Beagle bone use

John Rusch

New elf
Joined
Mar 6, 2018
Messages
9
I am building a tune to sign. I think I am good with the building of the box and the simple wiring required but I am lost on how to get from xlights to the p5 panels. I have a brand new Beagle Bone Black, octoscrolla with real time clock, and I have my panels and power supply. Can someone direct me to a tutorial on how to load the software from xlights to the BBB.
 

spazmanaught

Apprentice elf
Joined
Dec 17, 2015
Messages
61
Location
Gledswood Hills
I'm looking to do this as well. I have some P10 panels and have a few gifs and rolling words etc but wasn't sure how to get it to integrate with xLights.

What is the standard or best beagle bone I should look at getting?
 

orchidman33

Full time elf
Joined
Jan 14, 2019
Messages
116
I have been playing around with this earlier this year and have a Beagle Bone Black with the Octi scrolla and also a Beagle Bone Black Wireless with The octoscrolla With The BBB unfortunitly you only get one means of network connection iether wifi or ethernet unlike the Raspberry Pi which has both.
I personally have gone for the ethernet form BeagleBone Black with the use of a small ethernet switch back at the master which is a Pi . If you are good at setting up an access point on the master FPP then you would be able to control your display using the BBB Wireless version.

I myself this year have settled on having my tune to sign as a stand alone, so have set it up to be controlled directly on my home network, but that is only to adjust any of the program that it is running. In this situation I am not using the schedular that is in Xlights
 

John Rusch

New elf
Joined
Mar 6, 2018
Messages
9
This video may be helpful he describes I think about half way through on how to install FPP on a Beagle Bone which is the process you need to use.
Note this is a 2019 video and the FPP version used may be updated but the process is similar


View: https://youtu.be/tUwhX3iAXM8

Thanks for the reply. I watched the video again (i saw it last year) and feel a little better than I did but still am lost. Let me know if what I want to do is possible. I want to run the sign as a stand alone prop with just an AC power in cord which I may turn on and off or just leave it running 24-7, and no network cable. Would the sequences be on the SD card or a USB stick? If i turn off the power will the BBB start up with power up? Will my plan even work. How would I schedule it or make it run in a loop. I am pretty new to all this. My display covers a large area and i think the sign will be too far from my house to run a network cable.
 

spazmanaught

Apprentice elf
Joined
Dec 17, 2015
Messages
61
Location
Gledswood Hills
Thanks for the reply. I watched the video again (i saw it last year) and feel a little better than I did but still am lost. Let me know if what I want to do is possible. I want to run the sign as a stand alone prop with just an AC power in cord which I may turn on and off or just leave it running 24-7, and no network cable. Would the sequences be on the SD card or a USB stick? If i turn off the power will the BBB start up with power up? Will my plan even work. How would I schedule it or make it run in a loop. I am pretty new to all this. My display covers a large area and i think the sign will be too far from my house to run a network cable.

As I'm really new to this when I bought my panels I picked up this:


It came with software that allows you to load up either via network or USB a set of files and it plays on a loop. Mine currently has fireworks->rolling text->tune in->text->dancing santa ->repeat. So far I haven't done much more with it as I have been looking at my display. Eventually I'll try to get xLights to talk to it but as I can get it to say 'Tune In' now I'm happy to put it on the 2021 list :)
 

djgra79

My name is Graham & I love flashing lights!
Global moderator
Generous elf
Joined
Dec 27, 2011
Messages
2,161
Location
Cranbourne West
Thanks for the reply. I watched the video again (i saw it last year) and feel a little better than I did but still am lost. Let me know if what I want to do is possible. I want to run the sign as a stand alone prop with just an AC power in cord which I may turn on and off or just leave it running 24-7, and no network cable. Would the sequences be on the SD card or a USB stick? If i turn off the power will the BBB start up with power up? Will my plan even work. How would I schedule it or make it run in a loop. I am pretty new to all this. My display covers a large area and i think the sign will be too far from my house to run a network cable.
Yes you can set up FPP to play your sequence(s) once you apply the power and it can loop as long as you want it to. If you have a large enough SD card the data can be stored there no issue.
 

John Rusch

New elf
Joined
Mar 6, 2018
Messages
9
i am just getting back to this. i added a Falcon F4v3 to my sign to control 1 string of 5vdc pixels. When I connect everything the way I think it should be my panels still work but I have no output to the string of pixels. The pixels work in test mode of the F4v3 and I had them working in xlights but when I had them running directly to the controller and not through the BBB. I think everything will work but I my set up is wrong in xlights, the BBB, and the F4v3. I have tried a bunch of different combinations but nothing seems to work. When I try to test from FPP I get nothing on the lights. I have 2 sets of 2 P5 panels hooked to the octoscrola which I think should be 24576 channels. I did set up with 50 universes in xlights to start. Now I am lost of what to try next. I am still pretty new to this and the controller set up still confuses me. Please help
 
This thread is very old. An answer might not be needed anymore.
Top