eFUSE

[Bwinter]

I've noticed that the newer releases of FPP support the use of eFuses--which is great!  However according to the FPP manual, it appears that this use is limited to hardware that supports current monitoring (with an added "Current Monitoring" tab).

Is there any way that DIY PiHat creators can access the eFUSE functionality in FPP (such as simply activating/inactivating the eFUSE)?

[CaptainMurdoch]

I think that you could just use a GPIO output to manually disable/enable/reset the efuse.  You could then control the on/off status from a FPP Command in your playlist.

[Bwinter]

That's what I've been doing and it works okay for playlists (as long as you remember to include the GPIO command in each playlist).   But it's a bit cumbersome for Display Testing or when playing a sequence outside of a playlist.

I was just hoping that "FPP support of eFuse" would be made available for wider use.  For example, I see there is a dedicated GPIO assigned for fan control (which can be enabled/disabled). It would be nice if another pin could be similarly-configured to be active if any data-output is being generated (eg. playlists, display testing, or individual sequences).

[CaptainMurdoch]

That's what I've been doing and it works okay for playlists (as long as you remember to include the GPIO command in each playlist).   But it's a bit cumbersome for Display Testing or when playing a sequence outside of a playlist.

There are OUTPUTS_ENABLED and OUTPUTS_DISABLED canned FPP Command Presets that you could probably use to turn the GPIO on/off.  On the Command Presets page, start typing 'output' into the Preset Name column and it will give you the available canned preset names.  Then you can pick one and assign the correct FPP Command.

[Bwinter]

Yup-that's what I've been doing. Just a bit cumbersome.

[CaptainMurdoch]

Anything further than that would probably be in the realm of having an eeprom on the board which provided some default config files.  You could make a virtual eeprom for your board.  We wouldn't dedicate a GPIO output to something like this, if anything it would be something that would be configurable so it would still require configuration manually or via a file included in an eeprom.    If it can be configured already via a command preset, I don't think we would add anything special in fppd to have a config option to specify a GPIO to turn on/off when outputs where enabled/disabled.

[Bwinter]

That's unfortunate. I was hoping that the recent FPP updates for support of eFuses would be developed for broader use.

[Poporacer]

I was hoping that the recent FPP updates for support of eFuses would be developed for broader use.

I think that what Captain Murdoch was saying is that you can support eFuses on your board, by using an eeprom, you do not need a physical eeprom on your board, you can create a virtual one. That is where the GPIO pins are defined for use for the eFuses....It would be problematic to pre-define certain GPIO pins for the eFuse functionality since it would lock in certain values that likely would not work for all boards.

[Bwinter]

GPIO-14 is predefined for fan control (and can be enabled/disabled in the system settings), so this seems to be a similar situation.

If I were to define a eFuse pin in the EEPROM, how exactly would FPP handle that definition?  It seems now that eFuse is part of the "Current Monitoring" tab, which I would also need to have activated in order to gain that functionality?  I do use the virtual EEPROM on my DIY boards, so I guess I'd have to dig deeper to understand how to customize.

The FPP manual is light in any description on eFuse use, but I presume that this is described in more detail with the user manual for the board it was intended for?

[dkulp]

If you define the efuse related pins in the strings config file, they should just work automatically.   The OutputManager would monitor them, report efuse warnings, etc...   The fuses would turn on/off with the outputs starting, etc...   

[Bwinter]

If you define the efuse related pins in the strings config file, they should just work automatically.  The OutputManager would monitor them, report efuse warnings, etc...  The fuses would turn on/off with the outputs starting, etc... 

Thanks--that sounds like what I'm searching for.  Regarding the "strings config file"...where/what is that?

[CaptainMurdoch]

GPIO-14 is more of a standard pin used for fan control, that's why it's hardcoded.  GPIO for efuse isn't a standard and there could be 2 per output for enable and monitoring, so it makes sense to let the cape decide the pins rather than hardcoding values.

The strings config file would be in the eeprom image.  A sample is at https://github.com/FalconChristmas/fpp/tree/master/docs/samples/eeproms/sample-pi-strings/strings

We need to get those updated to show examples for an efuse, but here is a short example from a Beagle cape:

		{
			"col" : 1,
			"currentSensor" : 
			{
				"path" : "/sys/bus/i2c/devices/2-0048/hwmon/hwmon0/in4_input",
				"scale" : 489.80000000000001
			},
			"eFuseInterruptPin" : "+P2-09",
			"eFusePin" : "!pca9675-12",
			"enablePin" : "!pca9675-2",
			"pin" : "P2-22",
			"row" : 1
		},

The col/row values are for the current monitor page.  pin is output pin.  The ! indicates whether the pin should be high (!) or low.  + or - indicates pullup or pulldown.  If you're building an eeprom, this is the way to go.