Fire cues wirelessly.

Anatomy

Four function buttons, one setup/status ring under the antenna. Each function button has a fixed colour so you can tell them apart at a glance — the colours never change.

Tip: click the buttons in the picture — the status ring blinks green just like the real device when a button fires.

Reading the setup ring

The ring under the antenna is both the setup button and the device’s status light. Its colour tells you which network mode you’re in and what just happened.

Getting connected

Everything is configured from a browser — there’s no app to install. The first time, you’ll connect to the device directly and set a name and password.

Printable one-page version: Get started guide (PDF, A4).

1. Power it up

   Plug SchwiftyEx into a computer or USB power supply with a USB‑C cable.

2. Join its Wi‑Fi

   A new SchwiftyEx starts as an open Access Point named Schwifty — no password needed. The setup ring blinks red to show it isn’t secured yet. Join it from your phone or laptop.

3. Open the setup page

   A new unit opens its Welcome page on your phone automatically when you join, and asks you to choose a password. If it doesn’t, open a browser at http://schwifty.local — type the http://, or the browser may try a secure connection the device doesn’t offer and the page won’t load.

4. Set a password & your Wi‑Fi

   On the Welcome page, choose a password (8–63 characters, typed twice). The same code protects the setup page and the Access Point — one code to remember. Optionally pick your Wi‑Fi from the dropdown (or choose Other network to type the name) and enter its password: the device joins it, your phone goes back to your own Wi‑Fi, and you open http://schwifty.local and log in — done in one step. Without Wi‑Fi, the Access Point restarts locked: join Schwifty again with your new password, and the login page opens by itself. Either way the ring stops blinking red.

   Wrong Wi‑Fi password? If it can’t join, the ring turns purple and the device opens its own network again, now locked with your password. Join it, log in, and Settings opens with a red note above the Wi‑Fi fields — fix the name or password and press Save Wi‑Fi & Connect.

   Page won’t load? http://schwifty.local works on your own Wi‑Fi and on the device’s network Schwifty — check that your phone is on the same network as the device. Phones sometimes jump to another Wi‑Fi by themselves.

5. Name it & add more Wi‑Fi

   On the Settings page, give the device a name and add up to 4 Wi‑Fi networks — pick from the list of networks nearby. SchwiftyEx tries them in priority order, and once any Wi‑Fi is saved it boots straight into Wi‑Fi mode (solid blue). Log in from any device on that network at http://schwifty.local — if you rename the device, use its new name, e.g. http://stage-left.local.

Wi‑Fi & Access Point

Two ways to reach the device. Use Wi‑Fi on a show network so OSC reaches your consoles; use Access Point anywhere there’s no network.

Switching modes

Hold the setup ring for 5 seconds to toggle between Wi‑Fi mode (blue) and Access-Point mode (purple). In Access-Point mode the device makes its own network so you can connect directly — perfect for a quick change on stage or in a venue you don’t control.

Using the four function buttons

A function is a message (or several) that SchwiftyEx sends. You bind a button to a function, and pressing that button fires it.

1. Create a function

   On the Functions page, click Add Function and give it a name (e.g. “GO”).

2. Bind a button

   In the binding box (the field with the red ×), type the button name: B1, B2, B3 or B4.

3. Choose press, release, or both

   Tick Pressed, Released, or both to decide when each message is sent, then set the message itself (see Message types below).

4. Save & fire

   Click Save all functions. Now press the button on the device — the function fires and the status ring pulses (green for MIDI, red for OSC).

Ready to test out of the box

A new SchwiftyEx comes with one example function on each button, each using a different message type. Press each button once to check that everything works — then edit or delete them to build your own setup.

Watch B1, B3 and B4 in any MIDI monitor connected over USB. The B2 OSC message is broadcast to port 8000 on your Wi‑Fi network, so any OSC monitor on that network receives it without knowing the device’s address — point the Broadcast 8000 endpoint preset at your console when you’re ready. Broadcast is handy for a first test, but over Wi‑Fi a lost broadcast packet is never re-sent, so a few messages can go missing (e.g. 18 of 20). For a show, always set the endpoint to the receiving computer’s or console’s own IP address: then Wi‑Fi re-sends until every message arrives. The SysEx uses the non-commercial manufacturer ID (7D), so no real device reacts to it.

Pairing & using remotes

SchwiftyRemote hand-held fobs come in 1-, 4- and 8-button versions. Pair one to SchwiftyEx and its buttons work exactly like the onboard buttons — from across the room.

1. Pair the remote

   Go to the Pairings page and click Add pairing, then press any button on the remote. Its serial number is saved to SchwiftyEx. After that the card gets a small numbered box for each button you press on the remote (1, 2, 3, 4…). The boxes stay, and the one you press flashes — so you know which number to bind.

2. Give it a name

   Type a name for the remote (e.g. “Thomas”) and click Save.

3. Bind its buttons to functions

   In a function’s binding box, type the remote name and the button number joined by a dash. Button 4 on a remote named Thomas is Thomas-4.

4. Press & fire

   Press the button on the remote — the function fires exactly as if you’d pressed the device.

What a function can send

Each press or release action sends one of four message types. Mix and match across functions — a single button can send MIDI to your DAW and OSC to a lighting console at the same time.

Presets, terminal & firmware

Presets

Save a complete set of functions and pairings as a preset, then reload it later — ideal for switching between shows, venues or setups.

Serial terminal

The built-in Serial Terminal shows every message as it’s sent, with a live log you can watch while you test bindings. It starts folded away — tap Show to open it, Hide to fold it again. You can download the log as a CSV for documentation.

Each button press or release is one line, ending with the function that fired and — for OSC — the exact target and message that went out:

Pressed : Button 4 (B4)   Button: 4   SN: B4   Function: GPIO12 · Fader up · OSC 10.0.0.5:8000 /ch/01/mix/fader 0.75

If a message cannot be sent, the line is followed by a reason instead, so a silent log never hides a failure:

• OSC drop: not connected to WiFi — the device is in AP mode or offline.
• OSC drop: rate limit — the same target and address was sent to less than 15 ms ago.
• OSC drop: preset not found / no endpoint / bad IP/port — the message preset is incomplete.
• OSC drop: UDP send failed — the network refused the packet.

Firmware updates

Online: with SchwiftyEx on a Wi‑Fi that has internet, open Settings → Firmware Update and tap Check for updates. It shows the new version and what changed; tap Install update and it downloads, checks the file and restarts by itself (about a minute). Nothing is installed until you tap Install — don’t update during a show, and keep it powered until it has restarted.

From a file: download firmware.bin from github.com/tumsen/SchwiftyEX-firmware/releases and open Advanced: update from a file on the same page — this also works without internet and on the device’s own network.

Safety net: the previous firmware stays on the device. A new version runs on trial for its first 30 seconds; if it crashes or restarts in that time, SchwiftyEx goes back to the previous firmware by itself. (Unplugging it in those 30 seconds does the same — just update again.)

Your functions, pairings, presets and settings are kept when you update.

Capacity & limits

SchwiftyEx scales from a single fob on stage to a whole building of triggers.