Getting started
From a blank board to receiving DMX over the network in about five minutes.
1 · Flash the firmware
The fastest path is the web installer: connect the board via USB, pick your fixture and board, click Install. It writes the full 4 MB image — bootloader, firmware and web UI — in one pass. Chrome or Edge required.
Alternative: esptool (command line)
Download the merged image for your board from release/latest, then:
pip install esptool
esptool --chip esp32 --port COM5 --baud 921600 write_flash 0x0 elyon_quinled_octa.binFlash the merged image (<board>.bin) at 0x0 — it already contains the bootloader, partition table and app. The _fw_ file is the app only: use it for over-the-air updates, or with esptool at offset 0x10000 on a board that already has the bootloader. If the connection drops mid-flash, retry with --baud 460800.
Replace COM5 with your serial port (/dev/ttyUSB0 on Linux) and the file name with your board's image.
2 · Connect to the network
On first boot the board starts a WiFi access point named after its fixture and device ID — Veyron-RVXXXX, Elyon-RVXXXX, Orion-RVXXXX or Axon-RVXXXX. Connect to it (password 123456789) and open http://192.168.4.1 in a browser — the web UI loads.
- Open the Network section.
- Ethernet boards: plug the cable — DHCP is used by default; a static IP can be set in the same panel.
- WiFi: pick your SSID from the scan list, enter the password, save.
- The board restarts and the page redirects to its new address (also reachable as
ravXXXX.localvia mDNS).
3 · Send it DMX
Open the DMX section and pick the input source:
| Source | Notes |
|---|---|
| Art-Net | Default. Listens on UDP 6454, answers ArtPoll — the board shows up automatically in Resolume, xLights, QLC+, MadMapper… |
| sACN (E1.31) | Multicast per universe, priority handling. Works over WiFi too. |
| Wired DMX | Boards with an RS-485 port (XDMX) accept a physical DMX512 chain. |
| Auto scene | Loops a scene recorded with the built-in DMX recorder — standalone shows with no console. |
| Effects | Built-in generators (rainbow, chase, fire…) rendered on-device. |
Set the start universe and channel to match your patch, then check the live DMX monitor page to verify data is arriving — fixture channels are highlighted in the grid.
4 · Configure your fixture
Each fixture adds its own section to the web UI. See the dedicated guides: Veyron, Elyon, Orion, Axon.
Updating later
Once on the network, updates are over the air and take one file: Settings → Update accepts the _fw_ binary from the release page — no USB needed. The web UI travels inside that image, so there is no separate filesystem upload any more. The same panel can check ravlight.com for a newer release and hand you the download link — the device deliberately does not fetch and install it by itself, because a secure download can fail on a unit that has been running for weeks, while a file you upload always works. For a whole rig at once, Polaris does the fetching and the flashing for you.
The one time you need USB again
Boards still running firmware older than 2.23.3 need a single USB flash before over-the-air updates work. Version 2.23.3 unified the partition table across every board, and a partition table is the one thing an update cannot replace over the network: OTA writes into an application slot that has to already exist, so it cannot move the slots themselves.
Flash the merged image once with the web installer (or esptool at 0x0) and that is the end of it — every update after that is over the network. Devices on 2.23.3 or newer already have the current layout and need nothing. The running version is in the Info popup of the web UI.