6.3.0 is working - with Falcon Player

[k6ccc]

The new time sync in LOR 6.3.0 does work with Falcon Player.  This is going to be a huge improvement for those that are running large P5 and P10 matrix panels.  Takes some effort - mostly on the FPP side, but it does work.

 

[stevehoyt]

Jim

@k6ccc

Without wasting a lot of your time, could you explain the key advantages and the cases where it would be better

I am running my matrix just fine using FPP via dmx

I don't know much about this new way to use FPP, but at the 50,000 foot level, I assume it requires me to load an FPP show(s)  into it for just my matrix, then use the timings etc to match the rest of my LOR networks. 

This seems like it would be a lot of work, file transfers, timing syncs  etc along with very hard to maintain each time I make a change. 

Am I missing something?

Edited August 21 by stevehoyt

[k6ccc]

If you are running a P5 or P10 matrix, you have no choice - you have to use FPP.  Always been that way.  This year I will have almost 200 universes of panels.  That is a lot of data to send.  Also, the FPP instance may run out of processing power to process the E1.31 data and then process the data to drive the matrix.  

What this allows is to load the sequence into into the FPP installation and then just send sync data to the FPP.  On my P5 matrix which was displaying very poorly via E1.31 data, it is FAR better using the new time sync.

 

[lightningrod4life]

On 8/21/2024 at 5:19 PM, k6ccc said:

If you are running a P5 or P10 matrix, you have no choice - you have to use FPP.  Always been that way.  This year I will have almost 200 universes of panels.  That is a lot of data to send.  Also, the FPP instance may run out of processing power to process the E1.31 data and then process the data to drive the matrix.  

What this allows is to load the sequence into into the FPP installation and then just send sync data to the FPP.  On my P5 matrix which was displaying very poorly via E1.31 data, it is FAR better using the new time sync.

 

So would you have your sequences running on a PC and uploaded separately to FPP with the panels? (Am I understanding this correct?) And so often it just makes sure the timing is in sync?

[k6ccc]

The show computer is controlling the show, but is not sending E1.31 data to the panels.  Instead, the FPP instances have the sequences (as .fseq files) loaded locally.  The show computer does send the timing and the FPP instances are configured to know what sequence to play based on the time code.  I have been playing my year round landscape lighting show that was modified to have the two panels just display the sequence name and run time for the past week or so and it it working perfectly.  Normally the landscape lighting does not use the panels.

 

[lightningrod4life]

1 hour ago, k6ccc said:

The show computer is controlling the show, but is not sending E1.31 data to the panels.  Instead, the FPP instances have the sequences (as .fseq files) loaded locally.  The show computer does send the timing and the FPP instances are configured to know what sequence to play based on the time code.  I have been playing my year round landscape lighting show that was modified to have the two panels just display the sequence name and run time for the past week or so and it it working perfectly.  Normally the landscape lighting does not use the panels.

 

Nice! That sounds pretty handy when you've got as many panels going as you mentioned. Definitely a way to not bog the network to a screeching halt. Now If I can hopefully get this to work for me with my 2 panels (LOL!) Ill be in good shape. 

[rick gurnee]

Jim,

I think this is exactly what I need.  As you remember (or not) I have two P5 panels. one is 1 3x2 P5 panel and the other is a 6x7 P5 panel.  I am having performance issues and I opened a ticket with LOR but after a few short questions and me sending them my Seqence and preview I heard nothing from them.  After a month I asked if they needed any more information and still heard nothing.  Anyway, I started researching converting to Xlights but if I can get time code sync to work, that would be better.

I have a million questions, but I need to understand the documentation first.  I've read it but it is very confusing.  I assume I need to create fseq files for each of my sequences and upload those to the FPP.  Can you point me to what else needs to be done on the FPP side? I won't bother you with all of my other  questions until I have had a chance to understand it better.

Just one quick one:  will this work with MIIP?

[rick gurnee]

quick correction:  my panels are 3x2 (about 12,000 pixels) and 6x7 (about 86,000 pixels)

[k6ccc]

4 minutes ago, rick gurnee said:

Just one quick one:  will this work with MIIP?

Yes.  Has no effect on MIIP.  You are still controlling your show from your show computer.  If you have not seen it yet, BobO has adapted MIIP to work with 6.3 but does require a few steps on the MIIP end.

5 minutes ago, rick gurnee said:

I assume I need to create fseq files for each of my sequences and upload those to the FPP.

Correct.

7 minutes ago, rick gurnee said:

Can you point me to what else needs to be done on the FPP side?

I'm doing this by memory since I'm no where near my show devices as I type this.  First thing is put FPP into Remote mode rather than Player mode.  Next is to create a playlist.  You don't need to populate the playlist yet - just name it (I called mine SMPTE since it will be using SMPTE TimeCode).  The add a Plugin called ArtNet Advanced Features.  Once installed in FPP, you set a couple fields on the AAF setup page to enable AFF to control a Playlist, and what the name of that Playlist is (have to create the Playlist first because it's a dropdown selection), and that the time settings are in the playlist.

In LOR, you export all of your sequences as .fseq files.  All your sequence files get uploaded to each FPP instance - that will likely take a while.  Once the sequences are uploaded, add them to the playlist you created.  This next step I don't remember exactly what it's called, but in the playlist, you turn on advanced features (or something like that), which enables you to set a timecode for the start of each sequence.  You can largely use whatever timecode you want except they can't overlap and don't set any sequence to 00:00 (it won't play).  I set most of mine to 10 minute increments, but that does not really matter.  Doing all this will require several restarts of FPPD, and I found one two more actually are required even if it does not say so.  

Once you have done all this (I don't thing I forgot any steps - but don't hold me to that - I'll check when I get home), the status page on FPP will show that it is waiting for MultiSync commands.

In LOR 6.3 (MUST be 6.3 or later), for each sequence in your show, you will assign a TimeCode (in the Show config).  The TimeCode must match between FPP and LOR.  Then in the control Panel on the Settings > Integration page, turn on Time Code Sync.  Then when you start the CP the first time, or disable the Player on the Play shows page you will have some new options.  You select Show Player Sync Leader. First time you start the player that way, you will get a new page to select a few options.  Select Sync using Art-Net and set the broadcast IP address.  In MOST cases, that will be the first three octets of your show network and then .255 as the last octet.  For example, my show network is 192.168.131.xxx/24 so the broadcast address is 192.168.131.255.  Once you do that, when the show is running, you will see the TimeCode being sent.  If FPP sees a Timecode that it recognizes as a sequence, it will play the sequence and display that on the FPP status page.  If it doesn't work, first thing is to restart FPPD again.

When I get home I will look at my devices and verify that I did not make too many errors in this summary.  I will then edit this message if needed.

 

[rick gurnee]

Jim, thanks for the quick response.  I will get started on testing this tomorrow.  Might have to wait until hurricane Helene goes by but I should have some results in a few days.  Thanks for the help.

[rick gurnee]

OK, I've gotten started but can't figure out how to "in the playlist, you turn on advanced features (or something like that)"

Here's what I have done. I took two songs and created v2 fseq files and uploaded them to the fpp. 

I adjuted the output start channel to 88,065 (because my panel starts on universe 173)

I ran the fseq sequences in fpp to make sure they worked.

i changed the fpp from Player to Remote

I installed ArtNet Andanced Features.

I ran AAF setup and selected enable ArtNet Timecode.

I wan't sure about the field "Hour field is playlist entry" so I did not select it. (actually, I tried it both ways).

I selected my playlist from the dropdown box.

I restarted fpp

I went into the playlist and added the two sequences that I had uploaded.

At this point, I cannot find out how to add the timecode to the playlist entries.

I even rebooted the pi to see if that helped, but it didn't.

I did not turn on ArtNet Trigger Support.

Also, when i was setting up AAF I did not see anything to specify "the time settings are in the playlist".

Any thoughts?

An unrelated question.  The LOR manual says that LOR and FPP have to have the same framerate (24, 25 or 30).  I see where in LOR this is set,  but I can't find it in fpp.

 

[k6ccc]

What version of FPP are you using?  You MUST be on FPP version 8 with the latest version of AAF.  I'm suspecting you have an older version of FPP.

 

 

[k6ccc]

12 minutes ago, rick gurnee said:

I wan't sure about the field "Hour field is playlist entry" so I did not select it. (actually, I tried it both ways).

Let me explain this one.  Originally this was the only setting for using TimeCode.  What that did was select the playlist entry based on the hour in the TimeCode.  That was very limiting because you could only use 23 hours and therefore only 23 sequences.  Dan Kulp (who wrote the ArtNet plugin) made changes to the plugin and FPP at my request to support more options.  Now you can select "Time within full playlist", "Hour is index", 1/4 hour is index", and "Time Codes within items".  The last one is what is needed.  In the playlist, there is a gear icon that lets you select Playlist details.  One of those is a checkbox for "Verbose Playlist Item Details"  turn that on.  Now you will see the timecode entry for each item in the playlist.

Sorry for the lack of details - basing it on memory...

 

[rick gurnee]

Thanks.  I'm on 7.5.  I'll upgrade to 8.  By the way, I only have a 32 gig micro sd card and I have a lot of sequences (thanks to MIIP I never get rid of any) so I'll ned to get a bigger card.  Probably go with a 128 gig.

[k6ccc]

Yea, 32 will likely be too small.  I'm using 64GB cards, and once everything is loaded, we'll see where I am on space.  Last time I went o order cards, I found that 64 was harder to get and ordered 128 - this was for some cameras.

 

 

[rick gurnee]

I've upgraded to 8.0 uninstalled AAF and reinstalled AAF.

In the setup of AAF, I can now select "timecode within Item"

I deleted my sequences from the playlist and added them back.  I turned verbose on and I now see a sequence and timecode field for each sequence.  However, the timcode field says "default" for both.  I was expecting to be about to put the same timecode that I used in LOR.  Am I missig something?

[k6ccc]

13 minutes ago, rick gurnee said:

However, the timcode field says "default" for both.  I was expecting to be about to put the same timecode that I used in LOR.  Am I missig something?

Where it says default, you can select a dropdown that selects 30 minute intervals, or you can type anything you want.  Time format will be HH:MM:SS

 

[rick gurnee]

nope.  no dropdown box.  this is what I get and when I put the cursor over any part of a line it turns into a hand, but clicking on it just allows me to move the entire line up or down.

 

[k6ccc]

Sorry, I was not specific enough.  When you hover your mouse over any sequence, you should see a pencil and trashcan appear on the right end (to the right of the Length).  Select the pencil and that brings up an edit popup.

 

[rick gurnee]

already tried that.  this is the popup window I get

 

 

 

For what it's worth, I created another playlist which is not being synced by AAF and I added the same two seqences to it and this playlist also shows time code as default.