Aurora LED Boards

The Kilter Board (Aurora Climbing) and compatible LED system boards (Tension, Grasshopper, Decoy, Touchstone, So iLL) display climb routes via LEDs. These boards are LED-only in Grip Connect: you connect and send LED config via led().

Basic usage

1. Connect – Create an Aurora board device class such as KilterBoard or TensionBoard, then call connect(onSuccess?, onError?). Requires a user gesture and secure context.
2. Map holds to LED positions – The board expects an array of { position, color }. Each position is the LED index for that hold on the board (0-based). These indices are fixed per board model; you must get them from board data (see Getting correct positions below).
3. Send LED config – In the connect success callback, call await device.led(placement) with an array of { position: number, color: string }. If your route data uses role_id, resolve it through your board placement_roles table first, then pass the resulting led_color. Empty array or device.led() turns LEDs off.

import { KilterBoard } from "@hangtime/grip-connect"

const device = new KilterBoard()

await device.connect(
  async () => {
    // Positions must come from your board's LED mapping (see below). These are illustrative only.
    const placement = [
      { position: 161, color: "00FF00" }, // start (green) at LED index 161
      { position: 162, color: "00FFFF" }, // middle (cyan)
      { position: 163, color: "FF00FF" }, // finish (magenta)
      { position: 164, color: "FFB600" }, // foot (orange)
    ]
    await device.led(placement)
    // Turn off: await device.led([]) or device.led()
  },
  (err) => console.error(err),
)

Supported classes

All Aurora board classes use the same BLE transport and automatically detect API level 2 or 3 from the connected board name. The subclasses select the board family naming used by your app; LED payloads use the same { position, color } shape for every Aurora-compatible board.

Class	Notes
AuroraBoard	Aurora Board family.
KilterBoard	Kilter Board family.
TensionBoard	Tension Board family.
DecoyBoard	Decoy Board family.
TouchstoneBoard	Touchstone Board family.
GrasshopperBoard	Grasshopper Board family.
SoiLLBoard	So iLL Board family.

API level detection

Aurora LED kits use API level 3 on most newer boards, but older boards can use API level 2. API level 2 encodes 10-bit LED positions and 64 colors; API level 3 encodes 16-bit positions and 256 colors. The library detects the API level from the connected Bluetooth device name. Names ending in @2 use API level 2, names ending in @3 use API level 3, and names without an API suffix follow the Aurora app behavior and use API level 2.

Aurora board names use this shape: alphanumeric name, optional # serial number, optional @ API level. Examples: mykilterboard#2353@3, mykilterboard@2, mykilterboard, and mykilterboard#83727.

import { KilterBoard } from "@hangtime/grip-connect"

const device = new KilterBoard()

await device.connect(async () => {
  await device.led([{ position: 161, color: "FF00FF" }])
})

Getting correct positions for a board

The position in each led() entry is the LED index for that physical hold on the board. It is not arbitrary: each board model has a fixed mapping from physical holes to LED indices. Using wrong positions will light the wrong holds or do nothing.

The Kilter Board app gets this mapping from its backend. The app stores a local SQLite database with tables such as holes (hole coordinates and id), leds (maps hole_id to the LED position used in the Bluetooth protocol), placements (placement_id to hole_id), and placement_roles (role_id to LED color). Route layouts in the app use a string format like p1083r15p1117r15p1164r12... (placement_id p + role_id r). To send a route to the board you need to resolve each placement_id to the corresponding LED position (from the leds table for that hole).

Ways to get correct positions:

1. BoardLib – BoardLib is a Python package that downloads and syncs the board’s SQLite database (holes, leds, placements, placement_roles, climbs, etc.) for Aurora Climbing boards (Kilter, Tension, and compatible boards). Install with pip install boardlib, then run boardlib database <board_name> <database_path> --username <board_username> to download and sync the database; use the leds table (hole_id → position) and placements / holes as needed. The database contains the same shared public data the app uses. See the BoardLib README for database, logbook, and image commands.
2. Board data from the app – Sync or export from the Kilter Board app (e.g. SQLite at /data/data/com.auroraclimbing.kilterboard/ on Android, or via the app’s sync API). Use the leds table (hole_id → position) and placements / holes as needed. See KilterBoard (Philipp Bazun) for the database schema and Bluetooth protocol.

role_id and placement roles

Aurora apps use a placement_roles table to define standard hold roles and their LED colors. Grip Connect keeps the Bluetooth encoder separate from the board database: role_id is app/database data, while led() takes the concrete color that should be sent over Bluetooth.

role_id	name	full_name	led_color	Meaning
12	start	Start	00FF00	Start hold (green)
13	middle	Middle	00FFFF	Middle (cyan)
14	finish	Finish	FF00FF	Finish (magenta)
15	foot	Foot Only	FFB600	Foot only (orange)

Resolve route roles before calling led(). API level 2 supports 64 colors and API level 3 supports 256 colors.

const role = placementRoles.find((entry) => entry.id === routeRoleId)

if (!role) {
  throw new Error(`Unknown route role: ${routeRoleId}`)
}

await board.led([{ position, color: role.led_color }])

Methods

Aurora LED boards support all shared methods (connect, disconnect, isConnected, notify, active, read, write, download). See Device interface for details.

Device-specific

Method	Returns	Description
led(config)	Promise<number[] | undefined>	Set LEDs from an array of { position: number; color: string }.

Resources

• BoardLib (Python): Utilities for climbing board APIs. Download and sync the Kilter (and other Aurora) board SQLite database with boardlib database <board_name> <path> --username <username>; use the database for holes, leds, placements, and placement_roles. Also supports logbooks and images.
• A web based Kilterboard application (Tim / georift): Blog post on building kilterboard.app, reverse engineering the Bluetooth protocol, and re-implementing with the Web Bluetooth API.
• Kilterboard (bazun.me): Database schema, sync API, and Bluetooth protocol for the Kilter Board app.

See Examples: Aurora LED Boards for a full demo and API for the shared interface.