Connect your controller in xLights

Get xLights talking to the box that drives your pixels, tell it which prop is plugged into which port, and light every prop to test it. No networking experience needed.

Part of the beginner series: 1. Build Your Display · 2. Connect Your Controller · 3. Load Your Sequence

The whole journey at a glance

• 1Plug in & power up
• 2Give it an address
• 3Add it to xLights
• 4Put props onto ports
• 5Upload the setup
• 6Test every prop

Menu and button names come from xLights 2026 and can shift a little between versions. Every controller brand has its own web page for settings; this guide tells you what to look for, and your controller's manual shows exactly where. Pictures are simplified drawings.

Have these four things ready

Your layout says what lights you have. This guide tells xLights how to reach them: through which controller, and which socket on it.

Words you'll see in this guide

How it fits together

Show data travels from xLights, over your home network, to the controller, and out of each port to the props wired to it.

What xLights needs to know

1. Where the controller is: its IP address (Steps 2 and 3).
2. What kind it is: its make and model, so xLights knows how many ports it has (Step 3).
3. What's on each port: which props, in the order they're wired (Step 4).

1. Plug the controller's network port into your router or network switch with a network cable.
2. Turn on the controller's power supply. Its lights should come on as the manual describes.
3. Leave the pixels unplugged for now. You'll connect them once xLights knows what's on each port.

Your router hands out addresses automatically, and they can change after a power cut. A show needs the controller at the same address every night.

1. Find its address. Your controller's manual explains how: many show it on a small screen, and your router's list of "connected devices" shows it too.
2. Type that address into a web browser on your computer. The controller's own settings page opens.
3. Find its network settings and set a static (fixed) IP address, for example 192.168.1.50. Use one outside the range your router hands out, or ask your router to always give the controller the same one ("reserved address").
4. Write the address down. You'll type it into xLights next.

The easy way: Discover

1. Open the Controllers tab and click Discover.
2. xLights searches your network. Many controllers (FPP-based boards, Falcon, WLED and others) answer and appear in the list with their address, make and model already filled in.

If it isn't found: add it by hand

1. Click Add Controller and choose Ethernet (older versions have an Add Ethernet button instead).
2. Fill in the settings below.

1. Click Save.

Now tell xLights which props are wired to which port. The Controller Visualiser lets you do it by dragging.

1. On the Controllers tab, select your controller and click Visualise.
2. Drag each prop from the model list onto the port it's wired to.
3. Two props on one string? Drop the second after the first on the same port, in the order the wire runs through them.
4. Close the window. xLights saves these changes as you go.

1. On the Controllers tab, select your controller and click Upload Output. xLights writes each port's pixel count and settings into the controller.
2. Using E1.31? Also click Upload Input, which tells the controller which universes to listen to. (DDP doesn't need it.)
3. Click Save.

1. Power off, plug your pixel strings into their ports, then power on again.
2. Make sure Output to Lights is switched on in xLights (the toolbar button that sends data to your lights).
3. Open Tools → Test. On the Models tab, tick one prop.
4. Choose RGB Cycle: the prop should go red, then green, then blue. Then try Chase to check the lights run in the right direction.
5. Work through every prop. Close the Test window when you're done.

If something isn't right