Colorlight card not responding to FPP

[toozie21]

I recently bought a kit that had a P5 matrix with a colorlight card that was supposedly preconfigured. I went through the process of setting up FPP based on some YouTube videos I saw, and got to the point where I was trying to send a test pattern out. I see the activity lights blinking on both the colorlight card as well as the FPP, but I don't see anything on the matrix itself. Supposedly the colorlight card was pre-configured, so I've been hesitant to mess with it. Do you think that I probably should connect it to a PC and make sure it was configured properly? Or am I potentially missing something else?

Also, I am connecting to the FPP via wifi, and using the onboard NIC for colorlight connection. I feel like the NIC should have a static IP, but since colorlight doesn't actually operate in a normal tcp setup, I left it as DHCP for now. Is that correct? When I tried to make it static, and on a different subnet, it wouldn't boot.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk

[Poporacer]

I went through the process of setting up FPP based on some YouTube videos I saw

What are you using for your FPP device?

There are several very outdated videos floating around so you could be configuring it totally incorrect....without seeing your settings, it is hard to tell and right now, the ability to post screenshots seems to be down?

got to the point where I was trying to send a test pattern out.

How and where were you trying to send this test pattern?

Do you think that I probably should connect it to a PC and make sure it was configured properly?

This wouldn't hurt. That way you can confirm if it was configured correctly. In troubleshooting, it is usually best to start and the end and work your way backwards.

I feel like the NIC should have a static IP, but since colorlight doesn't actually operate in a normal tcp setup, I left it as DHCP for now. Is that correct?

The FPP has 2 network interfaces and are configured independently of each other and for the colorlight, the eth0 should be left to DHCP

When I tried to make it static, and on a different subnet, it wouldn't boot.

Changing the network settings will have no impact on it booting, there was something else going on.

[toozie21]

Howdy @Poporacer , thanks for chiming in.

I am using a Raspberry Pi 4B. I decided to wipe it and start over the morning.

I hooked up colorlight to my laptop and think it is configured ok on its end now.

Next I attempted to setup FPP (I'm using 7.1). It is coming up fine and I am using WiFi for talking to it, and the onboard NIC to connect to the colorlight card.  Using the colorlight app I was able to see the logos with my moving mouse, so it seems pretty good.

I then went to Channel Outputs > LED Panels page.  I think it is setup correctly, but when I pressed the "Test Pattern" button, nothing happens.

I tried to attach a screen shot to show the page I was on, but you are right, it isn't letting me....

[tbone321]

I would assign a static address to the Ethernet port and put it on a different network address than your WIFI.  

[toozie21]

I would assign a static address to the Ethernet port and put it on a different network address than your WIFI. 

Set the gateway to itself? Meaning
192.168.0.1
255.255.255.0
192.168.0.1

For ip/netmask/gateway?

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk

[Poporacer]

I would assign a static address to the Ethernet port and put it on a different network address than your WIFI.

No, for Colorlight connections, you want the eth0 to be set for DHCP

[Poporacer]

Set the gateway to itself?

On the eth0, you set it to DHCP, no Gateway needed

[MikeKrebs]

What is the IP of the colorlight? What is the IP of the rPi?

[darylc]

@MikeKrebs Colorlight cards do not use IP

[breese]

Check out the Zoom room.
These are pre-configured and the people in the Zoom room have helped a number of people with this issue.
https://zoom.us/j/175801909?pwd=ZU1hNzM5bjJpOGZ1d1BOb1BzMUFndz09

[tbone321]

Set the gateway to itself? Meaning
192.168.0.1
255.255.255.0
192.168.0.1

When you are configuring a port this way, leave the gateway blank.  Setting a gateway address on a port makes the system think that this port has a connection to the outside world and it does not.  ColorLight has a proprietary protocol and does not use an IP address.  The only reason for setting a static address on Eth0 is to make sure the system wakes up the port and that it doesn't constantly search for a DHCP address that it is never going to get. 

[toozie21]

@tbone321 @breese @darylc @MikeKrebs @Poporacer
Thanks for all of the help folks.  I didn't have a chance to look into this today, but yesterday I spent some time on it. 

Weirdly, I can output from Xlights and see a gif animating.  But since the gif was choppy, I tried to play an fseq from FPP itself and nothing came out (yep, I made sure to disable the output to lights button. lol).

I am still not 100% sure I have the colorlight configured properly since things seem so choppy, but I do see what I expect to see color and aspect ratio size (when using Xlights at least).  I saw a video from earlier this year from panelsrus about rolling back firmware so I may need to do that.

I'll have to check out the zoom room as that is a wholly new thing since I used to deal with this stuff.  I feel like such an out-of-date person. lol

[Poporacer]

I'll have to check out the zoom room as that is a wholly new thing since I used to deal with this stuff.  I feel like such an out-of-date person. lol

No need to feel out-of-date, here is some info on the Zoom Room to help you out!.

[toozie21]

What should the channel inputs, channel outputs settings look like when I am setting up the FPP for just interfacing with a P5 matrix and a colorlight card?

[Poporacer]

What should the channel inputs

That would depend on your use case, but typically people use the MultiSync protocol for panels to reduce jitter. In that case you do not need any inputs configured. But if you want to do some basic testing from xLights, then just enable the inputs. (testing panels from xLights will usually be jittery and show some tearing.

channel outputs settings

You do not want any E1.31 channel output (or any other outputs) configured/enabled. The only outputs would be the LED panels.