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Getting Started

This walks through everything from signing into IgorBox Studio for the first time to playing your first show on real hardware. If you have a controller in front of you, this should take about thirty minutes.

Step 1 — Sign in​

IgorBox Studio is currently invite-only. If you've ordered hardware and don't have a Studio yet, contact support and we'll set one up for you.

You'll receive an email invitation with a link. Click the link, sign in with email + password (or GitHub or Google), and land in your Studio at https://<your-org>.igorbox.studio.

Step 2 — Add a controller​

  1. From the dashboard, click Add Controller.
  2. Power on your controller and connect it to your network — see Connectivity if it's not already on WiFi.
  3. Find the 8-character setup ID on the controller's serial-number sticker.
  4. Enter the setup ID in the Setup Token field.
  5. Pick a name (something like "Front Door" or "Coffin Room"), add tags if you want.
  6. Click Add to Account.

Within a few seconds, the controller appears in your Studio with a green online indicator. Full details: Magic Provisioning.

Step 3 — Open the controller​

Click the controller in the dashboard. You'll see a row of tabs across the top:

  • Overview — at-a-glance status, current state, and the Start Manual Control button
  • Shows — the shows deployed to this controller
  • Triggers — inputs wired to fire shows on this controller
  • Rules — rules that use this controller, including references from other controllers
  • Events — recent activity for this controller
  • Configuration — channel names, voltage settings, front button mode, ambient show, and Preparation controls
  • Provisioning — setup ID and re-provisioning options (shown for magic-provisioned controllers)
  • Troubleshooting — trigger reach tests, delivery reports, and device details; see Troubleshooting Triggers

Spend a minute looking around. Don't change anything yet.

You can watch sensor inputs live on Overview without starting Manual Control. For supported controllers on firmware 2.2.2, Direct Trigger tests the input's connected shows and rules. See Input Settings for normally closed sensors and cooldown, or Direct Trigger for a remote test.

If an air valve, heater, or other output needs to stay on while shows run, see Preparation. Set up a named control in Configuration, then turn it on or release it from Overview. Preparation needs firmware 2.2.3 or later on a supported output controller.

Step 4 — Try Manual Control​

Before building a show, verify your wiring works.

  1. Click Start Manual Control in the controller's Overview tab.
  2. The channel sliders appear. Drag a slider, click a button, watch the channel react.
  3. The front-panel indicator on the controller will follow your input in real time. So will the actual wired load.

When you're done, click End Manual Control. The controller returns to its previous state.

See Manual Control for the full reference.

Step 5 — Make a show​

  1. From the top navigation, click Shows, then Create Show.
  2. Give it a name and a duration (the default 10 seconds is fine for a first show).
  3. Add the controller you just provisioned to the show's targets.

Now you're in the timeline editor. You'll see a track per channel that the controller has.

Build something​

Drop a clip on a relay channel: switch to Draw tool and click-and-drag in the track. That's an ON pulse. Drag the right edge to extend it. Drag it horizontally to move it.

Drop a lighting envelope on a lighting channel: in Draw mode, click anywhere in the track to place a control point. Each control point is a (time, value) pair; the channel ramps smoothly between them.

Drop an audio clip on the audio track: click the + button on the audio track, pick a media file.

See Timeline Editor: Basics for the full feature tour.

Step 6 — Live Preview​

Before deploying, preview the show on real hardware:

  1. Click Live Preview at the top of the editor.
  2. Hit Play in the transport.
  3. The show plays — on your real controller — with audio, lighting, relays, the works.

Edit the show, hit play again. The change applies on the next playback. This is the fastest iteration loop in show control.

See Live Preview for details.

Step 7 — Deploy​

Once the show is right:

  1. Click Deploy.
  2. Studio packages the show and sends it to each target controller.
  3. The controller acknowledges within a few seconds.

The show is now permanently on the controller. You can trigger it from a Logic Rule, from a webhook, by pressing the front button, or manually from the controller's Overview tab.

Step 8 — Make it run on its own​

The simplest "show triggers automatically" recipe is the ambient routine:

  1. In the controller's Configuration tab, scroll to Ambient Show.
  2. Pick the show you just deployed.
  3. Save.

The controller now plays your show on a loop whenever nothing else is playing.

For input-triggered shows (button press, sensor activation, webhook), see the Logic Rules overview.

What next?​

You've got the skeleton. From here, it's all depth:

Documentation under /docs is licensed CC BY 4.0. Code samples are MIT. IgorBox™ trademarks and products are excluded — details.