FPP timer continues, pixels freeze

[jaddink]

I'm running the following hardware:

• xLights 2025.08 (on Macbook Air)
• Raspberry Pi 5 with FPP v9.2 powered by the official Raspberry Pi power supply for the Pi 5
• Class 10 U3 256GB Samsun Micro SD Card
• Experience Lights Long Range Controller 2022 edition, firmware 1.4.5
• Experience Lights 4 port receivers (2 base models, 2 Genius Pros)
• RGBW seeds
• RGB seeds
• RGB C9s
• RGBW Floods
• RGB+UV Floods

Here's what's happening:

• When I output to lights from xLights, the sequence runs as expected, no problems
• When I render, save, FPP Connect & upload the sequences, then run the sequence from the FPP start menu, the sequence starts out ok and runs as expected for a few seconds, then the pixels freeze, maintaining whichever color and intensity they were on at the moment of freezing.  However, if I'm just looking at FPP, it appears the sequence is still progressing as expected.  The sequence isn't freezing in FPP.

Here's what I've done to address the problem:

• Reflashed the SD Card
• Tried a different SD Card (Class 10, U1 & Class 10 U3)
• Used a different Pi 5
• Used a Pi 4b
• Swapped out the Experience Lights Long Range 2022 edition for a 2023 edition
• Wired the Pi directly into the controller
• Swapped out the ethernet cable between the Pi & the controller
• tried a different Pi 5 power supply
• verified that both the controller & xLights have identical string properties, color orders, & channel numbers
• worked with the xLights Zoom Room volunteers to troubleshoot the system

The show worked last year.  The differences between this year and last year are: 

• Adding the RGBW Pixels
• adding 2 more receivers
• adding the floods
• updating FPP to 9.2
• updating the Genius firmware
• updating xLights

I'm in the process of completely rebuilding my layout from scratch thinking that I might have done something wrong, but I'm not sure that there's much going on there.  We'll see when I'm finished.

Has anyone run into anything similar, and found a solution?  I'm kind of at my wit's end and am at the point of throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

[AAH]

As a first stage I would grab another SD card and flash 8.4 or 8.5 onto it and see if the problem exists on the older version. If it does then maybe start looking further into your layout. If the problem goes away then maybe start looking at, or uploading, the logs from 9.2 so that a problem can be identified.

[jaddink]

I forgot to mention that I had installed 8.5 on the Pi 4, so going with an earlier FPP version didn't fix the problem either.

[AAH]

Can you try a test from the built in test in FPP? If everything works there then it's looking like it could be an issue with your fseq files. Either Xlights isn't sending the right stuff to FPP or there is an issue with the FSEQ playback.
Is it all sequences that do it?
Can you try changing the FSEQ format from V2 to V1 or fiddling with the options to see if there is a problem with a specific format?

[JonD]

It seems like I have seen this issue prior, but it could be unrealated.  Does it impact all of your sequences, or just some of them?  You might try playing basic patterns and see if it happens on those as well.  

[jaddink]

It impacts all sequences.  I've run basic effects, rainbow effects, on effects with sine waves, they all seem to have the same issue.

[jaddink]

I ran a test directly from FPP, letting it play for a while, and it didn't appear to freeze.  I did play with the v1/v2 settings and while the freezing seemed to have stopped, it caused other problems.  The sequence would start quickly, and then do something that hadn't been programmed.  Usually some sort of twinkle.

[Poporacer]

I ran a test directly from FPP, letting it play for a while, and it didn't appear to freeze.  I did play with the v1/v2 settings and while the freezing seemed to have stopped, it caused other problems.  The sequence would start quickly, and then do something that hadn't been programmed.  Usually some sort of twinkle.

Are you running the Genius in Remote/MultiSync mode?

[jaddink]

Ive been running in Multisync mode.

[Poporacer]

The Genius needs to have the files rendered as a V1 version. You need to use that first and then resolve the subsequent issues.

[jaddink]

I tried v1, and the result was that the lights flashed the correct color for a split second, and then did a rainbow twinkle effect on all pixels.  I have no idea what would cause that.