Manual: FPD

Falcon Pixlenet/DMX 512 Dongle

The Falcon FPD is a daughter board for the Falcon Pi Player that allows you to output 32k channels. It supports both Pixelnet and DMX 512 output via 12 universes ports (4 universes per RJ-45 Jack) in any combination.

With the addition of this daughter board to the Falcon Pi Player it would be the same capability as 2 EtherDongles, 1 Conductor, and 1 Slave. Along with additional features not available elsewhere.

Through the Falcon Pi Player's (FPP) Web interface (Output Setup->Pixelnet/DMX) you can specify which channels are output through which 2 wire serial connections in the RJ-45 Jacks on the FPD. Each 2 wire serial connection can be defined as carrying either 4096 channels of Pixelnet or 512 channels of DMX. While the FPD has 12 serial connections there is a maximum of 32,768. This represents 8 full Pixelnet universes allowing the remaining 4 serial connections to be used for DMX or to repeat another Pixelnet universe.

For changes to the universe mapping to be applied you will need to stop and start the Falcon Pi Player Daemon. To do this point your browser at the main page of the Falcon Pi Player and click on the "stop FPPD" button. After a moment the page will reload and the button will change to "start FPPD" click the button again and your new universe settings will be active. Note that this applies to either mapping operation, e1.31 to channel or universe mappings.

Using FPD in Bridge mode

To use the FPD in Bridge mode you will need to send a full 32K channels to the FPP. You configure the mapping of channels in E1.31 universes to the channels output from the FPD through the "output setup"->Universe page. If you are operating the PI in bridge mode you will need to configure at least 32 universes on this page. Remember if you are operating in bridge mode you must send all of these universes to the Pi Player for the FPD to function properly.

FPD Output connections

If you are holding the FPD with the power connector at the bottom and the ribbon cable header at the top the order of the universes output from the RJ45 jacks maps as follows:

Jack 1 (Top Right): Universe 1-4

Jack 2 (Middle Right): Universes 5-8

Jack 3 (Bottom Right): Universes 9-12

Headline text

To be documented PI Player shutdown button (hold for 5 seconds to gracefully shutdown pi player). PI pin pass through. (Pins 1-18 are passed along through the empty 18 pin header at P2). ICSP pin 1 is towards left edge of board (holding board with power connector facing down).

More thorough step by step for configuring the pages on the output screen.