Christmas Advent Calendar – Lighting User Manual
🎄 Christmas Advent Calendar by LAB16
Illumination & Lighting User Manual
Welcome — and thank you for choosing a LAB16 Advent Calendar!
Your calendar features 24 illuminated drawers and a decorative light strip on top. During December, the calendar highlights the drawer for the current day. Set up and personalize its lights using your phone's web browser — no app or account required.
🚀 1. Quick start — 2 minutes
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Plug in the calendar and enjoy the short welcome light show. |
| 2 | On your phone, open Wi-Fi settings and connect to LAB16_Advent_Calendar (no password). |
| 3 | The setup page usually opens automatically. If not, open your browser and visit a website to trigger the setup page. |
| 4 | Tap Sync with phone to set today's date. |
| 5 | Recommended: enter your home Wi-Fi details for automatic internet time synchronization. |
Good to know: The setup network is available for 10 minutes after startup. To reconnect later, unplug and reconnect the calendar.
✨ 2. What happens when you plug it in
Each time you power on the calendar, it greets you with a short welcome light show (approximately 7 seconds), then begins its normal lighting program.
If all 24 drawers light during the sequence, the drawer LEDs are responding as expected.
📅 3. What the lights do, day by day
Before December
The calendar can glow gently in your chosen background color. If enabled, an hourly effect plays at the start of each hour.
December 1–24
- Today's drawer: shines in your chosen color, blinking or steady.
- Past drawers: glow softly to mark days already opened.
- Future drawers: use the background color, or remain off.
- Top decorative lights: run independently according to your chosen settings.
After December 24
The active drawer countdown ends, while the background and decorative lights can continue illuminating your calendar.
📱 4. The setup page — your control center
Status
Shows the current date, time and today's drawer. If the time looks wrong, select Sync with phone.
🎨 Drawer light
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Background drawers | Turn the background lighting for all drawers on or off. |
| Background color | Choose from the available colors. |
| Background brightness | Adjust the background glow. |
| Light behavior | Choose Blink or Steady for today's drawer. |
| Today drawer color source | Use a selected color or match the top lights. |
| Drawer color | Select today's highlight color. |
| Brightness | Set today's drawer brightness. |
| Blink speed | Control how quickly today's drawer blinks; lower means faster. |
Tip for red drawer fronts: Red plastic can filter light. White and red illumination often show more clearly than green, blue or cyan.
Make today's drawer stand out: Select a contrasting background and today color (for example, white background and red highlight), or enable Blink.
🕯️ Past drawers
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Past drawers | Turn lighting for already-opened days on or off. |
| Past drawer color | Set the color for previous days. |
| Past drawer brightness | Set a softer brightness so today's drawer remains prominent. |
Press Save drawer settings after making changes.
🎆 Hourly drawer effect
A short animation (approximately 6 seconds) may run at the beginning of every hour.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Hourly effect | Enable or disable. |
| Period | Play before December only or all year. |
| Style | Choose Rainbow Snake or White/Red/Green Flicker. |
🌟 Top decorative lights
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Fixed color | One constant color. |
| Random color | Changes to a new color every selected number of minutes. |
| Smooth rainbow | A flowing rainbow with adjustable speed. |
| Christmas rainbow | An animated red, green and white pattern. |
Adjust brightness and select Save top light settings.
🔧 Drawer test
Tap a number to illuminate that individual drawer in white for approximately 3 seconds. Use this for troubleshooting if requested by LAB16.
🕐 5. Keeping the clock accurate
- Recommended: Enter your home Wi-Fi name and password on the setup page to allow the clock to synchronize automatically with internet time.
- Manual refresh: If the date or time looks wrong, reconnect to the setup page and select Sync with phone.
Your home Wi-Fi connection is used to keep the calendar clock accurate.
⚙️ 6. Changing settings later
- Unplug the calendar.
- Plug it back in.
- Within 10 minutes of plugging it in, connect your phone to LAB16_Advent_Calendar.
- Change your settings and press the relevant Save button.
Saved preferences remain stored when the calendar is unplugged.
🧰 7. Troubleshooting
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| Wrong drawer lit / nothing lit in December | Check the clock. Restart the calendar, then use Sync with phone or set up home Wi-Fi. |
| Cannot find LAB16_Advent_Calendar | The setup network is available for 10 minutes after startup. Unplug and reconnect the power, then look again. |
| Setup page doesn't open automatically | Open your browser and visit a standard website to trigger the setup portal. |
| Time is one hour off | Use Sync with phone and check the calendar's time settings. |
| Drawer light looks dim | The drawer-front color may filter the LED. Try white or red. |
| Today's drawer is hard to identify | Choose a contrasting highlight color or enable Blink. |
| One drawer never lights up | Use Drawer test and report the result to LAB16. |
| Lights freeze or behave strangely | Unplug for 10 seconds, then reconnect. Saved settings should remain. |
| Internet time unavailable | Check your home Wi-Fi name, password and signal range. |
Enjoy the countdown — and Merry Christmas! 🎄✨
Christmas Advent Calendar by LAB16
Need help? Contact LAB16
