App help
The app will not talk to the lights. Start here.
Nine times out of ten, an app that cannot find your roofline is a network problem, not a lighting problem. Work through the checks below in order. If the lights still ignore you after the last one, Tyson picks up the phone.
The one-minute checks
Before anything else, confirm the phone is on the same Wi-Fi network as the controller. Guest networks, a 5 GHz band with a different name, or a phone that quietly dropped to cellular in the backyard are the most common reasons the app reports the system offline. Toggle Wi-Fi off and on, reopen the app, and try again.
Next, confirm the lights are actually off and not simply running a dark scene. A scene set to black, or a schedule that turned the system off at midnight, looks identical to a failure from the driveway. Pick Everyday Warm or a solid color and watch the roofline.
Then check power. The controller sits on a circuit like any other appliance. A tripped GFCI outlet, a breaker that flipped in a storm, or a garage outlet someone unplugged to run a shop vac will take the system offline with no warning in the app.
- Phone on the home Wi-Fi, not guest or cellular
- Scene is not set to black or scheduled off
- Controller has power at the outlet
- App is updated to the current version
- Phone has been restarted at least once this month
Power-cycle the controller
If the checks above come back clean, power-cycle the controller. Unplug it or flip its breaker, wait a full thirty seconds, and restore power. Give it a minute or two to rejoin the network before you open the app again. This resolves the majority of stuck controllers we hear about, especially after a power blip or a router reboot.
We tell every homeowner where the controller lives during the final walkthrough on install day. If you have forgotten, it is usually in the garage, a utility room, or a weatherproof enclosure near the main panel. If you cannot find it, text Tyson and he will tell you from the install notes.
When the router changed
A new router, a new internet provider, or a changed Wi-Fi password is the single biggest cause of an app that worked for a year and then stopped. The controller is still trying to join the old network. It needs to be introduced to the new one, which is a short process but not one we want you guessing at.
Call or text 724-859-4390 and Tyson will walk you through it or swing by on the route. Please do not reset the controller to factory defaults on your own. That wipes the zone map and scene setup we built for your house, and rebuilding it takes longer than the reconnect would have. More on the network side is in thraxel.com/blog/controller-reset-and-wifi-issues/.
Voice assistants and smart home hubs
The system works with Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit and Control4, but every one of those talks to the lights through the same controller. If the app is offline, the voice assistant will be too. Fix the app first, then the assistant usually comes back on its own.
If the app works and only the assistant fails, unlink and relink the Thraxel skill or integration inside that assistant's own app. Renamed zones are a frequent culprit. If you renamed the front roofline from Front to Roof in our app, Alexa may still be listening for Front. Give it the new name or say the zone as it now reads.
Control4 installs are a little different because the dealer who programmed the house usually owns that integration. Loop them in, and loop us in, and we will sort out which side needs the update. The detail on integrations lives at thraxel.com/blog/alexa-google-homekit-lighting-control/.
Wrong colors, missing scenes, slow response
A roofline showing colors you did not pick is almost always a schedule doing its job. Christmas can be set to fire on its own in late November and Halloween in October. Open the schedule view, see what is queued, and edit or delete the entry.
A scene that vanished from the list was most likely deleted by another phone in the household. Any phone logged into the system can edit scenes. We recommend one adult owns the scene library and everyone else just taps them.
Lag between a tap and the lights responding is a Wi-Fi signal problem at the controller location, not a lighting problem. If the controller is at the far edge of the router's reach, a mesh node or a relocated router fixes it. This is a common one for larger Butler County and Cranberry Township homes where the garage is a long way from the office.
What we do not want you to do
Do not open the track. Do not pull on wires at the controller. Do not factory-reset anything. Every one of those makes a five-minute call into a longer visit. The permanent system is built to be touched from your phone and nowhere else, and we back it with 3 years on parts and 1 year on labor because we would rather fix a problem than have you fight it.
If you are in the 16xxx daily route, a controller visit is typically same-day. Everywhere else in the PA, MD, WV, OH and NY footprint we get there fast. The full picture of the system you are running is at thraxel.com/permanent/, and if you are reading this before you buy, the consult is free and the demo case shows the app working live on your driveway.
