Falcon F48V5 — final string configuration

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.


59 configured strings · 11,905 pixels · highest channel 70,401


The Gothic Folly — Burning Man 2026