sound skipping - FPP issue or something else

B

-bernard-

Supporting Member
Hi,

Very late starting my show, running it for the second time yesterday night... 2 days ago, it ran fine. Yesterday, the sound would skip on occasion. Never had this happen to me before during the show or during testing.

Some info:
-using Vixen 3
-first year using FPP - prior years, always ran with Vixen scheduler
-Raspberry Pi (Model B)
-FPP V5.3.1
-Remote Falcon plugin V1.0.6
-Sound Blaster Play! 3
-2 amp power supply for the Pi
-Signstek ST-05B, with its rubber duck antenna
- Sandisk Ultra Plus 32 GB class 10 (micro SD V10 - HC1 -A1)

I know FPP is not the latest version, but it was working fine the day before (and during testing).

I did not check the system utilization yesterday night, but right now it shows CPU usage 100.00% with only a few static lights on. Memory usage at 24%, disk utilization 12% with 25% GiB free.

While still a potential culprit, I don't suspect the FM transmitter, which is fairly new, and has worked flawlessly before, and during testing in the basement prior to setting up the show.

Any pointer on what might be going on, why the show ran fine during testing, ran fine on day one, but on day two the sound had issues?

Thanks in advance for your input.
 
Check the fppd.log file via the Logs tab in the FPP File Manager and see if any errors are reported there. Also make sure the FM transmitter is situated as far away as possible from the Pi so it doesn?t interfere with the Pi?s electronics.
 
You definitely should not be at 100% cpu. Definitely should restart the RPi (not just FPP).

Just the audio skipping or the lights stop as well?

V5...hmm scratching my head but I think it was pretty stable after the fixes.
 
I have shut down and restarted everything, and it still shows 100%. The lowest I have seen was 87% with nothing running, although I have seen it at 100% too with nothing running...

Only the sound is skipping, the lights/sequences are fine.

I'll see about updating to 5.5 but I am not sure it'll make a difference.

Any idea what the cpu usage should be? Could the high number be related to the SD card?

Thanks!
 
My FPPs typically run under 20% load.
Log into the command line and type "sudu top | tee log.txt" without the quotes. Then attach the log file to this conversation.
 
Hi Martin,

Not sure I did what you asked for... couldn't find a place to log into the command line. Is it the ssh shell? if so, that's what I got. Does it make sense? I don't know how to interpret this.
btw, the cpu usage was showing 100 a few minutes ago, went down to 65%, back to 100

Thanks!

top - 16:57:17 up 23:58, 1 user, load average: 1.33, 1.20, 1.15

Tasks: 100 total, 1 running, 99 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie

%Cpu(s): 13.5 us, 22.0 sy, 13.5 ni, 49.3 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 1.7 si, 0.0 st

MiB Mem : 430.0 total, 52.3 free, 96.6 used, 281.2 buff/cache

MiB Swap: 0.0 total, 0.0 free, 0.0 used. 254.7 avail Mem


PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND

9 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.6 0.0 18:18.90 ksoftirqd/0
 
Just out of curiosity what version of Pi are you running?
I had same issue with an older Pi model B or Pi2 from years ago before I upgraded to a Pi3B
If it is an older version of pi may be time to upgrade.
 
Thanks Martin and DrNeutron, this is helpful.

Yes, my my PI is old, it is a Pi model B, and I suspect (hope) that is the problem.
I am going to try with a Pi zero W that I have and see how it goes. Here is another challenge as I can get FPP 7.4 installed on it...

Thanks for the help and hints,

Bernard
 
A little update:

Everything worked fine yesterday night using my computer and Vixen 3 to run the show, and the sound was fine. While it could still be a network issue, I suspect the sound skipping issue is related to the old PI model I was trying to use.

I was not able to use the PI zero as the soudblaster was not recognized by the PI when it was connected via a USB hub (it was when directly connected to the Pi). I need a hub to connect to the nano access point and to the dongle to run the Lynx Express. The other way would have been to connect the soundblaster to the HDMI output but I don't have the right cable/connector...

Thanks for the help everyone!
 
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