PhiLink: Fibonacci
Design the earring’s MANUAL pattern and send it from this screen.
How to check: press the earring button to step through the modes. Earrings with PhiLink have a 7th mode, RECEIVE, after Manual.
PhiLink replaces Manual mode: you design the pattern on your phone or computer screen and send it to the earring, instead of using the button menus.
Preview colour only. Pick the colour of your earring’s LEDs: it sets the brightness levels that LED type uses. The colour itself can’t be changed.
Pattern
For Fibonacci 1, 2 and 3 the Spirals setting picks the fireworks step instead. The earring keeps these settings after it is switched off.
Two earrings in sync
Starts AUTO, RANDOM or PARTY on two earrings at exactly the same moment, so both show the same patterns in step. RANDOM and PARTY also get the same random choices and the same transitions. Each earring sets its clock to the phone’s, so they stay together.
When RANDOM or PARTY moves to its next pattern, a transition blends the old pattern into the new one over about half a second, instead of switching at once (a hard cut). Each time it picks one at random: a wipe out from the centre, a wipe in from the edge, a clock sweep, a dip to black or a crossfade. The old pattern keeps turning until it has gone. The other modes always use a hard cut. Send to earring also stores this setting, for when you pick RANDOM or PARTY with the button.
Left and right earring
Set one earring of a pair to Right and every pattern on it turns the other way, in every mode, so the pair mirrors each other. Send both the same pattern, or start them in sync, and they turn in opposite directions. The mode menu also sits in a mirrored spot, so you can tell which earring is which. You only need to do this once: the earring remembers it, also when you send new patterns.
How to send
These steps set up your phone or laptop screen to send the pattern to your earring.
Every send makes the screen flash quickly. You’ll see a flashing-light warning first.
- Set up your screen first: turn Auto-Lock off (Settings, General) and the screen brightness all the way up. Turn Night Shift off (iPhone: Settings, Display and Brightness, Night Shift), because it tints the screen and changes the light the earring reads.
- Unplug the charger and press the earring’s button until the mode menu shows the 7th light (RECEIVE). It listens for 60 s, with the menu’s arm of lights slowly breathing; as soon as it picks up the phone the arm pulses quickly. For two earrings, do this with both.
- Tap one of the buttons above. During the countdown (3 s, or 5 s for two earrings), lay the earring flat on the circle, LEDs facing up (supercapacitor down on the screen). Two earrings go side by side, one on each circle.
- Keep it still until it blinks 3 times:
- Send to earring: usually within 10 s (15 s in Low Power Mode). The message repeats until you tap the screen. The earring switches to MANUAL with the new pattern.
- Start both earrings: the flashing lasts about 15 s (30 s in Low Power Mode), then both blink together and start. On a long evening, start them again every few hours to keep them exactly in step.
- Set earring side: after the blinks it shows the mode menu in its new spot.
- One blink means it gave up: try again, or tap Slow next to the button (it takes about 1.5 times as long).
Flashing light warning
The whole screen will flash between bright white and black, about 10 times per second, for as long as it sends.
Flashing light like this can cause seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy, even if they have never had one before.
Do not continue if you, or anyone who can see the screen, has epilepsy or has had a seizure.
Stop straight away and look away if you feel dizzy or unwell, or notice twitching or changes in your vision. Lay the earring on the screen and avoid looking at the screen directly.