Compact and lightweight battery-powered LED lights that can be mounted directly on a camera definitely have an important role to play in your lighting kit — and the  Nanlite MixPad II 11C is an excellent fixture for this job. But it's also bright enough to be used off-camera on a light stand and includes an AC power adapter, and it can do soft light, hard light, daylight-balanced 5600K as well as bi-color CCT, and it has RBG colors and effects. Today we're excited to announce that the MixPad II 11C is even more useful, because a new firmware update makes it possible to directly control it with the free NANLINK mobile app for iOS and Android. Pretty sweet!

How to update the firmware of the Nanlite MixPad II 11C

If you want to control the MixPad II 11C with the NANLINK mobile app, the first thing you need to do is to update the firmware of the light. In order to do this, you need gather together a few things:

1. A MixPad II 11C
2. A charged NP-F battery or the AC adapter
3. A USB-C flash drive
4. A computer
5. ...and the downloaded firmware file

You need the computer to download the firmware update, and then load it onto the USB-C flash drive. Where do you download the firmware from? Great question. You get it here:

https://en.nanlite.com/services/downloads?cid=36

Before you put the firmware file on your USB-C flash drive, we recommend that you first re-formatting the drive for FAT or FAT32. If you're not sure how to do that, don't worry. We explain exactly how to do this in this specific section of this post. Don't worry, it's not difficult to do.

When you download the firmware update at the link provided above, it will arrive as a folder. Inside the folder will be a file called "Mix_PadII_11C_V1.00.08.upd" — or a file name similar to that. This is the actual firmware file. You need to put only this file on your USB-C flash drive, nothing else.

While we're on the topic of USB-C flash drives, the specific model that we have used successfully is the Verbatim USB-C Store 'n' Go Dual USB Flash Drive

Now that you've got the firmware loaded onto your flash drive, it's time to use it to update the firmware of the MixPad II 11C. Let's do it:

1. First, turn on the MixPad II 11C to make sure it's working. If all is good, turn it off again.
2. Plug your USB-C flash drive into the USB-C port on the 11C (it's next to the power switch).
3. Turn on the MixPad II 11C again. The screen should read, "Found firware _V1.00.08"
4. Press the MODE button to select UPDATE, then press the SWITCH button to start the firmware loading process.
5. The screen will show "Updating........" while the process is taking place.
6. Finally, the screen will say "Updated Ok!" and the 11C will resume normal operation.

You're done. It looks like a lot of steps, but, the whole operation should take less than a minute to complete. Now your MixPad II 11C has the latest firmware! Now it's time to control it with the NANLINK app.

How to control the Nanlite MixPad II 11C with the NANLINK app

It should go without saying, but for the sake of saying it, you first need the NANLINK app loaded on your phone. If you don't have the app yet, please install it from either the Apple App Store or the Google Play store.

Once you've got the app installed and your account created, you can start controlling your MixPad II 11C. Here's how:

1. In the app, create and name a New Scene.
2. Then tap on the new scene you just created.
3. You will see an area in the middle of the screen with the + symbol and the words "Tap to add a new fixture." Go ahead and tap that area.
4. The next screen will ask if you want to connect "Via Bluetooth" or "Via 2.4G." You need to tap on "Via Bluetooth."
5. The next screen will search for nearby Nanlite Bluetooth signals and display what it finds on screen. In my case it found the "MixPad II 11C" right away. If you see that, tap on it and then tap the DONE button. If you don't see the name of the light, I'll explain how to fix this soon.
6. The screen of the app will say "Setting up fixtures" as it pairs with the MixPad II 11C.
7. When it's done, you will see the name of the light on screen. Tap on it to control it. 

If all of that worked properly, you should now be able to control your MixPad II 11C with the app. If the app didn't find your MixPad II 11C in step 5 above, you should try resetting the Bluetooth on the light. This is how to do that:

1. With the MixPad II 11C turned on, press the MODE button until you get to MENU.
2. In the MENU mode, press the SWITCH button once to highlight BT:RESET.
3. Next, turn the dial to enter the BT RESET mode, press SWITCH once to highlight RESET, then press MODE once to activate the reset. The screen will quickly display "SET," and you are done.

To control the light with the app, try redoing the steps 1 through 7 above. It should work this time.

Thanks for checking out this blog post! If you have any questions about the MixPad II 11C, please contact us. We will respond as quickly as possible. We hope you enjoy using your MixPad II 11C even more now!