FPP- help -suggestions

[angus40]

I hope someone with knowledge could shove me in the right direction
with first attempt at preparing for this .

I have been using Hls sequencing software and would like to be able to convert it to
FPP. I do have a RPI 3 and sd ready
I have a fairly good Idea as to how to get the image and RPI established for FPP
but that is about it . Unfortunately Vixen and Xlights are beyond my intellect for this year even for testing purposes .

My goal is to get this projector up and functioning with FPP if possible Using an Hls sequence and converting it .
This is all for test and learn atm .

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[angus40]

Here are my notes on getting FPP setup. I haven't tested them recently but it is a starting point.
****************
FPP install

Download image
Unzip FPP image to ChristmasLights/FPP
Insert your SD card into your PC
Download Etcher
Install Etcher
Run Etcher selecting your image and SD card

Safely remove your SD card
Insert into FPP
Apply Power (wait) If you have a keyboard and monitor, you can use those to watch what FPP is doing. It might take a bit.

Connect to FPP using FPP, FPP01 or mine says http://fpp01.local
Go Advanced
Create a new partition with unused space.
Now we need to tell FPP to use this space.
Status/Control/FPP Settings
External Storage Device: Select the large space with free storage.
If it asks about formatting, format with btrfs.
If it asks to copy settings, say no.

Status/Control/Config/Set Time
NTP: Enabled
Time Zone (yours)
Submit

My setup...
My home network is running 192.168.10.x with the gateway (router) at 192.168.10.1.
My show network is running 192.168.1.x with no gateway. My switches don't know what to do with other IP addresses. But I still want to talk to FPP and use FPP to talk to my controllers. So we use this configuration...

Status/Control/Network
Click on wlan0
DHCP
Put in your SSID and WPA Pre Shared key
Update Interface
Restart Network

You should now have two addresses shown on top of page after Host: FPP

Bottom of the Network page
Enable Routing between network interfaces

Now click on the eth0
Interface Mode: Static
Enter the IP for the PI.
(My controllers are 192.168.1.151-153 so I wanted my PI to be 192.168.1.150)
The netmask will fill in as you leave the address field.
The Gateway will fill in as you leave the address field.
(My Gateway is on the home wireless network so I entered the address of my home router - the 192.168.10.1 address)

*************
After this, you will need to configure the outputs to match whatever controllers you are using.
Then you need HLS to output an .fseq.
Name the audio and the .fseq the same and use the content tab in FPP to upload both.
Setup a playlist.
Setup a schedule.
Nose around and have fun!

Wow , awesome . Thanks a lot Mike .

 

[angus40]

Will the old Nutcracker-xlights work for converting .hls file to .fseq
or do I need to learn the usage of the newer version ?

 

[DrNeutron]

Will the old Nutcracker-xlights work for converting .hls file to .fseq
or do I need to learn the usage of the newer version ?

Just an aside that when you import a HLS sequence, it imports as a data layer which means you cannot edit the effects after import.
The channel data has to be exactly the same in HLS and Xlights/FPP for it to map correctly.
I always found absolute channel mapping to work best when importing HLS sequences into xlights.

 

[angus40]

Just an aside that when you import a HLS sequence, it imports as a data layer which means you cannot edit the effects after import.
The channel data has to be exactly the same in HLS and Xlights/FPP for it to map correctly.
I always found absolute channel mapping to work best when importing HLS sequences into xlights.

Thanks for this info Phil .
I did a little conversion test with the old Nutcracker-xlights ver 3.x and waited for the results.
My settings in NC-xl were for a mega tree only and consisted of 4080 channels .
The conversion seemed to convert exactly 4080 channels of the Hls.data and anything after that said invalid .

So I am guessing that when you say absolute , You mean the NC-xl should contain enough Channels to equal the Hls sequence channel configuration ?

What I do not quite understand is , Do I need to actually create any props/elements within NC-xl or will the total channel count configuration suffice ?

 

[DrNeutron]

In your case where you are only talking about one prop, YES.
In xlights, when you create models and assign a starting channel, you have the option to choose: absolute, universe #, end of model, start of model or controller and to designate start channel.
Here is what happened to me when I 1st started converting HLS over to xlights (wayyyyy back in version 3.x).
My 1st controller was a LOR 16 channel AC controller, so I assigned it Universe 1, 16 channels.
Second controller was 2X27 channel DMX controllers and assigned Universe 2, 54 channels
3rd controller was a ray tree using strips, Universe 3, 360 channels.
My old HLS sequences used all three of these models in that order and exported happily with no issues.
The following year, I decided to not use the 54 channels in Universe 2 but only used 33. (removed some dumb rgb elements).
This created a problem with the HLS exports as all the channels after U2 33 were offset. It was a simple fix to just limit the DMX controller to 3 channels instead of 54. From that point for a few years, I used absolute numbering to ensure nothing would go out of whack....
UP UNTIL NOW.....LOL
Xlights now has controller visualizers which makes it soooo very simple to setup and when controllers aren't in visualizer (not supported) I set models up from start or end of each model. This way I can move things around and it automatically fixes any channels differences.

 

[angus40]

Thanks for the great details this will help a lot ! thank you .

Work has got in the way here for the next short while I will be back at this soon I hope .

 

[Keith R]

Will the old Nutcracker-xlights work for converting .hls file to .fseq
or do I need to learn the usage of the newer version ?

angus40, they are constantly updating and improving xlights and the FPP/BBB software. I am sure that if there is a bug, it will be fixed quickly. The Zoom Room is the place to go and there are people that have had success helping people using FPP and the Hinxpix controllers.
Getting the FPP on the Pi to do Master/Remote has been around for a while, and so has a virtual matrix to get effects and video to play on your HDTV/Projector. If you have Zoom, go to http://xlights.org/ and click on Zoom meeting.
I have not converted HLS files to xLights, but I have converted .vix and .lms files without issues.