups are being used on the same set / in the same venue. The default RadioPin when you first install the app is"0000". You should never use the default "0000" RadioPin. The reason for this is that the lights would then receive commands and try to communicate back to multiple different AsteraApp’s. This will cause complications and dropouts.

Always remember that there could be other setups within RF Range without you being aware of it. By not using the default "0000" RadioPin, you minimize the risk of accidentally using the same RadioPin as someone else within Range.

From App Version: 12.0 a new feature was introduced that scans and notifies you if a different App is using the same RadioPin within RF Range.

The Master Pin

The Master Pin is your "security" pin.

The default Master pin when the lights ship from the factory is 123456.

When you receive new lights, the first thing you should always do is change this to your own personal/company Master Pin. This can be done on each lights individual setup page in the app. Or you can use the much faster "Onboard Lights" function which you can find under "Advanced Actions" in the AsteraApp menu.

The Master Pin has three main uses.

Custom name for each light

You can lock a name in the individual lights.

If you use asset numbers to keep track of your inventory, the Onboard Lights function can also be used to scan in the individual asset numbers and store them permanently in the lights memory. This can not be erased without knowing the Master Pin.

Master Reset of lights.

This option as well can be found under "Advanced Actions" in the AsteraApp menu. In short, it allows you to do a full Master Reset on hundreds of lights in a matter of minutes when they come back from a hire.

If you have set up the Master Pin properly in the lights, you don’t even have to pair the lights to the app first. this short tutorial video shows you how it is done.

Disabling the theft alarm if you don’t know the Radio Pin the lights were last used with.

The theft alarm can be a very useful feature to prevent unwanted tampering with the lights. Not just on events, but also on film/commercial shoots in public places where the lights might not always be in sight of the operator. However, if the user forgets to disable the theft alarm after the job, and it is not possible to get the Radio Pin that the lights were used with. The Master Pin is the only way to disable the Theft alarm. This is done by doing a Master Reset on the lights as described in the video above.