Welcome to PlantaeLight

PlantaeLight is a family of plant-growing LED products paired with a mobile app. The app runs on iPhone and Android, plus a companion web dashboard for Pro subscribers. This manual covers everything a first-time user needs — with no jargon and nothing fabricated. If you can't do it in the app, it's not in here.

What's in the box

• Your PlantaeLight device
• A regional power adapter
• Any mounting hardware specific to the model
• A printed Getting Started card

What you'll need

• A 2.4 GHz WiFi network with internet access
• An iPhone (iOS 15+) or Android phone (Android 10+)
• The PlantaeLight app from the App Store or Google Play
• Bluetooth enabled on your phone (used once during setup)
• A mains power outlet within reach of the device

Free vs PlantaeLight Pro

The app is free and fully functional. With the free tier you can sign in, set up a device, apply built-in light recipes, and adjust lights by hand. An optional PlantaeLight Pro annual subscription adds fine-grained sliders, live preview, device groups, automated schedules, custom recipes, and the web dashboard. See PlantaeLight Pro.

How to read this manual

The sidebar is your table of contents. Each section stands on its own. If you're in a hurry, Quick Start gets your first device set up in under five minutes.

Quick Start

The short version — the printed card that shipped with the device covers the same path. A PDF copy is available here.

1. Install the app. Search PlantaeLight in the App Store or Google Play.
2. Sign in. Tap Create account with your email, or use Sign in with Apple or Sign in with Google.
3. Grant permissions when the app asks — push notifications, location, Bluetooth. You can skip any of them; setup still works.
4. Plug in your device. Wait for the green LED to blink rapidly — that means it's ready to pair.
5. Tap the + button in the top-right of the Home screen to start the New Device wizard. (On the web dashboard, use the mobile app for initial setup.)
6. Follow the wizard. Accept the terms, confirm the LED is blinking, pick your device from the Bluetooth list, enter your home WiFi, and wait ~30 seconds.
7. Name your device (optional, e.g. "Kitchen herbs").
8. Control it. On the Home tab, tap your device to open the slider panel. Adjust and tap Save & Apply.

If anything fails, jump to Troubleshooting.

Your account

Everything the app does — your devices, custom recipes, schedules, support tickets — is tied to your PlantaeLight account. You create it once.

First launch

The first time you open the app on your phone, you see, in order:

1. A short tour — three slides explaining what PlantaeLight does (the app, groups and recipes, and Pro). You can tap Next through them or Skip to go straight to sign-in. The tour only plays once per install.
2. The sign-in screen. Sign in or tap Create account.
3. A permissions wizard (after you're signed in) that steps through push notifications, location, and Bluetooth.
4. Pick a username. A short prompt asks you to claim a public handle (3–24 characters, letters / numbers / underscores). You can Skip for now and claim one later from your Profile — the Community features (Feed, Explore, Profile) work in read-only mode until you have one.

Sign-in methods

Three options — any of them works.

Email + password

1. On the sign-in screen, tap Sign up.
2. Enter your email and a password (at least 8 characters).
3. Tap Sign Up. You'll be routed to a verification screen.
4. Check your email for a 6-digit code and enter it.
5. Tap Verify. You're in.

Sign in with Apple (iOS)

On the sign-in screen, tap Sign in with Apple. Confirm with Face ID / Touch ID / your Apple ID password. You can share or hide your email — either is fine.

Sign in with Google (iOS + Android)

Tap Sign in with Google, pick a Google account, confirm.

Face ID sign-in

On iPhone, the app can launch straight into Face ID instead of asking for your password. To enable:

1. Open Profile → ⚙️ → Security and turn on Biometric sign-in.
2. Sign out.
3. Sign in again with email + password — the app captures your credentials for Face ID.

After that, Face ID is offered on the sign-in screen and auto-prompts on fresh app launches. You can still sign in with your password if Face ID fails.

Resetting a forgotten password

Only relevant for email/password accounts. Apple and Google passwords are managed by those providers.

1. On the sign-in screen, tap Forgot Password?
2. Enter your email. The app sends a 6-digit reset code.
3. Enter the code and choose a new password (8+ characters).
4. Sign in with the new password.

Permissions

The permissions wizard on first launch asks for three things. All are optional; the app still works without them.

Change these later in your phone's system settings — iOS: Settings → PlantaeLight; Android: Settings → Apps → PlantaeLight.

Signing out

Open Profile → ⚙️ → Account and tap Sign Out. Your devices, recipes, and tickets stay on the server.

Deleting your account

From the same Profile → ⚙️ → Account screen, tap Delete account. The app asks you to confirm twice before it proceeds. Your devices are unlinked (they return to an unprovisioned state), custom recipes are deleted, and your profile is removed.

Connecting a device

PlantaeLight devices connect to your home WiFi and register with the cloud the first time they're powered up. After that they auto-reconnect on every boot. You do this once per device.

Before you start

• Know your home WiFi name (SSID) and password. Only 2.4 GHz networks work.
• Be within ~2 meters of the device during pairing.
• Bluetooth on your phone is on.

The wizard, step by step

Step 1 — Terms & Conditions

Tap the + button in the top-right of the Home screen. The first screen is a short legal overview of setup, WiFi handling, and network-change disclaimers. Tick the agreement box and tap Continue.

Step 2 — Check the device LED

The app shows a short visual of what the green LED should look like (rapid blinks, about 200 ms on / 200 ms off). Confirm it matches your device, then tap Yes, LED is flashing.

If the LED doesn't look like that, see Troubleshooting.

Step 3 — Find the device over Bluetooth

The app scans for PlantaeLight devices advertising on Bluetooth LE. Devices appear as PL_ followed by an 8-character product number (the same number on the device label). Tap yours.

If no devices are found, tap Scan Again, or use the WiFi fallback described at the bottom of this section.

Step 4 — Enter your WiFi

The app shows WiFi networks your device can see. Pick yours and enter the password.

If your SSID is hidden or the scan fails, tap Enter manually and type it in.

Tap Connect. Credentials go to the device over Bluetooth — you don't need to switch your phone's WiFi.

Step 5 — Cloud registration

The device connects to WiFi, requests cloud credentials, and registers. A status indicator shows the phases: Sending credentials → Connecting to WiFi → Registering → Device ready. This takes about 30 seconds total. The status LED stops blinking and turns solid when the device is online.

Step 6 — LED Sticks (controllers with sticks only)

If your device drives detachable LED sticks, the wizard asks how many are connected. There are two variants:

• Standalone Controller (Product ID starts with 01) — sticks are chained in series, each individually addressable. Drag the slider to the actual count (1–10) and tap Save.
• Parallel Array Controller (Product ID starts with 02) — sticks sit in parallel and share one color. Tap one of three tile choices: 3, 5, or 9 sticks. The number is informational only (the controller drives every stick the same), so pick whichever matches your kit.

Other products (integrated panels, single-unit lights, bulbs) skip this step.

Step 7 — Name your device (optional)

Type a name you'll recognize (e.g. "Kitchen herbs" or "Grow tent 1") and tap Save Name, or Skip. You can always rename later — see Managing devices.

If Bluetooth pairing fails

Every PlantaeLight device opens a temporary WiFi access point during setup as a fallback. If the Bluetooth flow keeps failing:

1. In your phone's system WiFi settings, join the network named PlantaeLight <product-number> (password: plantaelight).
2. The app detects the direct connection and shows a Connected to PlantaeLight device banner at the top.
3. Tap the banner or open the New Device wizard again — the WiFi-entry step now sends credentials over the access point instead of Bluetooth.

This route is slower and requires you to manually switch your phone back to home WiFi afterwards. Use it only when Bluetooth pairing won't complete.

Factory reset

Puts a device back to its brand-new, unprovisioned state. Useful if you're moving it, selling it, or had a misconfigured setup.

Option A — from the app (device is linked to your account)

1. On the Home screen, tap the i icon on the device's card to open its info popup.
2. Scroll to the bottom and tap Delete Device.
3. Confirm. The app sends a factory-reset command, then removes the device from your account.

Option B — from Bluetooth (device unpaired/unreachable)

When the "New device nearby" banner appears for a device, opening its direct-control panel reveals a Factory Reset button. Same effect: the device clears its WiFi and cloud credentials and reboots as new.

The Home screen

This is where you spend most of your time. The layout differs slightly between free and Pro accounts.

The bottom navigation

Five tabs across the bottom of every screen:

• Feed — the activity stream from people you follow. See Community.
• Explore — search for users and recipes, browse the world map, and read Grow Notes. See Community.
• Home — your devices, groups, and schedules.
• Recipes — the recipe catalog and your custom recipes. See Plant recipes.
• Profile — your public profile, settings, and account. See Community → Your profile and Settings reference.

Top of the Home screen

• The PlantaeLight logo and a greeting with your email.
• A + button on the right — opens the New Device wizard. (Mobile app only — the web dashboard doesn't support new-device pairing.)
• A bell icon — tap to open the Activity log. If you have unread push notifications, a red badge shows the count.

Free tier: just your devices

Free users see a single list of their devices directly. Tap a device to open its slider panel; tap the i icon to open its info popup. See Lighting control.

Pro: three tabs on Home

With Pro, the Home screen shows three tabs above the content:

• Devices — same as the free-tier view.
• Groups — bundles of devices you control together. See Managing devices → Groups.
• Schedules — a list of active automations. Start new schedules with the + button in the section header. See Schedules & automation.

Device status at a glance

The "New device nearby" banner

On iPhone and Android, the app periodically scans for nearby unprovisioned PlantaeLight devices over Bluetooth. When it finds one, a banner slides in at the top of any screen:

• Set Up — jumps you into the New Device wizard with the device pre-selected.
• Control Lights — opens a direct-control overlay with the color and brightness sliders. This works even before the device is signed into your account — the app talks to it over Bluetooth directly. There's also a Factory Reset button inside this overlay.
• Dismiss (×) — closes the banner. It'll reappear on the next scan cycle.

The "Connected to PlantaeLight device" banner

If you manually connect your phone to the device's own WiFi access point (PlantaeLight <product-number>, password plantaelight), the app shows a green banner at the top. Tap it to open a direct-control overlay that talks to the device over local WiFi — no cloud required.

The "No internet connection" banner

Shown when your phone has no internet at all. Devices you've already configured keep running any active schedule on their own; you just can't send commands until the phone is back online.

Pull to refresh

On the Home screen (and on Grow Notes, Activity, and Help), pull the list downward from the top to reload.

Lighting control

Tap a device on the Home screen to open the light-control overlay.

The sliders

Every PlantaeLight product exposes four color channels plus an overall brightness:

Free vs Pro — how the sliders behave

In practice: free users tune the mix and commit with one button; Pro users get real-time feedback as they drag.

Standalone controllers with multiple LED sticks

If you own a Standalone Controller (up to 10 LED sticks chained in series), the control panel has an extra row at the top:

• All LED Sticks (default) — your slider values are applied to every stick equally.
• LED Stick 1, 2, 3… — control a single stick at a time. Useful if you're growing different plants or stages next to each other.

Tap the stick row you want, set the sliders, apply. Switching back to All LED Sticks and moving a slider overwrites the individual values for every stick — the app shows a small note reminding you.

Turning off

Drag Overall Brightness to 0 and Save & Apply. The device stays online and controllable — it just emits no light.

Direct control without the cloud

Two modes bypass the cloud entirely:

• Bluetooth — tap Control Lights on the "New device nearby" banner.
• Device WiFi access point — join the device's WiFi (PlantaeLight <product-number>, password plantaelight), tap the green banner at the top of the app.

Both open an overlay with the same four colors + brightness and a Save & Apply button, plus a Factory Reset button at the bottom.

Plant recipes

A recipe is a complete light plan for a plant — color mix, brightness, and a day/night cycle, laid out across multiple growth phases. Instead of guessing channel values, you pick a recipe.

The structure

• A recipe consists of one or more phases (e.g. Germination → Vegetation → Flowering).
• Each phase has a duration in days plus one or more cycles that repeat every 24 hours. A phase's cycles always add up to exactly 24 hours — enforced by the editor.
• Each cycle has a name (e.g. Day, Night, or for more nuanced grows Morning, Midday, Evening), an icon emoji (☀️ 🌙 🌅 🌇 or anything you type), a duration in hours, a PPFD range, channel values (Hyper Red, True Green, Deep Blue, Far Red), and an overall brightness.

Browsing

1. Tap the Recipes tab at the bottom of the app.
2. Use the category filter and sort dropdowns at the top to narrow the list.
3. Tap a recipe to open its detail page with every phase laid out — expand a phase to see its Day and Night settings.

Paid recipes

A few built-in recipes are locked behind a small one-time purchase. Pro subscribers see everything unlocked — no action needed. Free users can unlock individual recipes as they need them:

1. Tap a locked recipe card. A preview opens with the image, growth-stage summary and description.
2. Tap Buy from the App Store (iOS) or Buy from Google Play (Android).
3. The store shows you the exact local price and asks you to confirm.
4. The lock clears and the recipe is yours permanently.

Purchases don't expire. If you later cancel Pro, recipes you unlocked individually stay unlocked. They're tied to your PlantaeLight account — if you reinstall the app or sign in on a new phone, tap Profile → ⚙️ → Subscription → Restore Purchase to re-download your unlocks.

Refunds are handled by Apple and Google directly — use reportaproblem.apple.com for iOS and Google Play's refund form for Android.

Applying a recipe one-off

To push a single snapshot (e.g. "right now, give me this recipe's Day cycle"):

1. Open the recipe's detail page.
2. Expand a phase and tap Apply on any cycle.
3. Pick the device from the list — the channel values and brightness are sent immediately.

This is a snapshot — the device just holds those values until you change them. If the command fails (device offline, for example), a red banner in the overlay explains why. For automatic day-by-day phase progression, start a schedule instead — see Schedules & automation.

Copying a built-in recipe (Pro)

On the recipe detail page, tap Copy & Edit. The app clones the recipe into your personal library (with "(Custom)" appended to the name) and opens the Recipe Editor.

Creating a new recipe from scratch (Pro)

1. Tap the My Recipes link on the Recipes tab.
2. Tap + Create your first custom recipe (or the + icon).
3. Step 1 — Name. "What are you growing?" (e.g. "My Tomatoes"). Tap Next.
4. Step 2 — First growth phase. Give it a name (e.g. "Germination") and a duration in days.
5. Step 3 — Day & Night cycle. Set how many hours of day vs. night, the Day and Night PPFD ranges, and temperature ranges.
6. Tap Create Recipe. You're dropped into the Recipe Editor to fine-tune colors and add more phases.

The Recipe Editor (Pro)

Opens from My Recipes → tap a custom recipe → pencil icon.

Phases

• Phases list at the top. Tap to expand; use the arrows to reorder; use the trash icon to delete (you must keep at least one phase).
• + Add Phase at the bottom creates another growth phase.
• A live 24h indicator under each phase shows whether its cycles currently sum to 24 hours — green "✓ 24h — ready to save" means you're good; red "Xh used · Yh still to assign" or "Xh over" means you need to balance the cycles before saving.

Cycles within a phase

• Each cycle renders as a compact card: drag handle · icon emoji · name · inline −/+ hour adjuster · delete.
• Drag the handle on the left to reorder cycles within a phase.
• Tap the icon square to open a picker: 16 preset emojis (☀️ 🌙 🌅 🌇 ⛅ 🌤️ 🌞 🌛 💡 ✨ ⭐ 🌱 🌿 🔥 ❄️ 💧) plus a custom input — type any Unicode character.
• The inline − / + nudges the cycle's hours by 1 without opening the full editor — useful for quick 24h rebalancing.
• Tap anywhere else on the cycle card to open the full cycle editor as a bottom-sheet overlay.
• Deleting a cycle asks for confirmation so one stray tap doesn't wipe your settings.
• + Add schedule at the bottom of a phase creates another cycle. New cycles default to whatever hours are left in the 24-hour budget (0 if it's already full — you'll need to shrink an existing cycle first).

The cycle editor (overlay)

• Name, duration, PPFD range, and a spectrum preview scaled to your device's actual channels.
• An Overall Brightness slider at the top of the colour section — a yellow master dimmer that scales every channel together. Saved with the cycle and honoured both when applying one-off and when running schedules.
• Per-channel colour sliders (Hyper Red, True Green, Deep Blue, Far Red) each with their own − / + buttons and haptic feedback on every step.
• Apply to Device at the bottom sends the cycle's current values to a device for immediate testing — no save required. DONE closes the overlay and returns you to the phase list.
• Pressing Enter in any text field (recipe name, phase name, cycle name) dismisses the keyboard.

Save

The floppy-disk icon in the top right persists the recipe. Save is disabled whenever any phase's cycles don't sum to exactly 24 hours — fix the red phase indicator(s) first. After a save the editor briefly flashes a Saved confirmation so you don't have to wonder whether it took. If you leave the editor with unsaved changes, the app warns you.

Sharing & rating recipes

Every recipe in PlantaeLight has a social layer — ratings, reviews, bookmarks, and the ability to fork or mark "I grew this". These tools work on built-in recipes and on community recipes from other users.

The social bar on a recipe

Open any recipe (Recipes tab → tap a card). Beneath the recipe summary you'll see:

• Five stars with the average rating and number of ratings to the right (e.g. ★ 4.6 (38)). Tap a star to rate; tap the same star again to clear.
• Add review appears once you've rated. Up to 500 characters of text — visible alongside your star count to other users. Edit or remove later via Edit review.
• Save (bookmark icon) — adds the recipe to your Profile → Saved tab so you can find it later. Tap again to remove.
• I grew this (heart-leaf icon) — a one-way "yes, I've actually used this recipe" marker. Increments the public grow count. There's no un-mark by design.
• Fork (branch icon) — clones the recipe into your personal library so you can edit it. Pro only. The new copy keeps a link back to the original — see Lineage below.

Locked or paid recipes you haven't unlocked yet hide the social bar until you can actually run the recipe.

Recipe owner attribution

Recipes published by other PlantaeLight users show a row at the top of the detail page: avatar, display name, and @handle, with a verified-creator checkmark next to verified accounts. Tap the row to open that user's profile.

Lineage — where a recipe came from

If a recipe was forked from another (or has been forked itself), a Lineage link appears below the social bar. Tap it to open a slide-up showing:

• Ancestors — the recipe this one was forked from, and so on up the chain.
• Descendants — recipes other users have forked from this one (count plus a list of the most recent).

Tap any entry to jump to that recipe.

Publishing your own recipes

Custom recipes (Pro only) start as Private — visible just to you. To share one with the community:

1. Open the recipe from My Recipes.
2. Find the Visibility card at the top of the recipe detail.
3. Toggle the switch to Public.

Public recipes appear in Explore search, on your Profile's Recipes tab, and in followers' Feed as a recipe.published activity. Flip the switch back to Private at any time — the recipe disappears from those surfaces immediately, but anyone who already bookmarked it will see it as "Private" in their Saved list.

Saved recipes (bookmarks)

Every recipe you bookmark — built-in, paid, or community — lands in Profile → Saved. The list shows title, average rating, and grow count. Recipes that were later deleted by their owner or made private are still listed but greyed out, with a Private or Deleted tag, so you know what happened.

Collections — group recipes you've curated

Collections require Pro. A collection is a named, optionally public list of recipes — useful for grouping "Tomato grow 2026" or "Beginner herbs" recipes you want to share with friends.

Manage collections in Profile → ⚙️ → Collections:

• + New Collection — give it a title (up to 80 characters), an optional description (up to 200), and pick whether it's public or private.
• Each row in the list shows the title, recipe count, and a Public badge if applicable. Tap Edit to change anything; tap Delete to remove it (recipes inside aren't deleted — only the grouping).

Add a recipe to a collection

From any recipe detail page:

1. Tap the folder + icon in the recipe header.
2. The Add to Collection sheet lists every collection you own with checkboxes for the ones this recipe is already in.
3. Tick the boxes for the collections you want, untick to remove. Tap + New collection to create one on the spot — the recipe is automatically added to it.
4. Tap Save. Only the collections you actually changed are written back.

Reporting a recipe or review

Found something abusive, copyrighted, or unsafe? Open the user's profile or the recipe's social bar and tap the overflow menu (…) → Report. Pick a category from the list (spam, hate speech, etc.), add an optional note, and tap submit. Reports are reviewed by PlantaeLight staff.

Schedules & automation

Schedules require PlantaeLight Pro. A schedule tells a device to run a recipe day by day, walking through each phase on its own. Set it once — the device keeps running it whether your phone is nearby or not.

The mental model

• A recipe is the template (phases + day/night presets).
• A schedule applies a recipe to a device (or group) starting at a specific phase, day within the phase, and wall-clock date/time.
• Each device (or group) can have one active schedule at a time. Starting a new schedule on a device that already has one replaces it.

Starting a schedule

Two entry points, same wizard:

• On a device (or group) card, tap the calendar icon.
• On the Schedules tab, tap + New Schedule.

The wizard asks in order:

1. Target (if you started from the Schedules tab) — pick a device or group. Items that already have a schedule are flagged with "Has active schedule — will be replaced".
2. Recipe — pick from the built-in catalog or from your own recipes.
3. Starting point — pick which phase and which day within that phase the schedule should start from. Leave at phase 1, day 1 for a new grow; pick a later phase/day if your plants are already partway through their lifecycle.
4. Start date & time — pick when the schedule should begin. Leave at today/now to start immediately; pick a future date/time to have the lights kick in later.

Tap Start Schedule.

Viewing an active schedule

On the Schedules tab, each active schedule is a card showing the device/group name, the recipe, and the status (Playing or Scheduled). Tap it to open the detail screen:

• A day counter — "Day 14 of 90" — showing how far along the plant is.
• The current phase and whether the Day or Night preset is running right now.
• A progress bar across the whole recipe.
• A list of past, current, and upcoming phases.

Cancelling a schedule

1. On a device card with a schedule badge, tap the × button.
2. Or on the Schedules tab, tap the × on a schedule row.
3. Confirm the prompt.

The device keeps its current light output — no sudden changes — it just stops advancing through phases.

Community

PlantaeLight has an active and growing community of growers who publish recipes, follow each other, and share what's working. Three bottom-nav tabs make this up: Feed, Explore, and Profile.

Picking a username

Community features need a public handle. The first time you sign in, the app prompts you to claim one (3–24 characters, lowercase letters / numbers / underscores). If you skipped it then, you can claim one any time from Profile → @claim a username. Until then, you can read the Feed and browse Explore but can't follow people, publish, or be searched for.

Feed

The Feed tab is your home stream. Two sub-tabs across the top:

• Following — activity from people you follow: when they publish a recipe, rate one, fork one, or earn a badge. Empty until you follow at least one person.
• Explore — a global activity stream surfacing what's new across PlantaeLight, regardless of who you follow.

Each card shows what happened ("Alex rated Basil — Vegetative ★★★★★"), a relative timestamp, and links to the recipe or user involved. Pull down to refresh; tap Load more at the bottom for older entries.

Explore

Explore is for finding new things — users, recipes, and people growing in your area. The page has two views, switched with the map icon in the top-right of the header.

Search

Type into the search box at the top to look for users (by username or display name) and recipes (by title) at the same time. Results show in two sections; tap a user to open their preview sheet, tap a recipe to jump to its detail page. Clear the box to return to the default Discover view.

Discover (default view)

Without any search query, Explore shows three rails:

• Surprise me — a button that opens a randomly chosen recipe. Useful when you don't know what you're looking for.
• Suggested creators — a horizontal scrolling rail of users PlantaeLight thinks you might like. Tap a card to open their profile preview.
• Trending recipes — a grid of recipes with high recent engagement. Each tile shows the title, average rating (★ X.X), and grow count.

Grow Notes — long-form articles from the PlantaeLight team — appear as a rail in the Discover view. Tap a card to read it, or tap See all → in the rail header for the full library. (Previously a top-level tab.)

Map view

Tap the map icon in the header to switch to a real-world Leaflet map showing community growers as clustered pins. The map zooms to your region by default.

• Tap a cluster to open a sheet listing every grower in that map cell — handle, display name, and a count of their public recipes.
• Tap a grower to open their profile preview sheet (avatar, bio, follow button, view-full-profile link).
• The recenter control in the bottom-right snaps the map back to your area.

If you haven't shared your own location yet, an Add me to the map button appears — see Privacy & location below.

Your profile

Tap the Profile tab to see what your public profile looks like to other users:

• Avatar, display name, verified badge (if applicable), @handle, and your city/country if you've shared it.
• Bio (up to a few hundred characters).
• Three counters: Recipes, Followers, Following. Tap Followers or Following to see the list.
• Edit profile button — change your display name, handle (limited frequency), bio, and avatar image.
• A gear icon in the top-left — opens Settings as a slide-up sheet.

Below the header, four tabs:

• Posts — your activity timeline (recipes you published, fork actions, badges).
• Recipes — your custom recipes. Public recipes are listed normally; private ones show a Private tag and are only visible to you.
• Grew — recipes you've marked as "I grew this" plus your published / forked timeline.
• Saved — your bookmarks. Visible only to you.

Visiting another grower's profile

Anywhere you see @handle — an activity card, a search result, a recipe owner row — tap it to open their profile. Same layout, minus the gear and minus the Saved tab.

• Follow button — turns into Following after you tap it. Tap again to unfollow.
• … overflow at the bottom of the header opens Report and Block actions.

Following and followers

Tap your Followers or Following counter to open a slide-up list. Each row links to that user's profile. Same on other people's profiles — public follower / following lists, except for accounts that have set their profile to private.

Blocking and reporting

To block someone, open their profile and tap … → Block. They disappear from your Feed, Explore, and search results immediately, can't follow you or message you, and you can't see their content either. Manage blocked users from Profile → ⚙️ → Blocked Users — tap Unblock to reverse.

To report content (a profile, a recipe, or a review), use the … overflow → Report. Pick a reason from the dropdown (spam, hate speech, harassment, copyright, unsafe content, other) and add an optional note. Reports are reviewed by PlantaeLight staff and can result in content removal or account action.

Privacy & location

Three switches under Profile → ⚙️ → Profile & Privacy control how visible you are:

• Public profile — when off, your profile, recipes, and follower lists are hidden from anyone you haven't approved. Default: on.
• Searchable — when off, you don't appear in Explore search results. People who already follow you still see you. Default: on.
• Show me on the map — when off, no pin in Explore's map view. You can also pick a city manually (search by name) or use your phone's current location, or remove your location entirely.

The same screen has activity-type toggles to hide specific event types (e.g. ratings, forks) from your public Feed without turning the whole profile private.

Verified creators

Verified creators (a small green checkmark next to the handle) have been confirmed by PlantaeLight as the genuine person or brand they claim to be. To apply:

1. Open Profile → ⚙️ → Verification.
2. Make sure your profile is public and you have at least 5 published recipes — the eligibility checklist shows what's missing.
3. Write a short reason (why your account is notable) and add up to a few links proving your identity (your website, a press article, a verified social-media profile).
4. Tap Submit. PlantaeLight reviews each application manually — usually within a few days. The screen shows pending / approved / rejected state, and a rejection includes the reviewer's notes plus a cooldown before you can resubmit.

Push notifications

If you have device notifications enabled, the app pings you when:

• Someone new follows you.
• One of your recipes is rated, forked, or published.
• You earn a community badge.

Tap a notification to jump straight to the relevant recipe or profile. Disable any of these from Settings → Notifications.

Managing devices

The Home tab is the single place for device management — day-to-day control (adjust lights, apply recipes, start schedules) and configuration / maintenance (rename, reboot, firmware updates, delete).

Device info popup

On Home, tap the i icon on a device card. The popup shows:

• Name — editable. Changes save when you tap away or press Enter.
• Series and Product — read-only (e.g. FLORIQ, Standalone Controller).
• Product ID — the unique 8-character identifier on your device label. Support asks for this.
• Cloud Status — Active, Preprovisioned, Suspended, Offline.
• Version — the current firmware version.
• LED Sticks count (Standalone Controllers only) — 1 to 10.
• Check for Updates — see Firmware updates.
• Reboot Device — sends a restart command. The device goes offline for ~10 seconds and reconnects with its current light output preserved.

Renaming

Edit the Name field in the info popup. The product ID still uniquely identifies the device; the name is just for your convenience.

Changing the LED stick count

On a Standalone Controller (Product ID starting with 01), go to the info popup and edit the LED Sticks number (1–10). Save. Do this when you add or remove a physical stick. It affects how the app formats commands sent to the controller.

Rebooting

If a device seems stuck, use Reboot Device from the info popup instead of unplugging. The command goes through the cloud, and the device restarts and rejoins WiFi on its own.

Deleting (unlinking) a device

1. On Home, tap the i icon on the device's card.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the info popup and tap Delete Device.
3. Confirm. The app sends a factory-reset command, then removes the device from your account.

Groups (Pro)

If you run several devices together — a whole grow rack, for example — group them. Commands applied to the group go to every member at once.

1. On Home, switch to the Groups tab.
2. Tap the + icon in the section header.
3. Name the group (e.g. "Grow tent 1") and pick which devices belong.
4. Tap Save.

Tap the group card to open a group control overlay — one set of sliders for every device in the group. A device can only belong to one group at a time; picking a device already in another group is shown but disabled. Group schedules work exactly like device schedules — see Schedules & automation.

The Activity log

Tap the bell icon on the Home header to open the Activity log — a chronological list of events: devices going online/offline, firmware updates, schedule changes, and each light command sent.

• Pull down to refresh.
• Load More at the bottom fetches older entries.
• The trash icon at the top clears the entire log (irreversible — asks to confirm).

Firmware updates

PlantaeLight pushes firmware updates over the air so your device keeps improving after you buy it.

Checking your current firmware

Open the device info popup by tapping the i icon on the device's Home-screen card. The Version field shows the running firmware.

Manually checking for updates

1. In the device info popup, tap Check for Updates.
2. If nothing's available, you get a "Your device is up to date" message.
3. If there's an update, you see both the Current and New versions plus a Release Notes link. Tap Update Now to start it.

The app shows "Update Started — the firmware update has been sent to your device. It will restart automatically once the update is complete."

Push notifications for updates

If you kept push notifications enabled during the permissions wizard and in Profile → ⚙️ → Notifications, you'll get a notification when a firmware update is available.

PlantaeLight Pro

Pro is an optional annual subscription that unlocks everything the free tier leaves out. The free tier covers single-device setup, control, and built-in recipes — Pro is for people who want fine precision, automation, and multi-device management.

What Pro unlocks

Subscribing

Pro is an annual subscription priced by your app store. To subscribe from the mobile app:

1. Open Profile → ⚙️ → Subscription.
2. Tap Subscribe to Pro.
3. Confirm the purchase in the App Store / Google Play dialog.

Pro activates within a few seconds. Locked features unlock immediately.

Restoring a purchase

If you reinstalled the app or signed in on a new phone, your Pro status should return automatically. If it doesn't, open the same screen and tap Restore Purchase. The app asks the store whether your account has an active subscription and re-activates Pro.

Managing your subscription

When Pro is active, the Subscription screen shows a detail panel with:

• Purchased via — Apple, Google, web (Stripe), or admin grant.
• Started — the date you first activated Pro.
• Expires — the next renewal date, or Never for permanent admin grants.
• Subscription ID (web subscriptions) — a Stripe identifier, useful when contacting support.

The Manage Subscription link below opens the right place for your store:

• On iPhone: opens the Apple ID subscription page, where you can change the plan or cancel.
• On Android: opens Google Play's subscription settings.
• Subscribed via the web (Stripe): opens a pre-filled email to support@plantaelight.com. Cancellations for web subscriptions are currently handled through support.

The web dashboard

Sign into app.plantaelight.com with the same account. Pro subscribers see a full dashboard; non-Pro users see a "Subscribe to unlock" gate. The web dashboard doesn't support new-device setup — use the mobile app for that, then manage devices on the web.

Settings reference

Open the Profile tab and tap the ⚙️ gear in the top-left. Settings opens as a slide-up sheet with a list of categories — tap one to drill in, tap the back arrow to return, or tap Done to dismiss the whole sheet.

Subscription

Manage PlantaeLight Pro. When inactive: Subscribe and Restore Purchase buttons. When active: a card with purchase source, start date, expiry, and a Manage Subscription link. See PlantaeLight Pro.

Profile & Privacy

Controls who can see what about you on the community side.

• Public profile — when off, your profile and recipes are hidden from anyone you haven't approved.
• Searchable — when off, you don't appear in Explore search.
• Show me on the map — toggles your map pin in Explore. Pick a city via search, use your phone's current location, or remove your location entirely. Saving a location requires Public profile to be on.
• Hide activity types from your feed — toggle off specific event types (rates, forks, grews, follows) so they don't appear publicly. Useful if you're a heavy bookmarker but don't want it broadcast.

Appearance

• Language — English or Deutsch. Takes effect immediately and is saved to your account.
• Dark Mode — on = darker backgrounds, easier at night.

Security

• Change password — current, new, confirm fields. New password must be 8+ characters. Only applies to email/password accounts; Apple and Google accounts are managed by those providers.
• Biometric sign-in (Face ID / Touch ID, iPhone & capable Android devices) — turn on to launch straight into a biometric prompt. After enabling, sign out and sign in once more with your password so the app can capture your credentials.

Notifications

• Newsletter — opt in to product-update emails.
• Device notifications — push alerts for device online/offline, firmware updates, and support replies.
• News & updates — push alerts for Grow Notes articles, social events (new follower, recipe rated/forked), and announcements.
• Haptic feedback — subtle vibration on taps and slider ticks. Off for silence.

Verification

Apply for the verified-creator badge — see Community → Verified creators. Shows your current state (none / pending / approved / rejected with reviewer notes), the eligibility checklist, and the application form.

Recipes

Show all colors toggle — controls which color channels appear in the recipe editor:

• Off (default): only channels your devices support.
• On: every channel the backend knows about. Useful if you're planning a recipe for a product you don't own yet.

Help

Opens the in-app Help screen. See Support.

Collections

List, create, edit, and delete recipe collections — see Sharing & rating recipes → Collections.

Blocked Users

Every user you've blocked, with the date you blocked them and an Unblock button. See Community → Blocking and reporting.

Account

• Sign out — returns to the sign-in screen. Your devices and recipes stay on the server.
• Export my data — downloads a JSON file with everything PlantaeLight stores about you (profile, recipes, ratings, support tickets). For GDPR/DSAR access requests.
• Delete account — permanent erasure. Two confirmations required; see Your account → Deleting your account.

Footer

Two legal links plus the app version number:

• Privacy Policy — plantaelight.com/privacy
• Terms of Service — plantaelight.com/terms

Troubleshooting

Most problems are under a minute to fix. Jump to the symptom that matches.

Device LED isn't blinking rapidly

1. Unplug and replug the device. Wait 30 seconds.
2. If it was previously provisioned, factory-reset it (see Connecting a device → Factory reset) so it returns to "waiting for pairing".
3. If the LED is off entirely, try another outlet or another power adapter.

Bluetooth scan finds no devices

1. Confirm Bluetooth is on.
2. iOS: Settings → PlantaeLight → Bluetooth is enabled. Android: Location services are on (BLE scanning requires it).
3. Stay within 2 meters of the device during the scan.
4. Tap Scan Again.
5. Force-close and reopen the app.
6. If still no luck, use the WiFi access point fallback — see Connecting a device → If Bluetooth pairing fails.

Device won't connect to WiFi

1. Double-check the password. Capitalization matters.
2. Use 2.4 GHz. 5 GHz networks aren't supported. If your SSID didn't appear in the list, your router is probably on 5 GHz only.
3. Captive portals block registration. Hotel and coworking-space WiFi that requires you to sign in on a web page won't work. Use a home network or mobile hotspot.
4. Enterprise (WPA2-Enterprise) networks aren't supported. Use a WPA2/WPA3 Personal network.

Device went offline

1. Check the device's status LED. If it's off, check the power.
2. Check your home WiFi — is any other device online? Sometimes a router restart fixes it.
3. If the LED is blinking rapidly, the WiFi has changed (new password, new router) — factory-reset and re-pair.
4. Check your phone has internet — the cloud is how the app reaches the device.

Sliders don't change the light

1. Check the device is online (green dot on its card).
2. Free tier: remember to tap Save & Apply — sliders don't send live.
3. Unplug, wait 10 seconds, plug back in. Light state survives reboots.
4. If other devices work fine and only one is unresponsive, contact support with the Product ID.

Schedule didn't start or didn't advance

1. Open the schedule detail screen — does the day counter look right?
2. Was the device online at the scheduled start time? If not, the device catches up as soon as it reconnects.
3. If you moved the device across time zones, cancel the schedule and start a new one from the correct phase/day.

Pro features are still locked after subscribing

1. Profile → ⚙️ → Subscription → Restore Purchase. The app re-queries your store entitlement.
2. Sign out and sign in again. The app reloads your Pro status on sign-in.
3. Confirm the subscription is active on your app store account — expired or canceled subscriptions drop to the free tier at period end.

Face ID isn't offered on sign-in

1. Open Profile → ⚙️ → Security — is Biometric sign-in on?
2. Once enabled, sign out and sign in again with your password. Face ID needs a successful password sign-in to capture your credentials.
3. Confirm Face ID works for other apps on your iPhone — if not, it's a system-level issue.

Firmware update failed

The device auto-rolls-back on failure. Wait for the status LED to return to solid, then retry from the device info popup: Check for Updates → Update Now.

Forgot my password

Use Forgot Password? on the sign-in screen. Your devices are not affected.

I moved house and the device is stuck

Factory-reset it (from the app if it's still linked, or by Bluetooth if you can find it with the "New device nearby" banner) and re-pair.

Still stuck?

Contact support from inside the app — Profile → ⚙️ → Help → Contact Support. See Support.

Frequently asked questions

How many hours of light per day do my plants need?

Most leafy greens and herbs thrive at 14–18 hours/day. Flowering plants like tomatoes and peppers prefer 12–14 hours. Short-day plants (some cannabis strains, chrysanthemums) need 10–12 hours to trigger flowering. Recipes bundle the timing for you.

Is the light safe for my eyes? For pets?

Don't stare directly into the LEDs at close range — no different from any bright light. LEDs don't emit UV, so there's no skin risk. Pets generally avoid bright lights on their own.

Can I use PlantaeLight outdoors or in a greenhouse?

The enclosures are indoor-rated. Humidity in a sealed grow tent is fine; direct rain or condensation is not.

What happens when my WiFi goes down?

Any active schedule keeps running — it's stored on the device itself. You lose remote control from the app until WiFi returns, but your plants don't care.

Can I control the lights without any internet?

Yes, two ways — connect your phone to the device's Bluetooth or to its WiFi access point. See Lighting control → Direct control without the cloud.

Do I need PlantaeLight Pro?

No. The free tier covers setup, manual control, and most built-in recipes for one or more devices. Pro adds precision, live preview, custom recipes, groups, automated schedules, every paid recipe unlocked, and the web dashboard. Try free first.

Do I have to pay for every recipe?

No. Most built-in recipes are free. A few specialty recipes are a small one-time purchase to unlock individually — or they're all included with PlantaeLight Pro. Your own custom recipes (Pro only) are always free. The exact price always comes from the App Store or Google Play at checkout, in your local currency.

If I cancel Pro, do I lose recipes I bought individually?

No. Individual recipe purchases are permanent and tied to your PlantaeLight account. Only Pro-specific features (groups, schedules, custom recipes, live-preview sliders) go away when Pro lapses.

Can I switch from email sign-in to Apple or Google?

Not directly — those are separate accounts on PlantaeLight's side. If you need to switch, delete the old account (Profile → ⚙️ → Account → Delete account) and create a new one with Apple/Google. Your devices will need to be re-paired.

What's the Product ID for?

It's an 8-character identifier on the device label (shown as "Product ID" in the device info popup). Support asks for it to look up warranty and logs.

How many devices can I add?

No practical limit.

Does the app need background permissions?

Only push notifications run in the background. Everything else (adjusting lights, creating schedules) runs while the app is open.

Is the app available in my language?

English and German at launch. Change it in Profile → ⚙️ → Appearance → Language. More languages over time.

Do I have to share anything publicly to use the app?

No. The community side (Feed, Explore, Profile) is opt-in. You can skip the username prompt and use the app purely as a private device controller. Public profile, searchable, and map presence are each independent toggles in Profile → ⚙️ → Profile & Privacy.

Why is my recipe not appearing in Explore?

Three things must all be true: the recipe is set to Public in the recipe detail's Visibility card, your profile is Public, and you're Searchable. New public recipes can also take a few minutes to show up in trending / search indexes.

Can I delete a published recipe?

Yes. Either flip the Visibility back to Private (it disappears from public surfaces immediately, but anyone who bookmarked it sees it as Private) or delete the recipe from My Recipes outright (bookmarks become Deleted).

Will people see when I rate or fork a recipe?

Yes by default — those events appear in your followers' Feed and on your public Profile timeline. Hide individual event types in Profile → ⚙️ → Profile & Privacy → Hide activity types from your feed.

Specifications & safety

Wireless

LED channels

All current PlantaeLight products expose four controllable color channels — Hyper Red, True Green, Deep Blue, Far Red — plus an overall brightness slider. Exact peak wavelengths and power ratings vary by product; see the label on your device or check plantaelight.com for product-specific data sheets.

Compliance

• CE, RoHS, WEEE

Safety

• Use only the supplied power adapter or one rated identically.
• Do not immerse in water or expose to direct rain.
• Do not open the enclosure — there are no user-serviceable parts inside.
• Keep out of reach of small children and pets.
• Do not stare directly into the LEDs at close range.

Disposal (WEEE)

The crossed-out wheeled-bin symbol on the device means it must not be disposed of with household waste. Return the device to a designated collection point for electrical equipment recycling.

Manufacturer

PlantaeLight LLC
509 East Maple Street
Nashville, Tennessee, 37115
United States of America
Phone: +1 (615) 510-0011
plantaelight.com

Support

In-app Help (fastest)

Open Profile → ⚙️ → Help. The Help screen has:

• Guides — shortcuts to the online Quick Start and User Manual.
• FAQs — expandable answers to the most common questions.
• Contact Support — a form with a category dropdown (Device Setup, Connectivity Issues, Subscription & Billing, Recipes & Schedules, Bug Report, Other) and a message field.
• Your Tickets — all of your past conversations with support.
• Device Diagnostics — a button at the bottom of the Help screen that opens a per-device error log. See the next subsection.

Device Diagnostics

PlantaeLight devices record a short error log — boot reasons, Wi-Fi hiccups, cloud-connection blips, firmware-update issues, low-memory warnings. The Diagnostics screen surfaces that log so support requests can include the relevant history instead of "it just stopped working."

Open it from Profile → ⚙️ → Help → Device Diagnostics. Pick the device from the dropdown at the top; error reports load automatically from the cloud.

Three sources

• Cloud (default) — the errors your device has pushed up over MQTT. Works from anywhere you have internet.
• Local (LAN) — asks the device directly over your home Wi-Fi. Freshest data, but needs the phone and the device on the same network. Mobile app only.
• Bluetooth — useful when a device is in AP fallback (couldn't reach the cloud): the app scans for the advertising device and reads the log over BLE. Mobile app only.

The web dashboard shows a blue note reminding you LAN and Bluetooth aren't available in the browser.

Reading the log

• Each report is a card showing the firmware version, ingest time, and the device's total lifetime error count.
• Inside a report, entries are colour-coded by severity — red (errors, like OTA failure or panic reset), amber (warnings, like a Wi-Fi handshake retry), blue-grey (informational, like a brief cloud reconnect).
• The primary text is a plain-English description ("Wrong Wi-Fi password", "Downloaded update is corrupted", "Device restarted by the watchdog"). Tap an entry to expand raw diagnostic data — code, a1/a2 arguments, uptime, and epoch timestamp — useful for bug reports.
• Entries with their timestamp as "boot + 8s" mean the device hadn't synced NTP yet when the event fired — normal for brand-new devices.

Sharing diagnostics with support

Copy as text at the top of the results produces a plain-text dump you can paste into a support ticket or email. Include it with any bug report — it's the single fastest way for us to diagnose an issue.

Clearing the log

When you've fetched diagnostics via the Local (LAN) source, a Clear log on device button appears. It permanently wipes the device-local error buffer (the cloud's copy is retained for 90 days). Use after support has resolved an issue.

Submitting a ticket

1. Scroll to Still Need Help? and tap Contact Support.
2. Pick a category and describe your issue.
3. Tap Send Message. The ticket appears in your Tickets list.

We reply in-app. A push notification tells you when a reply arrives, and the ticket card shows a "Replied" badge. Tap the ticket to read the reply and send a follow-up.

Ticket statuses

• Open — you've sent your first message; we haven't replied yet.
• In Progress — we're working on it.
• Resolved — closed. Either our reply resolved it, or you tapped Resolve yourself.

Closed tickets stay visible in your list. Pull down to refresh.

Online support page

plantaelight.com/support — public help articles, contact form, status updates. Useful when you're not signed into the app or working from a desktop.

Email support

support@plantaelight.com. Include your device's Product ID (8 characters, on the device label).

Warranty

Products ship with a limited manufacturer warranty. Details: plantaelight.com.

Printed quick-start card

The card that shipped with your device is the one-pager of setup. Online copies: English PDF · German PDF.

Manual revisions

This manual is versioned — see the top of the sidebar. The online edition at manual.plantaelight.com is always the current one.

Helpful links

Everything you might want to bookmark, in one place.

PlantaeLight on the web

• plantaelight.com — main website, product pages, and company info.
• plantaelight.com/support — public help articles, contact form, status updates.
• manual.plantaelight.com — the latest version of this manual.
• app.plantaelight.com — the Pro web dashboard.

Legal

• plantaelight.com/privacy — privacy policy.
• plantaelight.com/terms — terms of service.

Get the app

• App Store (iPhone & iPad)
• Google Play — search for PlantaeLight.

Contact

• support@plantaelight.com — email support. Include your device's Product ID (8 characters, on the device label).
• +1 (615) 510-0011 — phone support.
• PlantaeLight LLC · 509 East Maple Street · Nashville, Tennessee, 37115 · United States of America.

Quick-start card

• English PDF
• German PDF

Refunds for in-app purchases

• reportaproblem.apple.com — Apple in-app purchase refunds.
• Google Play — open Play Store → Account → Order history → tap an order → Request a refund.