FPP running E1.31 and Renard Dimmer Protocol?

[11Bravo]

Before getting into Raspberry Pi and FPP I had the impression that I could do E1.31 protocol with, pixel controller E682 and Renard protocol all in the same sequence.

I don't see a Renard plugin in the FPP setup, so can it be done some how?

[David Pitts]

In the configure output section is where you set it up. The options will only show up if you have a DMX dongle, open or pro or a serial converter plugged in to USB port.

[JonB256]

Good practice is to shutdown the FP before connecting a new USB device. The Pi B will reboot if you don't. The Pi B+ might not reboot but it also might not show your device in the menus.

[CaptainMurdoch]

The device list is retrieve at page load time, so if a dongle can be hot-plugged then it should show up if you refresh the page.

This is the second time we have had someone get confused by the fact that the output options are only available if a device is attached, so I am thinking about how to get around this.  I could easily bypass the code that checks to see if a dongle is attached, but then the user might pick the wrong serial port.  The serial ports device entries are created on-demand, so we would have to list out several possible options and hope the user picked the right one.  Right now we only list the available devices so if there is only one available it is hard to pick the wrong one.   I'm wondering if having a note at the bottom of the page would help, or perhaps just list Renard, DMX, etc. in the dropdown but popup a warning if the user tries to select one of them if there are no serial dongles attached.  I think that would be easier to implement and would mean we can still keep around the serial device logic to only show valid devices.  I added a note to my TODO to look at this option.

[David Pitts]

My vote would be somehow to let them know USB is possible but have the UI disabled or grayed-out unless they have one connected. Then a note somewhere to let them no it can be configured if they connect one.

[CaptainMurdoch]

I could look at having two 'add' buttons, one for adding a SPI output and one for USB.  If no dongles were found the USB one would be greyed out. Ditto for the SPI one when no spidev devices were found which would normally only occur when developing on another computer.  If we get to the point where we can detect a dumb dongle vs a smart dongle via their USB ID's we could have a popup if the user selects a dingle that won't work for their use. For example trying to use a winchip serial dongle for DMX Open or PixelNet Open when only FTDI dongles will work due to the custom speed requirements.

[smeighan]

My vote would be somehow to let them know USB is possible but have the UI disabled or grayed-out unless they have one connected. Then a note somewhere to let them no it can be configured if they connect one.

+1 to show entire list and gray out any that dont apply.

In xlights Mat gave every USB device and when you pick one he gave a long list of COM ports and baud rates. I think people are probably used to this kind of display from the sequencers they are using now.

[David Pitts]

As far as serial ports no need to show the ones that are not there. That is detectable. I think people just did not see ability to setup up Renard or serial.

[CaptainMurdoch]

As far as serial ports no need to show the ones that are not there. That is detectable. I think people just did not see ability to setup up Renard or serial.

Right now it does not show outputs requiring a serial interface if there are none detected.

Quick poll on what people thinks makes more sense....

1) list all channel output types in the dropdown and if the user picks one that doesn't have the required hardware installed then we popup an alert telling them that they can't use that output type.

OR

2) have 2 'add' buttons for "Add SPI" and "Add (USB) Serial".  If the required hardware was not present, the appropriate button(s) would be disabled.

#1 gets across the fact that we support DMX Pro, DMX Open, PIxelnet Lynx, Pixelnet Open, Renard, but #2 doesn't unless we have 5 buttons for each of those types.  That is why I was leaning towards #1 because it shows them the options we support and notifies them if they don't have the required hardware installed.  We could do #2 but have the buttons enabled and popup a box telling them there are no serial ports detected if they click the add serial button, but I don't know if that is explanatory enough unless we also list the types there.  I think I still lean towards #1 because it shows the full list in the dropdown.  We can also put a note on the help page and/or at the bottom of the screen.

[David Pitts]

I vote for #1. But no long list of comports only the ones detected.

[CaptainMurdoch]

I vote for #1. But no long list of comports only the ones detected.

OK, voting is now closed...    Sounds like we are on the same page.

I wouldn't touch the comport list code at all, just the if statement that adds the items to the dropdown and the onChange event for the dropdown.

With the way I have it planned, the user wouldn't see the comport list because the system would alert them that there are none available.  I can also use the same onChange script to check when you try to add a new channel output when all available comports are in use already.  Ie, if you only have one dongle and you go to try to add a second DMX output.  That is simple the way I have it planned.  "If # of ports available == 0 then show popup alert"    That will work for the case of 0 ports total and X ports total where all X are in use already.