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Introduction

The Falcon Player (FPP) is a lightweight, optimised, feature‑rich sequence player designed to run on low‑cost Single Board Computers (SBCs). It was originally created to run on the $35 Raspberry Pi — hence the middle 'P' in the short name — but FPP now supports many more systems. The "FPP" shorthand is still used, but the software is now simply called Falcon Player. FPP is a software solution that you download and install onto hardware which can be purchased from numerous sources around the internet.

FPP aims to be controller‑agnostic: it can output E1.31, DDP, DMX, Pixelnet, Renard and many other output types to hardware from multiple vendors. This includes controller hardware from Falcon Christmas (http://pixelcontroller.com) and Kulp Lights (http://kulplights.com), as well as others.

Up until the end of the 2015 Christmas season, most users ran FPP on the Raspberry Pi as the main player. Since then it has expanded, with the BeagleBone series of SBCs being widely used as well.

FPP can interface to a number of controllers. It can also play synchronised audio (via an audio port / FM transmitter) and synchronised video (via HDMI), it supports USB devices and external interfaces via the GPIO bus, and it can drive pixels directly via the GPIO bus. Many people use FPP as the show player by connecting it to one or more DDP/E1.31/DMX controllers and running their light show sequences and audio from it. Others use several FPP‑based controllers operating in various modes to run their shows, play videos from a remote projector, control animatronics, or handle outside events — all synchronised to the main (Player) FPP.

A Raspberry Pi running FPP can be used with a cape to act as a controller for a small matrix (36 P10 or 15 P5 panels) or 2 strings of pixels using the standard Raspberry Pi outputs, or 24 strings using the DPIPixels outputs (approximately 1600 pixels per string at 20 fps, or 800 pixels per string at 40 fps; note that DPIPixels only supports 20 and 40 fps).

Note

The DPIPixels string outputs require a licence to control more than 50 pixels per port. See the Pixel Port Licensing chapter.

The BeagleBone series SBCs have been used extensively with a cape to drive up to 128 P10 or 64 P5 panels (depending on the cape and BeagleBone type — check with the vendor to determine capacity). The BeagleBone series can also support other capes and act as a controller, such as the K4‑PB, F8‑B/K8‑B, F16‑B/K16A‑B, F32‑B/K32A‑B, F8‑PB/K8‑PB, F40D‑PB, K40D‑PB, OctoPlus, and so on.

This manual covers the functional aspects of installing, configuring and operating FPP — the most popular show player for animated holiday lighting displays. It has been updated for FPP version 10; see About This Manual → What's new in FPP 10 for a summary of the changes since the 9.x series.

Supported hardware

The current version of Falcon Player runs on the following hardware:

  • Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
  • Raspberry Pi 3 Model B / B+ / A+
  • Raspberry Pi 4 Model B
  • Raspberry Pi 5
  • Raspberry Pi Zero (a micro‑USB hub may be needed for network access)
  • Raspberry Pi Zero‑W / Zero‑W2
  • BeagleBone Black (Rev C) / Black Wireless
  • BeagleBone Green / Green Wireless (Green Wireless is not recommended with capes)
  • BeagleBone Gateway
  • PocketBeagle / PocketBeagle 2

The philosophy of the FPP developers is to make FPP as easy to install and use as possible, while still providing much of the flexibility required by a diverse group of enthusiasts. The FPP software is free to download and use, and is provided and supported by a number of volunteers.

Please refer to the Falcon Christmas website (https://FalconChristmas.com) for the latest news and discussions. In particular, the FPP forum is a great resource for help.

Acknowledgments

FPP exists thanks to the work of a large community of volunteers. This manual builds on the Falcon Player Manual written by Rick Harris (Poporacer) with contributions from Mark Amber (Pixelpuppy).

FPP's ongoing development is led by a small core team, including Chris Pinkham (CaptainMurdoch), Daniel Kulp (dkulp) and Stuart Ledingham (OnlineDynamic) — now one of the project's most active core developers — along with the many contributors and users who report issues, test releases and help one another on the forums. This v10 edition would not have been possible without them.