FPP and Renard(hardware suggestions to help)

[FIRECOP252]

Hey Folks I have been dealing with the learning curve for dummies on how to get my Renard to work with the FPP and the great team here helped me get it going.  Just wanted to make a couple of suggestions that would speed up the process tremendously and might get you past the frustration I had due to basic things I didnt know about.

1-This is the dongle I bought that is working GREAT and I can say for a fact works with the FPP and Renard.  For those who didnt see the thread I went through quite a bit just to find out that I didnt have a dongle compatible.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BR0AY80/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You might find it cheaper on Ebay as I saw it for like $26 and some change but It is a great peice.  Capt also advised the idea of the surge protection made a nice added feature.

2.  I also seemingly had an issue with my powered USB hub.  Did some research and found this one had great reviews on the Linux Wiki for using with the PI so I bought it and I have tested it already and NO ISSUES whatsoever.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005P2BY5I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Something I didnt think of but I know works with this now is (Capt pointed this out)  if you have the right cord you can plug the PI into the port and only need the 1 power source/plugin...in case you are limited on them.

This is what I have been learning so far hope these couple of things help anyone who is looking to use the FPP with Renard. 

[11Bravo]

Thanks for those tips. Firecop. I guess since this little computer is new, there doesn't seem to be much written down as to what one really needs to get stuff working with the Pi in different situations.  At least that's my sense of it.  When ever I get back to trying to make mine work, hopefully this will help.

[FIRECOP252]

No Problem at all.   Hope to continue to document things as I learn them to help others.  The folks here have helped me a bunch and hoping I can just pass something on to help out.

[danj]

Firecop--where did you go (e.g., DIYC forum?? similar??) to learn about getting FPP & Renard to work together?  I recently realized that I need to learn how to do this also, as I am planning to use two Renard controllers to blink my AC lights and some strobes.  Whatever you learned, I need to go there too!!!   THanks,

[algerdes]

Something I didnt think of but I know works with this now is (Capt pointed this out)  if you have the right cord you can plug the PI into the port and only need the 1 power source/plugin...in case you are limited on them.

For those of us who don't (didn't) know, can you elaborate on this? 

[gadgetsmith]

I believe he's saying you can plug your pi into a usb hub to power the pi. Plug the hub into ac power and it delivers power to the Pi and connected devices.

[FIRECOP252]

Something I didnt think of but I know works with this now is (Capt pointed this out)  if you have the right cord you can plug the PI into the port and only need the 1 power source/plugin...in case you are limited on them.

For those of us who don't (didn't) know, can you elaborate on this?

Sure,  basically if you are using a powered USB hub like on a Pi B for extra USB ports you can use a USB to micro USB and plug the Pi into the Hub then plug the Hub in and only need 1 power outlet instead of multiple.   basically just as gadgetsmith stated.

[FIRECOP252]

Firecop--where did you go (e.g., DIYC forum?? similar??) to learn about getting FPP & Renard to work together?  I recently realized that I need to learn how to do this also, as I am planning to use two Renard controllers to blink my AC lights and some strobes.  Whatever you learned, I need to go there too!!!   THanks,

Dan,

I learned what I know from here in the FPP thread.   On some things I did some searching but some things was trial and error working with Capt and Matt who was helping answer some questions for me.   Some of the things that I talked about on the Renard threads are what I got through with trial and error working with them which is why I wanted to mention the issues.   I spent a couple of days talking with Capt. and Matt due to my powered hub just not wanting to play nice and my dongle was the same way, the FPP did not want to recognize it and Capt. informed me that I needed to use a certain chipset(FTD) which worked well with it.

I will certainly try to answer any questions you have and get you through it, feel free to PM me or ask on here I want to help as I was helped.   I just learned a new issue that I will be posting over in the Video section that I believe Capt and Matt are looking into.

[algerdes]

Thanks for the info.

If there is one thing that I wish the Pi Player (both versions) had, it would be a better/more secure power port.

Feeding it from the USB hub is a great idea and will be implemented (this afternoon).

[danj]

Thanks FireCop.  I saw all the posts; I will read through them in detail.

[griswold]

I too am attempting to use FPP and Renards (2 Olsen 595 with converters and a Renard32). I was able to get it setup without much effort but I was very confused at first since I couldn't really find any documentation. I had a few issues where FPP complained there was no serial detected even though it was showing via the lsusb command. I rebooted, didn't help, I then connected the Renard and everything, then powered them and rebooted. If I recall correction I had to restart FPP via the web interface after it booted, maybe the web interface started prior to the serial adapter being loaded, not sure.

Here is my setup and more details on what I did:

I hooked up my serial adapter to the pi via a usb hub. The adapter is actually a few parts I purchased on Amazon:
RS232 to RS485 converter (about $11)
USB to RS232 converter (about $9)

I also purchased a USB hub that I plugged in my wifi adapter, usb storage, keyboard, serial adapter, and the raspberry pi to power it. Here is the USB hub I bought.
USB 7 Port Hub w/ 15W power adapter (about $18)

My controller was already setup as 57600 which is the default when adding the channel output.
Went to the local FPP web page and went to Input/Output Setup -> Channel Outputs -> then clicked the Other tab. I clicked Add then selected Renard. I kept the defaults. Remember to select the checkbox under the Act column then click Save.

Next I made sure to connect the RS485 to the Renard In and applied power and ofcourse my controller hooked up and powered with lights. I then went to Status/Control -> Display Testing. This page is rather simple but wasn't very straight forward and I found no documentation. Make sure to tick the Enable Testing and then without any other changes just click the preset color "White". That seems to just turn on all channels. I wasn't able to get the Single Channel to work, but then again I don't know how to. I only tried putting in 1 channel number and changing the channel value from 0 to 1.

Hope this helps someone. I am hoping to be able to hookup my pixels from Ray via the GPIO and/or a PX1 (yet to be built).

[CaptainMurdoch]

That test page was just coded and committed last night, so there isn't any help page for it yet.  I will try to get one in tonight if I can.

For the single channel mode you should try 0 or 255 which is the max value.  Using a 1 might not have been high enough for a response on your lights.

The test screen was something I threw together and wasn't planning on writing until next year so if is very simple and feature-lacking but better than nothing and sometimes better than having to use FPP in bridge mode with another program generating test data.

[griswold]

Bad timing, I guess, . Just my 2 cents but maybe put the word brightness or something. At least we know the White works. I clicked the other buttons but I think it was something like every 4th channel on my Olsen turned on.

Thanks for creating that page. It is nice to do a quick test prior to having to figure out the other stuff needed to get blinky flashy going. I am very happy I don't have to pull out the old Dell tower PC for my lights this year (at least it looks that way so far). Greatly appreciate the work put in to FPP!

Thanks,

[CaptainMurdoch]

Just my 2 cents but maybe put the word brightness or something. At least we know the White works. I clicked the other buttons but I think it was something like every 4th channel on my Olsen turned on.

I just pushed a change to make this say Brightness as well as adding "(0-255)" at the end of the brightness line and "(1-65536)" at the end of the channel number line.  I'll try to get help text created tonight since I know several users were hoping to have some form of testing built-in to FPP.

[dakingus]

Firecop, thanks for starting this thread.  It was a huge help getting my very first Renard board up and running.  I feel kinda silly with how excited I am with the 8 channels of dimming & flashing I now have, but I just can't help myself.  I'm already planning for what I want to add for next year.

- Darrin