FPP and GPIO “hack”?

techykermit

New elf
Joined
Aug 15, 2020
Messages
2
Hi everyone,

I’m new to Falcon Pi Player, and still planning my light show for this year. Therefore is this a more theoretical question related to the wiring of my show and how it integrates with FPP. Last year, we started the project with 10 outlets that are wired to two 8-channel relays (not SSDs at the moment). They interfere directly via the GPIO pins in the Raspberry Pi (turns on if the gpio is 1, and off if the gpio is 0). When we started, we used an automatic software called LightShowPi, and used a “hack” (or maybe you should call it remapping) of the pins to be able to control the relays without a port expander, since it didn’t work properly for me.

I used a configuration described in this post:
View: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightShowPi/comments/ds1wqj/mcp23017_not_working/f6ozl4v?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x
.

LightshowPi used WiringPi, and I haven’t really dived deep into all the settings of FPP (yet). But in case someone has experience or know if this can work, a confirmation would be highly appreciate. The same goes for if the config does not work. I have an MCP23017 lying around in case I need it.

Thanks
 

AAH

I love blinky lights :)
Community project designer
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
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Eaglehawk
Welcome to ACL
What are you trying to do?
It sounds like you are wanting to transition from LightshowPi to Falcon Player (FPP) and just use digitally controlled relays for controlling some lights. FPP certainly allows you to control the IO's but creating a port expander to go beyond the easily accessible number may make things more complicated. How many relays are you actually wanting to control?
 

techykermit

New elf
Joined
Aug 15, 2020
Messages
2
Welcome to ACL
What are you trying to do?
It sounds like you are wanting to transition from LightshowPi to Falcon Player (FPP) and just use digitally controlled relays for controlling some lights. FPP certainly allows you to control the IO's but creating a port expander to go beyond the easily accessible number may make things more complicated. How many relays are you actually wanting to control?
Hi and thanks for the welcome!

It sounds like you are wanting to transition from LightshowPi to Falcon Player (FPP) and just use digitally controlled relays for controlling some lights.
That is correct. Haven't dived into individually addressable RGBs yet, that will be something for the future. What my question was specifically about was not whether I could use relays or not - I know that FPP has GPIO out support. However, I have 16 relays, and last year when I was using LightShowPi, I took advantage of a "hack"/remapping trick for the wiring of the relay board, so that I wouldn't have to use a port expander.

The wiring trick is explained in the link to a reddit thread in the top post, and I was wondering if I can use the same setup with FPP?

For the amount of relays, its 2 generic relay boards with 8 relays each and one GPIO output for each relay. So, 16 output pins.
 

Charles3287

New elf
Joined
Oct 1, 2020
Messages
1
Hi Alan and everyone

I am working on a project with real arcade big buttons that lite when enabled and goes off when are disabled. To do so, I want to trigger the relays on my PiFace interface with the (FPP command > Run script) inside a playlist.
This is the Python code inside my scripts (PiFace.py) below.

_________________________________________
#! /usr/share/python3

#Just a test to see if it's working!
print('Hello World!')

#Code for triggering a relay on PiFace
import pifacedigitalio
pfd = pifacedigitalio.PiFaceDigital()
pfd.output_pins[0].value = 1
_________________________________________

This code is perfectly working inside the FPP SSH shell command line, my relays and LED trigs.
___________________________________________
fpp@FPP:~/media/scripts $ python3 PiFace.py
Hello World!
fpp@FPP:~/media/scripts $
___________________________________________

But if I try to RUN it from the FPP Scripts (.sh/.pl/.pm/.php/.py) > RUN PiFace.py it doesn't work, the relays stay quiet.

______________________
FPP Event Script
Running PiFace.py
Hello World!
_____________________

Did I miss something?
 

drw3

New elf
Joined
Nov 30, 2020
Messages
1
Hi and thanks for the welcome!


That is correct. Haven't dived into individually addressable RGBs yet, that will be something for the future. What my question was specifically about was not whether I could use relays or not - I know that FPP has GPIO out support. However, I have 16 relays, and last year when I was using LightShowPi, I took advantage of a "hack"/remapping trick for the wiring of the relay board, so that I wouldn't have to use a port expander.

The wiring trick is explained in the link to a reddit thread in the top post, and I was wondering if I can use the same setup with FPP?

For the amount of relays, its 2 generic relay boards with 8 relays each and one GPIO output for each relay. So, 16 output pins.
Hi and thanks for the welcome!


That is correct. Haven't dived into individually addressable RGBs yet, that will be something for the future. What my question was specifically about was not whether I could use relays or not - I know that FPP has GPIO out support. However, I have 16 relays, and last year when I was using LightShowPi, I took advantage of a "hack"/remapping trick for the wiring of the relay board, so that I wouldn't have to use a port expander.

The wiring trick is explained in the link to a reddit thread in the top post, and I was wondering if I can use the same setup with FPP?

For the amount of relays, its 2 generic relay boards with 8 relays each and one GPIO output for each relay. So, 16 output pins.


Techkermit- were you able to figure it out? I have a Raspberry Pi with FPP and 2 SainSmart 8 Relays (16 relays in total). and using Xlight to do the sequence... FPP uploaded.. but now the Relays don't switch to the upload... The RPi audio out works, but no switching. Thanks!
 
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