Are you interested in learning how to assemble and install a Kulp controller? Then this video is for you!
Perhaps you just purchased your controller and it’s in pieces and you aren’t quite sure how to put it together. We’ve got you covered!
Get Started
The very first thing to do is to pull the SD card out of the packaging and install FPP on the computer.
Installing FPP
The very first thing to so either once your controller is assembled or beforehand, is to install FPP onto your SD card. A helpful tip to know is that if you buy your controller from Kulp lights, this will come preinstalled and can save you a lot of time and effort.
If you go the route of installing it yourself, all you do is search FPP download, enter the site and look over to the side bar where you will find the download option, and simply choose the latest version.
Once your download is set you are ready to insert your SD card into the controller.
Controller Assembly
To begin, you will unpackage all of the pieces of the controller, as well as the packet that comes along with it that has warnings about proper assembly and other information about the controller.
Display
You will then unpackage the display. There is four pins protected by a piece of foam. You will take the display and line it up on the spot that is for it on the circuit board.
Beagle Bone
The other piece that you will be working with is the beagle bone. You will notice that on the back of the Kulp there are two rows of pins sticking out which correspond with the pins on the beagle bone.
You will want to make sure that you connect the beagle bone the correct way. The way to tell that you have done this is by locating the network port and power barrel on the beagle bone and ensure that they are facing out so that when you push it in to the controller it goes down easily all the way.
Insert SD Card
Next you will put the SD card into the slot designated for it on the bottom of the Kulp. Just as an FYI Kulp offers an SD extender. This is something that you may want to consider because once you mount it in your controller, depending on how you mount it, you may find that it is otherwise inaccessible. This can make things difficult if something happens to the SD card where you need to swap it out. The extender will help save you some effort rather than having to unscrew everything and re-mount it.
Power Jumper
The last thing to do for setting up your controller is to check the power jumper. You will find that on the controller itself there is a jumper to power. You will want to ensure that this is in place securely. You can find more detailed information about this in your warning guide that came along with the controller.
Once you have checked the power jumper and all is properly set, you are done with your setup and ready to boot it up!
Connecting To Power Supply
Once everything is assembled and you have all your parts ready to go, the next step is to connect everything to your power supply.
If you have a bit of experience with wiring and feel comfortable working with it, you will go ahead and connect your wires with the controller.
Once your wiring is set up you will need to take a moment to decide what your individual needs are as far as your controller use and whether it will be best to connect to either one or two separate power supplies to have everything work as smoothly as possible. This will just depend on your specific needs.
One last thing to check is the other jumper on the controller that says input voltage select. By default they are usually set to 12 volts but you always want to double check it just in case so that you can prevent any potential issues.
Once you are wired up, you are then ready to hook it up to the network and connect it with your computer!
Connecting with your Network
Locate your network cable and plug that into your controller and then plug the power in. You will then let everything take the time it needs to boot up and go to the default IP address. You can find this IP address in the manual or just look at the screen where it will display it.
You can then go to fpp.local on your computer and connect directly with your controller to complete your setup with FPP.
Closing
After you have followed the instructions above to get everything set up properly, you are ready to go with your new controller and with getting started on this amazing and exciting hobby of Christmas lighting!