Support
Something not lighting up?
CellarLume is the companion app for a CellarLume cellar controller — an ESP32-based board driving addressable LEDs on your wine rack, with optional NFC tags for tap-to-stock. Most problems are one of the below. If yours isn’t, write to us.
A real person answers. Include your controller’s firmware version (Settings → About) and what you saw — it saves a round trip.
Getting started
I just installed the app. What now?
On first launch, enter the address of your cellar controller — the same URL you use in a browser at home — and tap Connect. No controller yet? Tap “Explore a demo cellar” to try every feature with sample data. Demo mode needs no hardware and no network.
Do I need an account?
No. There are no accounts, no sign-in, and no cloud service. The app talks directly to your own controller.
Does it work without internet?
Yes. Everything happens on your local network. The only thing an internet connection is needed for is downloading the app itself.
Connecting
The app can’t connect to my controller.
Check three things, in order: your phone is on the same network as the controller (not a guest VLAN or cellular), the controller’s URL loads in Safari on that phone, and the address in the app matches it exactly — including
http:// or https://. If you reach it through a reverse proxy, test the proxy URL in Safari first.iOS asked for local network permission. Is that normal?
Yes, and it’s required. iOS asks before any app can talk to devices on your home network. CellarLume uses it for exactly one thing: reaching your controller at the address you entered. If you declined it, re-enable it in Settings → CellarLume → Local Network.
The controller shows as offline.
Confirm it has power and its status LED is on, then load its web app in a browser. If the browser can’t reach it either, the problem is the controller or the network, not the app. A power-cycle resolves most of it.
Lights
Lights don’t come on when I tap Locate.
Locate lights auto-off after 60 seconds — if you’ve been away from the wall a while, they’ve already timed out. Otherwise, check controller power and run the section tests in the app’s Settings tab, which sweeps each section in turn so you can see which run of LEDs is dark.
One column is lit but it’s the wrong one.
That’s a slot-map offset, not a fault. Re-check the wine’s slot assignment in the app, then the section’s start index in Settings. The stocking map that came with your kit lists the intended index for every section.
Can I turn everything off?
Yes — every lighting mode has an off control, and Locate lights expire on their own after 60 seconds. Ambient mode runs until you stop it.
NFC & stocking
NFC scanning does nothing.
NFC requires iPhone 7 or newer. Hold the top edge of the phone flat against the tag — that’s where the antenna is. Tags must contain a URL ending in
#slot=…, exactly as written by the CellarLume tag-writing guide.How do I shelve a whole case quickly?
Arm the wine in the app, then tap tags down the rack one after another. Each tap places one bottle and stays armed for the next, so you never touch the screen mid-case.
I put a bottle in the wrong column.
Tap that column’s tag (or tap it on the wall map), then move the bottle back to the unallocated pool and re-place it.
Your data
Where is my catalog stored?
On your controller, and nowhere else. Not on our servers — we don’t run any that touch your data.
How do I back it up?
The app can back up, restore, and export the whole catalog to CSV at any time. Keep a copy somewhere you trust; it’s a plain file and it’s yours.
What happens to my data if CellarLume disappears?
Nothing. Your controller keeps running and your wall keeps lighting up. There is no service to shut off.
Still stuck?
Email [email protected] — happy to help fellow cellar tinkerers. Bug reports and feature requests land in the same inbox and get read.
See also the privacy policy and thefull feature list.