Status LEDs

RVAltCtrl has three red LEDs on the enclosure, arranged in a column, one below the next. This page covers each one from top to bottom, starting with the one closest to the antenna.

Top LED: Power

The top LED, closest to the antenna, is the power LED. It's lit any time the device has power, and dark any time it doesn't. If it's dark, the device isn't powered, that's the first thing to check.

Middle LED: Device State

Middle LED after Device is Setup

This is the blink pattern you'll see most often, it's what the middle LED shows once RVAltCtrl has already been set up and connected to your WiFi network.

The middle LED tells you the device's local network address by blinking it out, one digit at a time. It sounds complicated, but once you know the pattern it's quick to read.

You'll typically access the RVAltCtrl device at http://RVAltCtrl.local. On some devices, like some Android phones, and on some networks, accessing it by name doesn't always work, in which case you'll need to use the IP address instead, like http://192.168.51.214.

What that address actually is

Every device on a network, your phone, your laptop, RVAltCtrl, gets its own local address so other devices can find it. It's written as four numbers separated by dots, like 192.168.1.42.

The first three numbers describe the network itself, and every device on that network shares them. The last number is different for each device, it's how you tell devices on the same network apart, a bit like a house number on a street where the first three numbers are the street name. We'll call that last number the device number for the rest of this page, to keep it separate from the individual 0-9 digits that make it up.

Depending on your router or RV's WiFi setup, you might end up on a network like 192.168.1.x or 192.168.51.x. The exact numbers don't matter much, and you can already see them for yourself without any help from RVAltCtrl: open your phone's WiFi settings, tap the network you're connected to (or its info/details button), and it'll show the phone's own address there, something like 192.168.51.37. RVAltCtrl shares those same first three numbers, since it's on the same network as your phone, only its device number (the last one) is different. That device number is exactly what this LED spells out.

Reading the blinks

The LED repeats a short sequence, over and over, spelling out the device number three digits at a time (hundreds, then tens, then ones):

1. Four quick blinks. A "get ready" marker before the first digit. This is also all you'll see while the device hasn't connected to WiFi yet, it just repeats on its own until it connects.
2. A pause, then the first digit: one slower blink for each count up to that digit's value, so five blinks means a 5. If that digit is a zero, you'll see one short blip instead of nothing, so you know it was shown, not skipped.
3. Three quick blinks. Get ready for the second digit.
4. The second digit, same rule as above.
5. Two quick blinks. Get ready for the third digit.
6. The third digit, same rule as above.
7. A longer pause, then it starts over from the four quick blinks.

It always shows all three digits, even when the device number is small, so you can always count on seeing exactly three groups before it repeats.

Examples

Example 1

If RVAltCtrl ends up at 192.168.51.214, the device number is 214, so after each "get ready" marker the LED counts out 2, then 1, then 4:

Put together, the whole thing looks like this, repeating for as long as the LED is showing the address:

You'd type this into your browser when your browser is on the same WiFi as the RVAltCtrl device: http://192.168.51.214

Example 2

If it instead ends up at 192.168.1.7, the device number is 7. The first two digits are zero, so those show as a quick blip each, and the third is seven full blinks:

Put together:

You'd type this into your browser when your browser is on the same WiFi as the RVAltCtrl device: http://192.168.1.7

Connecting to RVAltCtrl

Most of the time you can reach RVAltCtrl by name instead of by address, just type http://RVAltCtrl.local into a browser. Capitalization doesn't matter.

If that name doesn't work on your network or device, that's where the device number from the middle LED comes in. Building the full address means combining two things:

• The network numbers, the first three numbers of the address, from your phone. Open your phone's WiFi settings, tap the network you're connected to, and look for its IP address. If your phone shows 192.168.51.37, your network numbers are 192.168.51.
• The device number, the last number of the address, from RVAltCtrl's middle LED, read using the blink pattern above. In the first example further up this page, that was 214.

Put those together in order, network numbers first, device number last, and you get the full address to type into a web browser, for example http://192.168.51.214.

Middle LED in Reset Mode

Press and hold the button on the device and the middle LED goes solid. Keep holding it, after about 5 seconds the LED switches from solid to a fast, steady blink. Once you see the fast blink, let go.

Letting go while the LED is fast-blinking clears RVAltCtrl's saved WiFi settings and reboots it into setup mode, ready to be connected to a different WiFi network. Use this if you need to move RVAltCtrl to a new WiFi network, or if it's stuck trying to reach one it can no longer connect to. Once it reboots into setup mode, use the setup process at https://my.rvaltctrl.com to connect it to a WiFi network.

Middle LED in Setup Mode

In setup mode, RVAltCtrl hasn't been connected to a WiFi network yet, either because it's brand new or because you just cleared its WiFi settings using Reset Mode above. The middle LED shows this with a simple, repeating pattern: four quick blinks, a pause, then it repeats. Just those four blinks, no other blinks in between, unlike the address-reading pattern further up this page.

To finish setting it up, use https://my.rvaltctrl.com.

Middle LED when Bluetooth is Connected

If you're setting up RVAltCtrl over Bluetooth instead of WiFi (part of the setup process at https://my.rvaltctrl.com on phones or browsers that support it), the middle LED switches to a fast, continuous blink for as long as your phone or computer's browser stays connected to it over Bluetooth. It goes back to the normal setup-mode pattern the moment that Bluetooth connection ends.

This is a good way to confirm the connection actually happened, especially if you're not sure whether your browser found and connected to the device. If you're not holding down the button (see Reset Mode above) and the LED is blinking fast, that's Bluetooth.

Bottom LED: CAN Data

The bottom LED flashes whenever it sees data on the RV's CAN bus, the wiring your RV's stock CZone or RV-C system uses to talk to itself. A steadily flashing bottom LED is a good sign, it means RVAltCtrl is actually seeing live data from the rest of the RV. If it's dark and staying dark, that's worth investigating.