What Is an NCP File?

If you've been handed a .ncp file with a batch of LED cabinets and wondered what it is, here's the short version: it's how NovaStar's COEX control system packages a cabinet's firmware, configuration and factory calibration into one file, so a wall can be commissioned without juggling several separate files per cabinet.

What an NCP file is for

Every cabinet's receiving card has to be told exactly how that panel is built and tuned — its configuration, the firmware it should run, and the optical/thermal calibration that keeps the picture clean. Historically those were separate files, and a mismatch between the configuration and the firmware (or the wrong Image Booster file on the wrong cabinet) was a common source of problems. NCP collapses all of it into one file per cabinet type, so there's nothing to mismatch and multi-frame-rate setups are handled in a single package.

What's inside — the "six-in-one"

A cabinet package can carry up to six things. The first three are included by default; the last three are optional, depending on the hardware and how the panel was tuned:

• Receiving-card firmware — the exact version the cabinet should run (default).
• Configuration file — module info, data groups, driver-IC parameters, refresh and GCLK (the same data as an RCFGX) (default).
• Image Booster file — the cabinet's optical correction (default).
• Thermal compensation — temperature-based correction (optional; on cards such as A10s Pro, CA50E, XA50 Pro).
• Adaptive frame rate — multiple frame-rate configs combined into one (optional; depends on the card and driver IC).
• Multi-mode — additional display-mode data (optional).

Getting the configuration and driver-IC parameters right is what prevents issues like cross-panel coupling, ghosting, color blocks, low-gray color shift and flicker — which is why the factory calibration in an NCP matters.

Which receiving cards use NCP

NCP is the format for NovaStar's current COEX-generation receiving cards: A5s Plus, A7s Plus, A8s, A8s-N, A10s Plus-N, A10s Pro, CA50E and XA50 Pro. The A10s Pro and the 5G cards (CA50E, XA50 Pro) ship with an NCP by default; for the other models you ask your LED manufacturer to provide one for your cabinets.

How an NCP is used (and who makes it)

NCP files are generated by NovaStar technical engineers, together with the LED screen manufacturer, during a factory debugging process before the screen ships — driver-IC light-up, frame-rate-adaptive configuration, optical correction (Image Booster) and thermal correction. End users can't create or edit an NCP (and can't rename it — the file name follows a required convention); if a change is needed, it goes back through the manufacturer / NovaStar.

To apply one, you use NovaStar's software: in NovaLCT via Tools → More → Send NCP (NovaLCT 5.5.0 or newer, for MCTRL / H / VX series), or in VMP on a COEX controller via Tools → Maintain → Cabinet. Image Booster, thermal and mode settings are then enabled in VMP's Image Quality settings.

NCP vs. RCFGX

These two get confused, but the relationship is simple: an RCFGX file is the receiving-card configuration — and it's actually one of the files bundled inside an NCP. The NCP is the larger package that also carries the firmware and the factory calibration data. If you have a standalone RCFGX and want to read its settings, our free RCFGX viewer opens it in your browser.