F16v3 not in sync with 2 Kulp K8s

[marci]

Hi all,

My show has 2 Kulp K8s driving 4 140 nodes 3D sphere props. I also have a Falcon F16v3 with 2 expansion boards (48 ports) driving a mega tree with about 5,600 nodes on 48 strings plus a star. I have a Pi/FPP inside as the master driving the show with the 2 Kulps and the Falcon in remote mode connected via wifi.

The sequence is simple. I have 20 effects back to back for a total show time of about 6 minutes. All 5 props have the same effects with the same duration and position on the timeline so in xLights all props are in perfect sync. The problem I'm having is in the show the mega tree is not in sync with the 4 spheres on the 2 kulps. The 4 spheres are in perfect sync with each other but the mega tree is about 8 seconds behind the kulps.

Any clues?

TIA

Michael

[MikeKrebs]

Does the multisync screen show any difficulties?

[marci]

Not really. The F16v3 is pretty far from my router (furthest controller from the router) and sometimes reports as "Status: unreachable" but that status goes away quickly and one of the Kulp K8s is also pretty close to the same distance away as well but that controller is in perfect sync with the other K8 closer to the router.

The one thing that's different with the F16v3 which may or may not be an issue is that it's the only controller that's running on a show network (192.168.3.x) rather than the primary network (192.168.1.x) whereas all Kulp controllers are just on the primary network. Could that be producing a problem?

Michael

[CaptainMurdoch]

I don't know how well the F16v3 in Remote mode does as far as syncing is concerned if the connection is spotty.  It may have a hard time adjusting for the missed frames.  This might be a question for David if you are running the F16v3 in Remote mode and not driving it via E1.31 from a Pi/Beagle running FPP.

[marci]

Yes, it it running in E1.31 mode via FPP on a Pi. There's a Pi in the enclosure that is driving the F16v3v plus 2 expansion boards. FPP in the Pi is in remote mode rather than the master.

[rudybuddy]

I have the same setup with my 16V3s. On the remote pi connected to the 16V3 I have wlan0 set to my show network (192.168.1.xx)..eth0 set to 192.168.2.xx and the 16V3 also set to 192.168.2.xx.

[CaptainMurdoch]

Check the fppd.log file in the FPP File Manager to see if it is logging any issues.  If the Remote FPP Pi instance is lagging it could be multiple issues, but it should handle spotty WiFi dropping occasional sync packets.

[marci]

I see this sync errors on launch of a show but I assume they're referring to the system being down all day:

[Sync] /opt/fpp/src/MultiSync.cpp:1114: Have not seen 192.168.1.241 in over 2 hours, removing
[Sync] /opt/fpp/src/MultiSync.cpp:1114: Have not seen 192.168.3.196 in over 2 hours, removing
[Sync] /opt/fpp/src/MultiSync.cpp:1114: Have not seen 192.168.1.244 in over 2 hours, removing
[Sync] /opt/fpp/src/MultiSync.cpp:1114: Have not seen 192.168.1.247 in over 2 hours, removing

x.x.1.241 is the master/player FPP on a Pi inside the house
x.x.3.196 is the show network for the mega tree I'm having the sync problem with
x.x.1.244 is a Kulp controller driving the sphere props
x.x.1.247 is a Kulp controller driving the sphere props

Also:
[General] /opt/fpp/src/common.cpp:1007: curl_easy_perform() failed: Timeout was reached
[E131Bridge] /opt/fpp/src/e131bridge.cpp:146: Universe file /home/fpp/media/config/ci-universes.json does not exist
[General] /opt/fpp/src/common.cpp:707: Error parsing JSON string in LoadJsonFromString(): 'File not found.

[CaptainMurdoch]

What version of FPP are you running?  Those line numbers seem a little off when I go searching for things.  The ci-universes warning is not an issue.  For the curl error, it should have listed the URL it was trying to hit in the parenthesis.  For the JSON String issue, I don't know what would trigger that, because I'm not sure what was calling it at the time.  Were there lines between those lines in the logs or did they occur as-is?

[marci]

I'm running FPP v6.3.

The JSON errors are occurring pretty much stand alone. This is all I see:
2023-11-27 20:33:50.661 (1661) [General] /opt/fpp/src/common.cpp:707: Error parsing JSON string in LoadJsonFromString(): 'File not found.
'
2023-11-27 21:54:09.471 (1661) [General] /opt/fpp/src/common.cpp:707: Error parsing JSON string in LoadJsonFromString(): 'File not found.
'

[rudybuddy]

The one thing that's different with the F16v3 which may or may not be an issue is that it's the only controller that's running on a show network (192.168.3.x) rather than the primary network (192.168.1.x) whereas all Kulp controllers are just on the primary network. Could that be producing a problem?

I'll admit that I do not totally understand networks, but can someone explain how this setup would work?

[Poporacer]

I'm running FPP v6.3.

The current version is 7.3.5 and for the developers to troubleshoot, you probably should be on the most current version!

[marci]

Good point, Poporacer. I'll upgrade after the show is over. Don't want to risk an upgrade during a show.

[Poporacer]

Don't want to risk an upgrade during a show.

LOL, there are almost 10,000 FPP devices running 7.x (if not more!)...it can't be that bad?

[marci]

Yes, but but everyone is running different configurations. Generally not a good idea to upgrade your OS in the middle of a show. Likelihood of a problem might be small but if it if happens my show is potentially down for an undetermined time. Not worth even a small risk for what I'd gain from it before the show ends.