The as-built state of the controller at 192.168.8.205, read back from the live board on 2026-10-28.
This is laid out like the Falcon’s own screen, not like a port list. See the note below about Smart Receivers and connectors — it is the thing that trips people up.
Ports moved during the build
Two receiver groups failed and were re-homed. The cable moved at the Falcon end only: nothing changed at the tower or the arches — not the box, not its dial, not its termination DIP, not its power.
Fixture
Planned ports
Now on
Why
Right tower (spires, spirelets, quad)
17–20
1–4
The 17–20 differential output is faulty. Swapping the Cat6 at the Falcon moved the fault with the jack, which exonerated both cables and both tower boxes.
Major + minor arches
29–32
5–8
The 29–32 group was faulty. The cable was moved to 5–8 and the string mappings copied across.
The arches are configured on both groups. 29–32 was left in place rather than zeroed, so each arch appears twice below — once on its old port and once on its new one. The old group drives nothing, and leaving it means moving the cable back would just work. It is why the totals at the foot of this page count 11,905 px rather than the folly’s 10,497.
If you are tracing a problem, go by this chart, not by the port numbers on older build sheets.
One more as-built change worth knowing, because it is invisible on the structure: the right minor arch chains off major arch 2, not major arch 1 — arch 1’s data-out pin is damaged.
Generated from api-strings-snapshot-2026-10-28-cog-CERTIFIED.json, pulled 2026-10-28T21:00-0400.
The Falcon does not list its ports in plain numeric order. It groups them by Smart Receiver, then by connector: Smart Receiver 1-4a is the A socket of ports 1, 2, 3 and 4 — not ports 1 to 4. This chart is laid out the same way, in the same row order, so you can read it straight down beside the screen.
A virtual string is an extra row under its port with the port number left blank, again as the UI draws it. Start channels are the 1-based numbers the UI shows.
Brightness (80 %, rose ports 70 %), end channel, zig count, gamma and blank are the same on every row and are left out to keep this readable. So are Start Nulls and End Nulls, which are 0 everywhere except the two strings listed at the bottom.
Group Count is 1 on every string and is left out of the tables below. If you are entering a row by hand, set it to 1.
Ports 1–4
Smart Receiver 1-4a
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
1A.
Spire strand BR-1
34681
13
Forward
RGB[W]
2A.
Spire strand BR-5
36211
13
Forward
RGB[W]
3A.
Spirelets BR-3
36727
1
Forward
RGB[W]
Spirelets BR-2
36724
1
Forward
RGB[W]
Spirelets BR-1
36721
1
Forward
RGB[W]
Spirelets BR-4+5
36730
2
Forward
RGB[W]
Smart Receiver 1-4b
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
1B.
Spire strand BR-2
34720
13
Forward
RGB[W]
2B.
Spire strand BR-6
36250
13
Forward
RGB[W]
Smart Receiver 1-4c
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
1C.
Spire strand BR-3
34759
13
Forward
RGB[W]
2C.
Spire strand BR-7
36289
13
Forward
RGB[W]
Smart Receiver 1-4d
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
1D.
Spire strand BR-4
34798
13
Forward
RGB[W]
2D.
Spire strand BR-8
36328
13
Forward
RGB[W]
4D.
Quad right — outer
37882
39
Forward
RBG[W]
Quad right — front
37609
44
Forward
RBG[W]
Quad right — inner
37741
44
Forward
RBG[W]
Ports 5–8
Smart Receiver 5-8a
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
5A.
Major arch 1 v2
19381
240
Reversed
RBG[W]
6A.
Major arch 2 v2
20401
230
Reversed
RBG[W]
Minor arch RIGHT v2.1
5611
134
Reversed
RBG[W]
7A.
Major arch 3 v2
21421
230
Reversed
RBG[W]
8A.
Major arch 4 v2
22441
220
Reversed
RBG[W]
Smart Receiver 5-8b
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
5B.
Major arch 5 v2
23461
220
Reversed
RBG[W]
8B.
Minor arch LEFT v2
3061
134
Forward
RBG[W]
Ports 13–16
Smart Receiver 13-16a
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
13A.
Spire strand BL-1 — back-most strand
31111
13
Forward
RGB[W]
14A.
Spire strand BL-5
32641
13
Forward
RGB[W]
15A.
Spirelets BL: BL-2+BL-3+BL-4
33154
3
Forward
RGB[W]
Spirelets BL: BL-1
33151
1
Forward
RGB[W]
Spirelets BL: BL-5
33163
1
Forward
RGB[W]
Smart Receiver 13-16b
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
13B.
Spire strand BL-2
31150
13
Forward
RGB[W]
14B.
Spire strand BL-6
32680
13
Forward
RGB[W]
Smart Receiver 13-16c
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
13C.
Spire strand BL-3
31189
13
Forward
RGB[W]
14C.
Spire strand BL-7
32719
13
Forward
RGB[W]
Smart Receiver 13-16d
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
13D.
Spire strand BL-4
31228
13
Forward
RGB[W]
14D.
Spire strand BL-8
32758
13
Forward
RGB[W]
16D.
Quad left — outer side (3.9 m)
34177
39
Reversed
RBG[W]
Quad left — front side
34039
44
Reversed
RBG[W]
Quad left — inner side
34303
44
Reversed
RBG[W]
Ports 29–32
Smart Receiver 29-32a
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
29A.
Major arch 1
19381
240
Reversed
RBG[W]
30A.
Major arch 2
20401
230
Reversed
RBG[W]
Minor arch A RIGHT v2
5611
134
Reversed
RBG[W]
31A.
Major arch 3
21421
230
Reversed
RBG[W]
32A.
Major arch 4
22441
220
Reversed
RBG[W]
Smart Receiver 29-32b
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
29B.
Major arch 5
23461
220
Reversed
RBG[W]
32B.
(blank on the board — see below)
3061
134
Forward
RBG[W]
Ports 33–36
Smart Receiver 33-36a
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
33A.
Petal 1
38251
540
Forward
RGB[W]
34A.
Petal 2
40291
540
Forward
RGB[W]
35A.
Petal 3
42331
540
Forward
RGB[W]
36A.
Petal 4
44371
540
Forward
RGB[W]
Ports 37–40
Smart Receiver 37-40a
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
37A.
Petal 5
46411
540
Forward
RGB[W]
38A.
Petal 6
48451
540
Forward
RGB[W]
39A.
Petal 7
50491
540
Forward
RGB[W]
40A.
Petal 8
52531
540
Forward
RGB[W]
Ports 41–44
Smart Receiver 41-44a
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
41A.
Petal 9
54571
540
Forward
RGB[W]
42A.
Petal 10
56611
540
Forward
RGB[W]
43A.
Petal 11
58651
540
Forward
RGB[W]
44A.
Petal 12
60691
540
Forward
RGB[W]
Ports 45–48
Smart Receiver 45-48a
Port #
Desc.
Start Channel
Pixel Count
Direction
Order
45A.
Petal 13
62731
540
Forward
RGB[W]
46A.
Petal 14
64771
540
Forward
RGB[W]
47A.
Petal 15
66811
540
Forward
RGB[W]
48A.
Petal 16
68851
517
Forward
RGB[W]
The only rows with null pixels
Every other string has Start Nulls 0 and End Nulls 0. Nulls are output slots the controller drives black, so they occupy real pixels on the strip and shift everything after them — which is why they are listed rather than buried in a column of zeros.
Port #
Desc.
Start Nulls
End Nulls
What the nulls are for
6A
Minor arch RIGHT v2.1
9
14
The replacement tape on this leg ran long. 9 spare pixels sit before the arch and 10 after it, so the nulls blank both ends and place the arch’s 134 pixels at physical 240–373 of the run. The start channel is deliberately unchanged: moving it would alter which pixels draw rather than where they land.
16D
Quad left — inner side
0
2
Spare pixels past the end of the inner-side strip. This string is last in its chain, so the nulls displace nothing downstream.
30A
Minor arch A RIGHT v2
9
14
The replacement tape on this leg ran long. 9 spare pixels sit before the arch and 10 after it, so the nulls blank both ends and place the arch’s 134 pixels at physical 240–373 of the run. The start channel is deliberately unchanged: moving it would alter which pixels draw rather than where they land.
Nulls are applied in physical order even on a string set to Reversed — confirmed on this board, 2026-10-22. So End Nulls land at the far end of the run, not at the data-in end.
Rows with no description on the board
32B, start channel 3061, 134 px — The LEFT minor arch, chained off major arch 4. It has no description on the board, which matters more than it looks: the two minor arches have opposite Direction flags (right Reversed, left Forward), so anyone working out which is which from the config alone has nothing to go on for this half of the pair.