PoleFX Docs

PoleFX Control

The PoleFX Player

This box serves the pattern content to your poles and carries every control interface: the web app, the front-panel screen, and DMX.

PoleFX PlayerControl face and connectors
The PoleFX Player. The screen and five buttons sit on the top face, and every connector is on one side: power, the DMX terminal, four USB ports, and a single Ethernet socket. 1 2 3 4 5 6
  1. Screen Shows what is playing, and the menu. See the On-Screen Display.
  2. Five buttons Up, Down, Left, Right, and Select. They work without a phone.
  3. Power in A 5 V DC barrel jack. Use the supply that came with the Player.
  4. DMX in A 3-pin screw terminal: Ground, Data -, Data +. Optional, and only needed for DMX.
  5. USB ports Four of them, and you do not need any of them. Nothing in normal use plugs in here.
  6. Ethernet The one connection you must make. A network cable runs from here to the pole, or to a switch if you have more than one pole.
There is one Ethernet socket, not one per pole. Poles are network devices, so several poles reach the Player through a switch. The pole takes its own power from its own supply, not from the Player. Source: assets/server/Pi4_Enclosure_Dec24_2024-Dec-28_07-38-56AM-000_CustomizedView13082721232_600.png, enclosure render.

How the parts connect

Almost everything reaches the pole through the Player. Pixel streaming is the exception: it goes straight to the pole and leaves the Player out of the path.

Two sources, one pole

A pole plays whichever source reached it first and kept sending. The Player sends continuously, so it keeps the pole and your media software is ignored. Before you stream your own pixels, switch that output off in Settings > Outputs. One output can drive more than one pole, so check what else that output feeds before you switch it off. See Pixel Streaming.

When the pole does not look right

Start here, because two of these are normal and cost you nothing to wait out. Read the pole first, then go to the page that fixes it.

Normal Short purple flash

Seen once at power on. It means the pole has power.

Normal for a minute Still pattern

The pole falls back to a static pattern when nothing is sending it frames. Expect it while the Player boots.

Still there after two minutes Still pattern that never moves

Nothing is reaching the pole. Check the network cable, then whether that output is active in Settings > Outputs.

Nothing at all Completely dark

No power reaching the pole. The pole has its own supply, separate from the Player, so check that one.

Lit but wrong Scrambled or upside down

The pole is getting data, but the output profile does not match it. See Settings > Outputs.

Choose a control method

Web appStart here
Best for
Everyday use. Patterns, text, color, scenes, and every setting.
You need
A phone, tablet, or laptop on the Player's network.
Skill
None.
Where
Web App
Front panelNo phone needed
Best for
Brightness and pattern at the box, and reading the network settings.
You need
Nothing. It is on the Player.
Skill
None.
DMXCues in a show
Best for
Running brightness, pattern, color, and text from a lighting desk.
You need
A DMX source wired to the 3-pin terminal.
Skill
Lighting operator.
Where
DMX
Pixel streamingYour own content
Best for
Driving every LED yourself from video or generative software.
You need
A wired network, and the Player's output for that pole switched off.
Skill
Comfortable with IP addresses and media software.

What controls what

The pole builds its picture in layers

The Player draws the pattern first, then puts text over it, then dims the finished picture with the global brightness. That order is why global brightness moves the text and the pattern together, while the pattern brightness moves only the pattern.

  1. Global brightness

    Scales the finished picture, so it dims the pattern and the text by the same amount.

    Applied last
  2. Text

    Messages are drawn over everything below. Turning text off removes this layer.

    Over the pattern
  3. Pattern

    The look the pole plays, with its own brightness and color settings.

    Base picture

No control method outranks another

There is no priority order between the web app, the front panel, and DMX. They all change the same settings, so the most recent change wins. If your console moves the brightness and you then move the web slider, the web value stands until the console moves that fader again. A fader left parked does not hold a setting down.

Two things do behave differently, and they are the ones that surprise people:

Shared Everyone sees the same thing

Several browsers can be open at once. A change made anywhere appears everywhere, including on the front panel.

Not covered DMX only moves its own channels

Settings that no DMX channel maps to are left alone, and stay wherever the web app or the front panel last put them.

True override An output switched off stops everything

If a pole's output is inactive in Settings, the Player sends it nothing at all, whatever any control method says.

Scenes

A scene is not a layer and it does not stay switched on. Recalling one writes its saved values into the current settings and stops there, so anything you change afterwards simply overwrites it. See Scenes.

Control interfaces

Web AppThe primary interface for patterns, text, and settings. Start here. On-Screen DisplaySimplified control from the front-panel screen and buttons. DMXDrive high-level parameters from a lighting console or show software. Pixel StreamingSend your own video and generative content straight to a pole over DDP, sACN, or Art-Net.

Physical setup

NetworkHow to connect the player, poles, and your control device.