Status Lights

The dots on the front of AirWriter light up to show its state. Most patterns spread out from the test button in the middle. The lights are dim on purpose, so they can be hard to see in bright daylight.

States

	Pattern	Meaning	Action
	Rainbow wave sweeping from the top-left corner to the bottom-right	Starting up, for a few seconds	None
	Blue double blink: a dim blue glow, with every dot flashing twice every couple of seconds	Setup	Join the AirWriter-xxxx network on your phone. See Setup.
	Steady blue shimmer	Setup, with a phone connected	Finish setup on your phone
	Blue rings pulsing out from the test button	Joining Wi-Fi	Wait. After about a minute without Wi-Fi at startup, setup starts again.
	Green ripple fading into white	Connected to Wi-Fi, after setup or a dropout	None
	Soft white breathing	Ready	Print!
	Dim orange embers	Offline: off, unplugged, deselected or out of paper	Check the printer. See Troubleshooting.
	Print head: a white dot sweeping row by row, trailing orange	Printing	Wait. The ImageWriter is slow.
	Print head in stripes, in the old Apple logo's green, yellow, orange and blue	Printing from a vintage Mac	Wait
	Amber double ripple, brighter than the rest	Needs attention: a page is waiting on the printer	Fix the printer and press SELECT. The page carries on.
	Three red flashes, then a slow red pulse	The last job failed	Check the printer and print again
	Green sweep along the bottom, then a glow	Cable test: crossover	Plug the cable back into the printer
	Red sweep along the bottom, then two blinks	Cable test: not a crossover	See Test a cable
	Two red blinks by the AppleTalk port	Cable test: no LocalTalk chip, or no TashTalk on it	See Without the LocalTalk chip
	One dot breathing, a different dot each time	Asleep after five quiet minutes	None. Printing wakes it.

Events

Short patterns that play over the current state.

	Pattern	Meaning
	White drains away to the bottom left	Printer switched off, unplugged or deselected
	Green wave from the bottom left	Printer back on. A paused page carries on.
	Page slides up off the top	Job finished
	Print head stops and fades	Job canceled
	Two red pulses, then the blue double blink	Couldn't join Wi-Fi at startup, back to setup
	Pink fills up from the bottom	Installing a firmware update
	Green rises through the pink	Update installed, restarting
	Rainbow stripes rising from the bottom middle	AppleTalk port on
	Rainbow arc from the bottom middle	A vintage Mac's Chooser is open
	White bar over rainbow stripes, then green	TashTalk flashed. See LocalTalk Chip (TashTalk).
	White bar over rainbow stripes, then red	TashTalk flash failed
	Two orange rings around the test button	Test button pressed during a job
	White ring closing into the test button	Settings saved

Several printers

The panel shows one state for all your printers. It stays white while any shared printer is ready, and turns orange only when no shared printer is ready. While the ImageWriter prints, the panel follows the ImageWriter.

Factory reset

	Pattern	Meaning
	Orange sweep turning red	Test dot held. Let go to cancel.
	White and red flash, then two white blinks	Settings erased, restarting into setup. See Factory reset.

Sleep

After five quiet minutes, Ready and Offline fade to one dot breathing like a PowerBook's sleep light, in a new spot each breath. The panel wakes when you print, press the test button, change a DIP switch, or the printer changes state.

Gamer mode

Turn on DIP switch 7 for a slow rainbow drift in place of white. Just for fun.

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