Falcon Controller for Home Assistant

Monitor and control the e-fuses on Falcon V5 pixel controllers (F16V5 and family) from Home Assistant, including ports on smart receivers. Comes with a dashboard view that builds itself from whatever is connected.

Unofficial. This integration uses the same local JSON API the controller's own web UI uses. That API isn't documented by Falcon and could change with a firmware update.

Supported controllers

Controller	Status
F16V5	Tested on hardware (firmware v38): 16 onboard ports + 4 differential chains
F48V5	Supported per firmware v38 analysis (same API): 12 differential chains, no onboard ports. Hardware reports welcome.

Smart receivers on any differential chain are supported. V4-mode receivers have no e-fuses, so their fuse controls are unavailable.

Features

• Per-port fuse state: Good, Off, Blown, or Unknown, for every onboard port and every smart receiver port
• Per-port current in amps
• Per-port fuse switches to turn a port on or off
• Controller-wide buttons: reset all fuses, all fuses on, all fuses off
• Fuse blown problem sensor with a blown_ports attribute (e.g. 7, 18A) for alerts
• Online and Last seen sensors that keep working while the controller is down
• Smart receivers appear as their own devices with a connectivity sensor, and new receivers are picked up automatically
• Health sensors: board temperature(s), processor temperature, input voltage(s) (diagnostic; the F48V5 has one of each)
• Self-building dashboard: one line of YAML gives you a full status page

Installation

HACS

Click the button above, then Download and restart Home Assistant.

Or add it by hand:

1. In HACS, open the ⋮ menu → Custom repositories.
2. Add https://github.com/ShowPilotFPP/ha-falcon-controller with type Integration.
3. Install Falcon Controller and restart Home Assistant.

Manual

Copy custom_components/falcon_controller into your Home Assistant config/custom_components/ folder and restart.

Setup

Or go to Settings → Devices & services → Add integration → Falcon Controller, then enter the controller's IP address or hostname.

The polling interval (default 15 seconds) can be changed from the integration's Configure button. If the controller's IP changes, use Reconfigure.

Dashboard

The dashboard is built by a small script that the integration installs as a dashboard resource automatically, and keeps up to date when you update. Nothing to do in the usual setup.

Dashboards in YAML mode (lovelace: mode: yaml) can't be changed by integrations. Add the resource yourself under lovelace: resources::

- url: /falcon_controller_static/falcon-controller-strategy.js
  type: module

As a view in an existing dashboard

Add a new view, open it with Edit in YAML, and replace its contents with:

strategy:
  type: custom:falcon-controller

With more than one controller, the view shows all of them. To show just one, add its device ID:

strategy:
  type: custom:falcon-controller
  device_id: 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef

As a subview

To keep it off the tab bar and open it from a card on another page, add subview: true (and optionally where the back arrow should go):

strategy:
  type: custom:falcon-controller
  subview: true
  back_path: /lovelace/home

Then link to the view's path from any card with a navigate action.

As a whole dashboard

Create a new dashboard, open the raw configuration editor, and use:

strategy:
  type: custom:falcon-controller

That creates one view per controller.

The page includes controller status, a warning card when a fuse blows, the global fuse buttons (each with a confirmation), a section of port tiles for the onboard ports and for each receiver, health sensors, and a current history graph. Tap a port to see details; press and hold to toggle its fuse (with a confirmation).

The page is generated when the dashboard loads, so new receivers show up after a refresh. To customize it, open the view's ⋮ menu → Take control to turn it into a normal editable view.

Troubleshooting

"Timeout waiting for strategy element ll-strategy-view-falcon-controller to be registered", or a blank Falcon page (the error only shows in edit mode): the device hasn't loaded the dashboard script. Usually it's a phone or the companion app holding an old cached copy of Home Assistant.

1. Check Settings → Dashboards → ⋮ → Resources for an entry starting with /falcon_controller_static/falcon-controller-strategy.js. If it's missing (for example, dashboards in YAML mode), add it as a JavaScript module.
2. Restart Home Assistant after installing or updating the integration.
3. On the phone, fully close and reopen the app. If it's still blank, use Settings → Companion app → Troubleshooting → Reset frontend cache.

Things to know

• Off vs. Blown. Controllers set to cut power when no data is being sent will report idle ports as Off. That's normal and doesn't trip the Fuse blown sensor; only Blown does.
• Switches and power saving. The controller only offers a fuse toggle, so switches check the current state before sending one. If the controller is set to turn ports off when idle, it may turn a port back off right after you switch it on outside of a show.
• Offline receivers. Ports on a receiver that isn't responding show fuse state Unknown and their switches become unavailable.
• One request at a time. The controller handles requests one at a time. Keep the polling interval reasonable during shows.

Example: notify when a fuse blows

alias: Falcon fuse blown alert
triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.YOUR_CONTROLLER_fuse_blown
    to: "on"
actions:
  - action: notify.notify
    data:
      title: Falcon fuse blown
      message: >
        {% set p = state_attr('binary_sensor.YOUR_CONTROLLER_fuse_blown', 'blown_ports') %}
        {{ 'Ports ' ~ p ~ ' have' if ',' in p else 'Port ' ~ p ~ ' has' }} a blown fuse.

Development

pip install -r requirements_test.txt
python -m pytest

Tests run against a simulated F16V5 built from a real controller's API responses.