Deprecate/Remove FPD support...

[dkulp]

This is more or less a kind of warning that FPP9 will likely be the last version to support the ancient FPD boards.  At this point, there are WAY better ways to control pixels without the limitations (50ms, 4096 channel universes, etc...) of PixelNet.   There is no xLights support for configuring it so it's all manual.  FPD/PixelNet dongles even pre-date my involvement with FPP.  I'm fairly certain most of the people reading this have no idea what an FPD board even is.  

While working on some of the channel output code in FPP, I keep running into issues due to the FPD support code in FPP being ancient.   It's a bit complicated and scattered in a few places so modifying the code to update it to new structures is quite a bit of work and very risky considering none of the developers have the hardware anymore.   

According to the stats we collect, less than 0.001% of the FPP instances have FPD enabled.  I think it might be time to hang them on the wall as museum art and move to better options.  

[jnealand]

I used pixelnet for many years, but never owned or used FPD.  For those who are newer users the F16v1 was a pixelnet controller, but did not require an FPD board.  Today I still use some Falcon SSR devices for AC static props via a connection thru a Falcon PiCap.  These props are turned on/off via FPP Commands only at the beginning and ends of a show.  I'm not sure if this will be impacted by this change.  Do you have an answer for that?  Just sign me confused.

[dkulp]

This would only impact the actual FPD boards.  I don't know much about them as they pre-date even my involvement with FPP.   Basically, the boards described at https://www.falconchristmas.com/wiki/Falcon_FPD .    

From what I can gather, they directly attached to the Pi's GPIO headers.  Data is sent the board via SPI and the little processors on the board then sent the data out via the 12 Pixelnet universes.  On the FPP side, there is a "Falcon PixelNet/DMX" tab on the channel outputs page that will appear if it detects the FPD board.   That's part of the problem as well.  Since the FPD doesn't have the normal "eeprom", at boot on every Pi, we have to enable the SPI port, shift out some blank data which results in data shifting in and then have to check that data for the FPD signature.   It doesn't add a lot of time to the boot process, but it could be eliminated. 

Basically, if you go to the Channel Outputs page and you don't see a "Falcon PixelNet/DMX" tab or if the "Enable" checkbox on that page is not checked, then you would definitely not be affected.   If you use PixelNet via other options (like via tty outputs on various Hats/Capes) configured on the "Other" tab or via the Serial Outputs at the bottom of the older BBB string Hats, you would not be affected.   If you have no idea what PixelNet is, you would not be affected.  

[breese]

Interesting....
My Pi5 with an NVME shows the PixelNet Tab with the warning.
I have no hats and just a Sound Blaster on this Test Pi.

[dkulp]

Do you have the "Display all hardware options/settings" option turned on (advanced mode ui, UI tab)?   That enables a bunch of the normally hidden pages.

[breese]

Yes
I turned it off and the message went away.
What all does this setting do and what will be missing that someone might be looking for?

[breese]

FYI:
I have 4 Pi's I have been testing with.
This Pi5 with NVME.
My Player for the show (Pi4)
My Large 2.5 matrix (dual colorlight cards)
And my servo santa with your K2-Pi-Servo hat.

So far my tests have gone well with V9.
Is there anything you would like to see tested?
I have a few Github issues already registered but thought I would ask.

[Poporacer]

What all does this setting do

This will show all hardware options regardless of the device. If you are on a PI, it will give you BeagleBone Black settings, etc. This could cause major problems if you don't know what settings are for which device. This is typically for the developers so that they can "see" different settings without having to open up another device.

and what will be missing that someone might be looking for?

NOTHING