FPP Freeze Monitor

[robbiet]

Every couple days during the season I usually have FPP lock up on me and I need to disconnect/reconnect power to force a reboot. It has done this for years so not sure if this is normal.  (I'm running 7.3 on a pi 3b+) It's not an issue when I'm around but it is a bummer if I'm gone for the evening and come home to a locked/frozen show.  Probably disappointed some kiddos.

I currently use home assistant to get MQTT messages from FPP to trigger automations for powering up and down my show using smart plugs.

I'm wondering if I can also monitor the state of FPP to know when it freezes up so I can toggle power on the FPP to force a reboot. Is there some kind of "heartbeat" message from FPP that I can monitor and then reboot if it stops sending? ...or is there a better solution?

Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CaptainMurdoch]

The solution would be to fix the problem whatever it is, but since you know that already.... 

There is a FPP integration for HA that exposes FPP as a Media Player in HA.  I use it to stop the playlist on my living room FPP-based Picture Frame when we leave the house.  You might be able to use the status information from the integration to monitor if FPP stops responding and reboot.

I think I manually installed from https://github.com/Aleks130699/ha-fpp but it is also available via HACS.  Search for Falcon in HACS and it should show up.

[k6ccc]

Another possibility.  Does the FPP instance respond to ping when it is locked up?  If pings fail, can you trigger something based on the ping failure?  I can do that via my router, but I'm not using a consumer router.  Most consumer routers can't execute scripts...

[robbiet]

I do like the "fix the problem" approach. I'm not sure if it is the Pi or the SD card but I have used both for the last 5 years. That said, I think I have pretty much always had this problem regardless of what version of FPP I'm running. Feels like a hardware issue to be resolved in the offseason. The issue is so sporadic that it is hard to test.

Regarding ping, that is interesting. I need to look into that. I don't have a fancy ubiquity network or anything (yet) so I'll have to check my options. Maybe I can ping from home assistant somehow and then run an automation to reboot.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[robbiet]

Looks like it is possible to ping from home assistant. Will dig further and also need to see if that ping test fails during the next freeze.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Poporacer]

There is the FPPMon app that might help you out? 
FPPMon – Kulp Lights LLC

[robbiet]

Yes. That is handy to look at the current status but it doesn't provide any alert or reboot options when FPP locks up.

I was able to use the ping method mentioned above to create an automation to power cycle the pi if it becomes unresponsive. I have it set up to ping FPP's IP address every 15 seconds. If it remains unresponsive for 30 seconds then I trigger the reboot. It just ran for the first time tonight when the show froze.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Poporacer]

Yes. That is handy to look at the current status but it doesn't provide any alert or reboot options when FPP locks up.

FPPMon does provide alerts on issues, it can send you a text message when things go awry.

[robbiet]

Oh. Ok. Good to know. I'll check that out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[aggieNick02]

Yes. That is handy to look at the current status but it doesn't provide any alert or reboot options when FPP locks up.

FPPMon does provide alerts on issues, it can send you a text message when things go awry.

I'm a bit confused... is there functionality not yet implemented in the Android app?

There's nothing there I can find to configure an alert. And the app doesn't do anything (just says "Searching for FPP instances") when it's not on the same network, even with the plugin running and being logged into both the app and plugin.

The only time the app is functional is when on the same network, and then it shows a thumbnail view of what the FPP is doing. Tapping it takes me to the same UI I'd get with a web browser.

My mistake and apologies - my cell data was just too awful for the app to load. I actually can fully control the fpp while on a different network, which is slick. But also a little scary . I still can't figure out how to get an alert, though.

[jtrpop]

The solution would be to fix the problem whatever it is, but since you know that already.... 

There is a FPP integration for HA that exposes FPP as a Media Player in HA.  I use it to stop the playlist on my living room FPP-based Picture Frame when we leave the house.  You might be able to use the status information from the integration to monitor if FPP stops responding and reboot.

I think I manually installed from https://github.com/Aleks130699/ha-fpp but it is also available via HACS.  Search for Falcon in HACS and it should show up.

Living room FPP based picture frame with Home Assistant? I'm curious about your setup.

[CaptainMurdoch]

Living room FPP based picture frame with Home Assistant? I'm curious about your setup.

I use FPP as a picture frame, running 15-16 hours a day in my living room.  It runs a playlist displaying random images from two different alternating directories.  I added a plugin to FPP's plugin list recently which helps set this up including fetching new images from an IMAP mailbox to allow sending images to the frame from anywhere.  I have a FPP integration installed in HA which treats FPP as a media player, so HA can stop the picture frame playlist (which turns off the monitor via the LeadOut) whenever we leave the house.  I need to start a new thread about it  with a writeup since I just built a couple more of these for relatives.  It's a perfect use for old hardware and a lot bigger and cheaper than the store-bought digital frames.  I opened a new post in another browser tab, so will try to get some more info and pics/screenshots posted soon.

[jtrpop]

Oh yes! Please startup a new thread on this! I'm very interested. Use Home Assistant as well, but I'm looking for a better picture frame solution. All these could based ones have their own proprietary limitations. Best I've found so far is Roku Photo Streams, can also now pull from Google Photos. Can FPP pull from other locations like Google Photos as well as local directory? I'd also like to build them for relatives. Don't want to hijack a thread, so you don't have to respond here. Want to hear more about your screen, frame, hardware (Pi ZeroW?). Sounds like a really neat use of FPP!