Practical, step-by-step guides for common real-world tasks: running multiple seasonal profiles, keeping a backup SD card ready, and setting up an entire venue of stations from a single "master" SD card.
If you reuse the same Core Tap hardware for different events throughout the year (Halloween, Christmas, a spring fair, etc.), use Settings Profiles instead of reconfiguring each device by hand every time.
Where: System tab ? SD Card - Settings Profiles
On one station, set up everything for the season: General mode and station number, Tap Actions, Lighting colors/patterns, and Audio. Test it end-to-end before saving.
halloween-2026 or spring-fair.Naming tip: Include the year in the profile name (
christmas-2026rather than justchristmas). You'll thank yourself when you find last year's settings still on the card next season and need to tell them apart.
Build up a library of profiles on the card over time - one per event. Nothing is overwritten unless you save using the same name again.
When it's time to change the event:
Tip: Load and test the new profile a day or two before the event goes live, not the morning of.
The SD card holds your audio files, active configuration, and every saved profile - so it's worth protecting.
/audio, /settings, and /settings/profiles.Backup - synced 2026-08-01.Whenever you save a new profile or upload new audio to a live station, copy those same files to your backup card too. A quick way to stay disciplined:
Tip: After finalizing settings for a season, also use Export Settings to download a
coretap-settings.jsonfile to your computer. Keep these exports in a dated folder as a second, off-card backup that doesn't depend on any SD card at all.
For venues with many stations, the fastest way to configure everything is to prepare one master SD card with all audio and all station profiles, then clone it for every physical unit.
Using one Core Tap as your "build" unit:
/audio/station1/, /audio/station2/, /audio/checkpoint/, /audio/finale/. See File Manager.station-1.station-2./settings/profiles on the same card.At the end of this process, the master card contains:
/audio folder with subfolders for every station's sounds./settings/profiles (station-1.json, station-2.json, checkpoint.json, finale.json, etc.).Tip: Because every audio file for every station lives on the same card, you don't need to worry about which files a given station "needs" - each station simply ignores audio paths that aren't referenced by its own loaded profile.
Using a computer with a card reader:
Tip: Keep one clone aside, untouched, as your venue-wide backup master - see Setting Up a Backup SD Card above.
station-3).Because every station's audio and profile already lives on the master card, adding a new season is just a matter of uploading new audio and saving new profiles (e.g. station-1-halloween) onto the same master, then re-cloning and redeploying as above.
| Tip | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| Always format SD cards as FAT32 before first use. | Other formats are not recognized and will show No SD card detected. |
Name profiles with the season/year and station, e.g. station-4-christmas-2026. |
Prevents confusion when a card accumulates many profiles over multiple years. |
Export settings to a .json file after every major change, not just at season's end. |
Gives you an off-card backup that survives even a lost or corrupted SD card. |
Set the Device Host Name on the Network tab to match the station number, e.g. station-4. |
Makes it much easier to identify units on the network and via http://station-4.local. |
| Test a newly loaded profile with a real tag before opening to players. | Confirms the Station Number, audio paths, and lighting all came across correctly. |
| Keep a few pre-programmed spare NFC tags on hand (via New Tag Setup). | Lets staff swap out a damaged tag mid-event without pulling a player out of line. |
| Enable Auto-load settings from SD card on startup on every deployed station. | Lets a swapped backup SD card take effect immediately on the next boot without touching the web UI. |
| After any factory reset, re-check whether SD auto-load needs re-enabling if a card was inserted at the time. | The device automatically disables auto-load in that case to avoid silently undoing your reset - see SD auto-load after a factory reset. |
| Label physical SD cards and their protective cases with the date they were last synced. | Avoids accidentally deploying a stale backup card during a fast in-field swap. |
| Keep your master build card in a padded, labeled case separate from your travel bag of deployed cards. | If a deployed card is lost or damaged on-site, the master (or its clone) is unaffected and ready to re-clone. |