Where thisis going.

The proof

The first build answered one question: can the 7th Bay run proper firmware? Yes. Colours that survived power cycles, a real dashboard served by the device itself, and hue, brightness and breathing modes — all on a chip most people had written off as a light.

The catch: getting it on the chip meant the full manual dance — three .bin files, esptool, addresses, prayer.

Everything, minus the ceremony

A month later, v2 kept everything v1 proved and removed the ceremony. Twelve native flow effects with speed, direction and custom colours. A per-LED editor for all 13 diodes with 40+ preset colours and 25 multi-LED patterns. And wireless OTA updates from the dashboard's Update Firmware tab — no cable after the first flash.

The firmware most installs ran until September — still available in the flasher as a downgrade, unchanged since April.

The front door

The first new thing since April wasn't firmware — it's this website. Nothing to download, no esptool, no addresses: a one-click flasher that erases, writes, verifies and reboots the chip straight from the browser — hissy fit handled — with the stock firmware one pick away. Plus the guides, the help pages, and the full effects library with live previews.

v3.6.0 is the current firmware — what this site added is how easy it is to get onto the chip. The legacy packs and manual instructions live here too.

The experience pass

v3 landed over the air, and it's about how it feels: 47 native flow effects — a Zima signature family, sparkles, moods, new comets, pulses, chases and gradients — plus a fully reskinned dashboard with the flow library built in, live state sync that always shows what the strip is running, smoother motion on every effect, and home WiFi join: the bay gets its own address on your network, so every device on it reaches the dashboard — no hotspot-hopping.

The v2 dashboard's Update Firmware tab flashes it in ~15 seconds. From v3 on, the bay checks for updates itself: a hidden /update page on the device does the whole check-download-flash loop in one click.

Community picks

What lands after v3 gets decided by what people actually ask for. The request board lives in the Zimaspace Discord and this site's inbox — the most requested ideas become the next version's shortlist.

Sync effects, schedules, integrations, thing-the-manual-says-is-impossible — all fair game. Ask.

A new version ships

Announced on this site and the Zimaspace Discord, with the .bin landing on the flasher page and in the update manifest the devices check against — your browser caches it for offline use the first time it loads.

Grab it over WiFi

Join the ZimaCube WiFi, open the dashboard's hidden /update page and tap Check for update — one more click flashes it. The classic Update Firmware file-drop and the flasher page still work too.

Flash, ~15 seconds

The device writes and reboots itself. Your colours, effects and settings survive the update — the chip comes back exactly as you left it, running the new build.

The cable stays in the drawer

Only a truly sideways situation ever needs USB again — and the help page plus the flasher's recovery handle those. The USB route exists for day one and disasters; updates never touch it.