FPP on a Pi vs xSequence on a PC vs inbuilt fpp

[DarkwinX]

Hey all,

Organising some show bits for this year and wanted to start out by replacing the brains of the show.

I was tossing up between a Pi or an x86 PC like the Zimaboard running xSchedule and OneDrive.

Last year I had some issues with xSchedule automatically playing my shows which @merryoncherry sorted out by committing a code change (it was mostly fixed).

The other alternative is to use the in-built player on the F48 board but I can't find any documentation on this at all and I'd need to get an audio output for it.

As I understand it, using a PI allows for alot of customisation using the GPIO headers but I'm not sure what other benefits there are. Any input or links to threads would be appreciated!

Oh and I'd also want to stick the PI or Zimaboard in a case and mount it on the wall with the other gear.

 

[AAH]

I'd go with a Pi running FPP pretty near every time.

 

[DarkwinX]

I'd go with a Pi running FPP pretty near every time.

Seems like you also have some 3B+s in stock. I'm in no rush and can wait for the 4s but any reason one would be better than the other? Size of show?

And I guess if it ever got big and complex enough I could have multiple running in master slave?

 

[dkulp]

From an FPP/show standpoint, the only major difference between the 3B+ and 4 would be that the gigabit ethernet on the 4 is actually connected via PCIe instead of USB. Thus, it actually runs at a real gigabit instead of about 400Mb. For MOST people's show, that would have no impact. If your show grows to where you need to send well over a million channels of DDP out, that could make a difference. However, as you said, if it grows that big, going to master/remote setups would be a better option anyway.

 

[AAH]

Seems like you also have some 3B+s in stock. I'm in no rush and can wait for the 4s but any reason one would be better than the other? Size of show?

And I guess if it ever got big and complex enough I could have multiple running in master slave?

I try not to stock the 4's as they run too hot for my liking. In Aus during summer/Christmas they just about have to have heatsinks on them to keep the temperature to a respectable level.
Image below is from https://www.martinrowan.co.uk/2019/07/raspberry-pi-4-power-temperature-at-idle/

 

[merryoncherry]

All good options that can be made to work.

The network topology I set for myself makes xSchedule the best for me, so, yeah, I continue to beat on xSchedule this year... finally have the core of an automated testing regimen and a dry run working so that when bugs get fixed I can show they stay fixed, and sort of see whether the thing will do what I want it to do come 12/31 23:59:00, etc.

 

[Katekate]

if you are going to buy something, you might as well go FPP. I think xschedule is only worth it if you have an old windows machine you can reuse.

 

[DarkwinX]

All good options that can be made to work.

The network topology I set for myself makes xSchedule the best for me, so, yeah, I continue to beat on xSchedule this year... finally have the core of an automated testing regimen and a dry run working so that when bugs get fixed I can show they stay fixed, and sort of see whether the thing will do what I want it to do come 12/31 23:59:00, etc.

Interested to understand what about your network topology makes this your choice.

Thanks all - I am leaning toward the 3 especially considering the heat from the 4s that @AAH mentioned.

 

[AAH]

if you are going to buy something, you might as well go FPP. I think xschedule is only worth it if you have an old windows machine you can reuse.

Xscheduler has some highly interactive stuff built into it. For a basic show player I don't reckon you can beat FPP. If you want interactivity then that is where you need to look at whether FPP or Xsheduler is the way to go. Keith did a talk at the Melbourne mini pre covid and it has some features that at the time weren't available in FPP.

 

[DarkwinX]

I guess as long as I can can run the show + music via 3.5mm in a self contained unit that's all I probably need for now. I'll have a hunt around for that Melbourne mini vid to try get an idea of some of the things xSchedule offers that FPP doesn't or didn't at the time.

 

[merryoncherry]

I'll be honest, xSchedule has all kinds of stuff in it, but when you use it you feel like you're the first person ever to try it out for real, certainly the first person in a while... lots of bugs.

 

[dkulp]

From an interactivity standpoint, FPP became equivalent to xSchedule around FPP4 timeframe but has definitely pulled ahead now. With all the various plugins for FPP, there is very very little that xSchedule can do that FPP cannot, but there are certainly a lot of things that FPP can do that are significantly harder to do with xSchedule, if they can be done at all. That said, quite a lot of it is via FPP plugins so "FPP" cannot do it out of the box, but that's exactly how it was designed.