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For everyone#

This page is for people who own a machine and do not write software. There is no code on it and nothing to configure.

Valence is a shared language between a machine and the apps you use with it. The machine explains itself. The app listens. That is the whole idea, and everything below is a consequence of it.

Your app and your machine agree#

If your app shows a number, that is the number the machine is using.

Apps used to guess. You moved a slider, the app drew the new value, and the machine quietly did something slightly different — because it has limits, and the app did not know them. The two disagreed, and you had no way to tell which one was right.

Now the machine answers with what it actually did, and every app shows that answer. If you ask for more than the machine allows, you see the value it used, not the value you asked for.

Your apps keep working after a machine update#

When your machine gets new firmware, it describes itself again. Your apps read the new description and carry on.

You do not have to wait for every app you use to be updated first. You do not have to keep an old firmware version because one app has not caught up.

New features show up without an app update#

If a machine update adds a setting, that setting appears in the apps you already have, with its correct name, its correct units and its correct safe range.

There is nothing magic here. The app builds its screen from what the machine says it has, so a new control is simply a new thing to show.

One app can talk to different machines#

An app written for this language is not written for one brand of machine. It asks whatever machine it finds what that machine can do, and shows exactly that.

A machine without a temperature sensor does not claim one. A machine with a longer travel says so. The app adjusts on its own.

The stop control always works#

Any device that can reach the machine can stop it. That includes a device that is not allowed to control anything else — a spare phone, a tablet showing a status page, a small remote you never paired.

Stopping is deliberately the one thing that never asks for permission. Starting is not.

The machine also confirms that it stopped. The device that pressed stop keeps asking until it sees the machine agree, so a poor connection does not turn a stop into a maybe.

Every machine that has a physical emergency stop still relies on it first. This is an extra path, not a replacement for the switch you can hit with your hand.

If your phone dies, the machine settles#

When an app is driving the machine directly and it goes quiet — the phone dies, the app crashes, the WiFi drops — the machine does not keep executing a stream whose sender is gone. It simply stops receiving new instructions, so it runs out of fresh commands and settles on its own. Nothing on the machine broadcasts an emergency stop on your behalf; the hardware and software stop controls covered above are still there if you need them right now.

There is one deliberate exception, and it is the behavior you want. If you started a pattern that the machine itself is running, your screen locking does not interrupt it. The machine was never depending on your phone; your phone only pressed start.

New devices join by an approval you perform#

When a new device asks to control your machine, you approve it on hardware you already hold — your phone, or a page on the machine itself.

You see what is asking before you say yes. Nothing is granted quietly in the background, and you can take that permission away later from the same place.

A brand-new machine, out of the box, trusts the first device that asks. If you just unboxed it and powered it on, you are the person holding it, and that is the point.

Nothing leaves your home#

Your machine talks to your apps over your own network. There is no account to create, no service to sign into, and no company in the middle.

Concretely: no usage data is collected, nothing is uploaded, and the machine works exactly the same with your internet connection unplugged. If your router goes down, your machine and your phone still talk to each other.

The one thing worth knowing: this is designed for your home network, and it is not built to be reachable from the internet. That is deliberate, and it is part of why there is nothing to leak.

What to expect when your machine updates#

Your machine restarts, which takes a few seconds. Your apps reconnect on their own and pick up wherever the machine actually is.

Nothing resumes by itself. If the machine was moving before the update, it does not start moving again because an app came back. Starting is always something you do.

What this does not do#

  • It does not decide how your machine moves. That is your machine's job, and it stays that way.
  • It does not replace the app or the interface you already like.
  • It is not a security product. It keeps a stranger's device from casually taking over on your network. It is not designed to stop somebody who is already inside that network with the right tools and the intent to use them.

If you want to know more#