CharleyL
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| p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Understanding The WIFI Control of GVM LED BiColor Light Panels | |
After two years experience with the GVM LED480 LS light panels and their WIFI control I feel quite confident that I can explain how they work to control the LED lights remotely via WIFI. They have updated their Cell Phone App since my first attempts to use it, making the App much easier to use.
On power up, these panels operate from their rear display and controls, but using the available cell phone App will allow you to have remote control of the light panel, overriding the manual settings. Since my GVM-Let light panels are almost always mounted up on a lighting support grid attached to the studio ceiling, any adjustments or separate on-off control of them has been done using my cell phone and the GVM Easily App.
Once the cell phone is connected to a light panel via WIFI, the control is very fast and easy to use, but only one light panel can be connected and controlled at a time. I was never successful at getting "group control" of several of them via the App. All of this is explained in the provided manual beginning on page 13, but since I had significant trouble getting all of my light panels to work remotely via the App, I felt that maybe I could help others with a "hopefully" better explanation. My cell phone is an Android, so there may be slight differences in how the Apple App for GVM-LED light panel control works from this explanation.
To control one of these light panels, it is necessary to switch your cell phone's WIFI address to the LED light panel's WIFI address, which is easy, but your cell phone will not be able to connect to the internet during the time that the cell phone's WIFI address is not set to the internet WIFI address, and you have to remember to change the cell phone WIFI connection back after adjusting your GVM light panels, or you won't receive any internet on the cell phone until you change it back.
When first setting up the light panel, the WIFI address will be "gvm_led" as it comes from the factory. You will need to find the free App on the playstore for your type of cell phone. A different version exists for both Apple and Android phones. In both cases the App is called GVM Easily. Once downloaded, you can open it and you will get a GVM Commercial display on your cell phone for a few seconds and a counting down indicator in the upper right of the screen for 5 seconds. If you click on this countdown it will quit the commercial and take you directly into the App. The display will be of two large knobs, one above the other, but they won't work yet. In the upper right corner where the countdown was displayed there will be a "Connect" button. Clicking on the "Connect" button will take you to your cell phone's WIFI connection list, and the one that it is connected to will be displayed at the top and it will show as "Connected". Remember this WIFI address, as it is the one that needs to be connected to once again get your cell phone connected back to the internet after you are making the adjustments to your light panel(s).
Looking down through the list you should find "gvm_led" if your first light panel when it is powered on. At this point you need to be certain that if you have more than one of these light panels, that this is the only light panel that is powered on. When you select the "gvm_led" from the WIFI list, it will replace the one showing "Connected" at the top of the screen. Once "gvm_led" is at the top position of the screen and it shows "Connected", go to the bottom of your cell phone screen and close this WIFI screen.
Again, open the GVM Easily App. Click on the "count down button" in the upper right to quit the advertisement, and wait until "Connected" displays in the top center of the GVM App screen.
Once "Connected" displays, you should be able to operate this GVM LED light panel to change both the brightness from 10-100% with the upper button, and the color frequency with the lower button on the screen. Just place your finger on the little dot and swing it around the button image. The lower color button also contains a center button that allows "ON-Off" of the panel. I sometimes need to push the power on/off button in the center of the lower button to check if I have control of the light panel or not. Once the on/off works, I leave it on for use or further programming.
If you have more than one of these GVM-LED light panels you will need to re-name them differently. In the upper left of the screen is a "Gear symbol". Clicking on it will bring up a list of choices. Click on "Modify WIFI" and it will bring up a screen with two entry windows. In the upper window enter the WIFI name that you wish this LED Light panel to be listed as in the WIFI screen. (I chose GVM-LED__ , the last characters being the number of the panel. (I chose numbers 1 through 8 for the 8 GVM LED light panels that I own, so my first panel is GVM-LED 1). Then enter the WIFI password. "gvm_admin". I strongly advise NOT changing the password, but it can be done.
If you should forget the password, at least you can refer back to this post or to the GVM-LED manual for it if you didn't change it. If you did change it, you are on your own to remember what you changed it too, but a long press of the tiny button on the back of the light panel will restore the panel back to it's default name and password, and anything else that you have modified. I fail to understand why a password is needed at all for this, so you are on your own to use the GVM manual for changing it. Just keep in mind that it is possible to completely reset the panel and start over by a long push of the little reset button on the back of the LED panel. It will take the panel back to the default name and default password assigned by the factory, so you can start over.
Once set, the panel names and password seem to be saved so that they are not forgotten, even if no power or batteries are connected to the LED light panels for extended times.
If running these lights from batteries, you must have two batteries for each light panel. They will not operate on only one battery, and the light panels don't charge the batteries when connected to the AC power supply. You need to charge the batteries using an external power supply. I've been using PowerExtra 7.4 volt 8800 mah cells with my light panels, available through Amazon They replace NP-F960/F970 batteries. I can get about 5 hours use from these lights at full output on one charge of two of these batteries. Powerextra also sells the chargers through Amazon.
They provide light that is quite soft from their 480 LEDs. A plastic diffuser panel slides into the front of then and they have barn doors to help in getting the light from them where you want it, but at only 30 watts of power consumption from each panel, they do require several panels to get enough continuous light for photography. For video in a 10 X 10' studio area, and to get even lighting similar to a live TV studio, I have 8 of these panels on the ceiling of my studio. They are definitely not as bright as two studio strobes, even at a total of 200 wat seconds, but they are continuous lights.
GVM is also selling LED Studio spot lights with Bowens mounts, and the APP for them looks the same, but it is a Bluetooth App, and they don't work the same. Also. the "Channel" numbering on the left side of the App screens for both WIFI and Bluetooth don't seem to do anything.
I hope this is of some help to someone. If there are questions, I will be happy to answer them to the best of my ability.
Charley
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