What is a cycle?
A cycle is the number of times the lights will flash in a sequence. In the graphic above, you will see that the top set of lights will go through a 5 step lighting sequence, turn off, then start over. The bottom segments will flash some segments on and off, while keeping some on. This is considered two cycles.
You can design your own sequence, up to 20 steps in a sequence, using the Board Sequence Builder.