Current monitoring & eFuses¶
FPP has a Port Status page (Status/Control → Port Status) that shows, for each port:
- whether the port is on, off, or tripped
- the current it is drawing, in mA, if the port can measure it
- warnings when an eFuse trips or a pixel count looks wrong
Where the readings come from depends on the board:
| Board | Local ports | Differential ports |
|---|---|---|
| Max (K8-Max, K16-Max, K32-Max) | current, on/off and eFuse status for every port | from Falcon V5 receivers |
| K8-PB | current, on/off and eFuse status for every port | none (send-only) |
| K4-PB | current, on/off and eFuse status for every port | — (no differential ports) |
| K40D-PB | — (no local ports) | none (send-only) |
| Pro (K8-Pro, K16-Pro, K32-Pro) | none (fused ports) | from Falcon V5 receivers |
| K16, K32 | none | none (send-only) |
On Pro boards with no Falcon V5 receivers attached, the Port Status page says no monitoring is available. That's expected.
See Port Status in the FPP manual.
Port icons¶
| Icon | Meaning | Click to |
|---|---|---|
| Port enabled | turn the port off | |
| eFuse tripped | reset and turn it back on | |
| Port turned off | turn it on |
When an eFuse trips¶
- FPP turns the port off, shows a warning banner, and marks it with a red icon.
- Find the cause: a short in a pigtail or connector, water ingress, a damaged string, or a string drawing more than about 6 A (about 5.2 A on the K8-PB and K4-PB).
- Click the red icon to reset the port. Power-cycling the controller also resets every port.
If the trip happens again straight away, the fault is still there.
eFuse auto-retry¶
Under Settings → Output, two settings make FPP reset tripped eFuses by itself:
- eFuse Retry Count: how many times FPP retries before giving up (default 0 = off, up to 20).
- eFuse Retry Time Interval: how long to wait between retries (default 100 ms).
Retrying helps when a port trips only occasionally, such as from the inrush when a large string powers up. Don't use it to hide a real short.
Checking pixel counts¶
On boards with current readings, the Count Pixels button on Port Status estimates how many pixels are on each port from the current they draw, and flags ports that don't match the configured count. It's a quick way to find a dead section partway down a string.
Automatic power control¶
Ports and banks power up on. Once FPP is running it takes control. With Settings → Output → Automatically turn on/off outputs turned on (the default), FPP powers ports or banks only while there is data to send, and switches off ports with no pixels configured. So on a Max board, a port that isn't set up in Pixel Strings (or by xLights) is live only for the moment between power-up and FPP starting. That's deliberate.
Notifications¶
When an eFuse trips, FPP runs the EFUSE_TRIGGERED command preset, if you've created one,
with the port name available as %PORT%. Use it to send yourself a notification (for example
through an MQTT or URL command). FPPMon
can also alert you to trips while you're away.