Unable to get Pihat to output to DMX

[danielr]

Hi all,

I got a Falcon pihat and Pi3B+ to mess around MHs with. Admittedly I have no experience at all with a Pi or the hat. I've watched all the videos there are and every post on the Pihat forum here but I can't seem to output from the Pihat from xlights or FPP.

I have attached the settings I have from Xlights and FPP and also a picture of the Pi. I have tried commands from xlights (with output to lights on) and also a sequence from FPP. 

I have a usb power supply (5v 2.5-3amp) connected to the Pi. I am powering the hat from the Pi. I think I have the jumpers set correctly - middle pins for the 5v and I have taken off the last jumper for the hat to be powered off the Pi (is that correct?). I also have the 3 jumpers for DMX.

I confirmed on the MH that it is set to Ch1 and I have the DMX cable going to an adapter for RJ45 and then cat 5 to the hat. I have used this adapter with my kulp boards and the MHs worked. The only difference is with the kulps I had to strip one end of the CAT 5 to put into the ttys1 on the cape.

My thoughts are that perhaps it has something to do with either the dmx/adapter pins/cat5 or the hat isn't getting enough power to power the dmx chip on the hat or have I just completely missed something on the xlights setup? 

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I will try jump in zoom later in the week if I can but wanted to try here first. Thank you

[jnealand]

I recently did a bunch of testing on DMX, but I found it easiest to use the display testing.  One thing I did not see in your pictures is the channel outputs for the DMX which is set up under the other tab.

[darylc]

@danielr Try increasing your channel count from 64 to 512 on the DMX port.

I seem to remember this being a problem for some people at one point.

[bloojoop]

looks like the cape is not getting any power?  if you are only connecting one power connector (either the pi or the hat) and intend to power both, the jumper for powering the pi needs to be on.. the only time it would need to be removed is if you are powering both the pi and the hat separately.  The hat needs power for the rs485 output driver. 

[danielr]

Hi Jnealannd it is there titled FPP channel outputs DMX. It is set to DMX open and TTYSAMM0.

Thanks Darly I will try that as well.

I was thinking along the same lines as you Ron that it is a power issue. I have the power jumper off as I had read the below from the manual regarding "Jumper On". It says not to plug the USB cable in so I thought the jumper needs to be taken off. Should I put it back on with the below statement? Thanks again.

The Pi will receive power directly from the power source connected to the PiCap or via the onboard power supply depending on the power selection. Important - Do not power Pi from any other sources; do not plug the USB cable in.

[bloojoop]

"Normally" everything is powered by the power supply connected to the cape and NOT through the USB on the pi.  

[danielr]

Thanks Ron, replacing the jump back in did the trick.