Pairing Your Acaia Pearl Scale

Tutorial 20.14: Pairing Your Acaia Pearl Scale

⚠️ DRAFT — this tutorial is a placeholder. The in-app Bluetooth pairing UI is in development (Phase 3c). The live Colour Bar currently runs against a mock scale driver for UI testing, not a real BLE connection. When the Acaia Pearl driver lands, this tutorial will be rewritten with exact screenshots, permission prompt copy, and verified step-by-step instructions. Treat everything below as a structural outline only — do not rely on any specific UI detail until the feature ships.

Introduction

The Colour Bar's live weighing depends on a Bluetooth scale. Luminate's validated hardware is the Acaia Pearl 2021 (flat, water-resistant). This tutorial will walk through pairing the scale to your iPad, verifying the connection, and handling drop-outs.

Who this is for: Owner, Manager, or whoever is setting up the mixing station What you'll learn (when published):

Bluetooth / Location permissions you'll grant
How to put the Acaia Pearl into pairing mode
The in-app pairing flow in the Colour Bar
Verifying the scale is connected
Re-pairing if the connection drops

Time to complete: TBC (likely 5–10 minutes first time)

Prerequisites (provisional)

Colour Bar mode selected on the iPad (Tutorial 20.9)
Acaia Pearl 2021 charged and awake
iPad Bluetooth enabled

Step-by-Step Instructions (placeholder)

Step 1: Grant Bluetooth permissions (placeholder)

The first time the Colour Bar needs to pair a scale, iPadOS will prompt for Bluetooth permission. Tap Allow. If you previously denied, re-enable Bluetooth access from Settings > Luminate > Bluetooth before returning to the app.

Step 2: Put the scale into pairing mode (placeholder)

To be confirmed against real driver: the Acaia Pearl enters pairing mode automatically when switched on if it's not already bonded to another device. If you see a blinking indicator light, you're ready.

Step 3: Discover and pair from the Colour Bar (placeholder)

UI to be confirmed. The pairing entry point, dialog layout, and discovery behaviour will be documented once the driver and UI ship. In broad terms, expect to trigger a discovery flow from the Colour Bar, select your scale from a list of nearby devices, and receive confirmation that the pairing succeeded — but don't treat any of that as final until the feature is live.

Step 4: Verify the connection

The Colour Bar header already shows a scale status pill in both mock and live modes:

Scale connected — Bluetooth icon, with battery percentage alongside
Scale not paired — crossed-out Bluetooth icon

Once pairing is complete, the pill should flip to Scale connected. If it stays on Scale not paired, work through the re-pair flow (Step 5) and then Tutorial 20.15.

Step 5: Re-pair if the connection drops (placeholder)

Common causes: scale went to sleep, iPad slept, scale out of range, battery low.

To be documented: whether there's a manual re-pair button in-app or whether reconnection is automatic on next open.

Step 6: Switch scales between devices (placeholder)

The Acaia Pearl pairs to one device at a time. To be documented: how to cleanly disconnect from one iPad to pair with another (likely a "Forget this scale" action on the original device).

Troubleshooting

Refer to Tutorial 20.15 (Troubleshooting the Colour Bar & Scale) for connection issues, battery warnings, and related edge cases.

Frequently Asked Questions (preliminary)

Does the Acaia Pearl need to be charged before first use?

Yes — charge to full before pairing. Low batteries can cause pairing failures that look like a driver problem.

How do I know which Acaia model I have?

Luminate supports the Acaia Pearl 2021 (flat, water-resistant design). Earlier Pearl generations may work but are not validated. If you're unsure, check the model number on the base of the scale.

Can I use a non-Acaia scale?

Not at launch. The BLE driver is specific to the Acaia Pearl's protocol. If you need a different scale, raise it with support so it can be considered for a future driver.

Does pairing work offline?

Bluetooth pairing itself is local to the iPad and scale, so it doesn't need the internet. The Colour Bar workflow around pairing — loading appointments, saving mix records — does require a live connection to Luminate.

Last Updated: April 2026 — DRAFT placeholder, to be completed when the BLE pairing UI ships