FPP stopped working after adding WLED player

[GR9]

Hello all!

This community was really helpful to me last year when I was just getting started will all of this stuff. I did not have a show this year as I never really had time to finalize anything, but hoping that will change for 2025.

Anyways, here is the relevant hardware:

- 500 bullet pixels
- Raspberry Pi 4b (Running FPP)
- WT32 ETH01 (Running WLED)

I initially had a single strand of all 500 pixels connected to GPIO 18 on the Pi, and had output configured as below:

(I also configured GPIO 19 to work with an additional 500 pixels, that's why there are two)

This worked perfectly fine with sequence files from xLights.

Now, I am looking into adding some fairy/seed pixels and want to control them with one controller and the existing bullet pixels with another.

So I got a WT32 ETH01 board, flashed WLED, and connected 50 bullet pixels to GPIO4. It took some messing around, but I got WLED working correctly, config below:



Now that WLED worked independently, and FPP controlled the 500 pixels on the Pi just fine, I wanted to add the WT32 as a remote player with FPP, keeping the 500 pixels on FPP, and 50 on WLED (To be changed later, I just wanted to get something working).

My testing setup is 50 bullet pixels plugged into GPIO 18 on the Pi, and 50 bullet pixels plugged into GPIO4 on the WT32.

In xLights, I configured the following:





However, clicking the "Output to Lights" button in xLights only turns on and runs the sequence on the pixels plugged into the WLED controller, not the pixels plugged into the Pi / FPP instance.

After running FPP connect, I get this warning:
Abnormal Conditions - May Cause Poor Performance
Received E1.31 data from 192.168.4.74
UDP Output set to send data to myself. Disabling 192.168.4.103

(*.74 is my Windows PC, *.103 is the static IP of the Pi / FPP)

And this is added in channel outputs:



After navigating to /testing.php and enabling testing for all devices, the following happens:

- The 50 pixels connected to the FPP / Pi work correctly
- The 50 pixels connected to the WT32 bug out and go crazy. Disabling test mode puts them back to their previous non-crazy state about half the time.

When I try to run a sequence that has both devices configured (The same sequence from earlier in the post where only the WLED pixels worked), the following happens:
- Pixels on Pi turn off completely
- Pixels on WLED glitch out

If I run a previously saved, working sequence on FPP, the lights on the pi also don't do anything and stay off.



So in summary:

I ...
- Had 500 pixels connected to GPIO18 on a Raspberry Pi 4b running FPP that worked fine
- Added a WT32 ETH01 device with 50 pixels connected to GPIO4 running WLED
- The pixels on the WT32 device work fine when controlled with WLED, and work fine when using xLight's "Output to Lights". They glitch out running FPP sequences and test mode.
- The pixels on the Pi worked perfectly before adding the WT32 device, but now only work in testing mode. they stay off for xLight's "Output to Lights" and FPP sequences (Even sequences that previously worked)


TL ; DR

It was working fine then I expanded it and messed it all up. help


I appreciate any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations. Please let me know if you want additional screenshots / information about something, I am still really new to this and don't have a 100% understanding of how it all works yet.

Thank you, and happy holidays!

 

[Notenoughlights]

I believe you need to configure some sort of hat, and not a sACN output for the pixels attached to the pi running fpp, it can't send data to itself

 

[GR9]

I believe you need to configure some sort of hat, and not a sACN output for the pixels attached to the pi running fpp, it can't send data to itself

It’s setup as a PiHat, and that worked before without any additional hardware. See the first screenshot. Is there something else I should disable / change to get that back to how it was before? The content in the first screenshot of the original post is still there in the FPP output settings.

Thank you

 

[Notenoughlights]

It’s setup as a PiHat, and that worked before without any additional hardware. See the first screenshot. Is there something else I should disable / change to get that back to how it was before? The content in the first screenshot of the original post is still there in the FPP output settings.

Thank you

In the Channel outputs, the one with the IP address that is pointing to the raspberry pi, disable that. You can't send data from the Pi to itself, you will need to configure the LED outputs/Pi hat with the start channels that are corresponding to those outputs instead of sending them as e1.31

 

[GR9]

I tried that, but now the pixels won't turn on at all, no matter what.

Even just plugging the string into WLED and trying to control it that way does absolutely nothing (FPP Pi unplugged, xLights computer shut down). I tried a 3.3v data line, 5v data line. data and power enter on the same side, string is WS2811 50 pixels long (Tried two 50pixel strings just in case I somehow broke the first). Putting a multimeter on the other end shows 12v is being passed through the string so I am assuming it is a data issue with something somewhere. I have not changed the WLED settings, port, board, etc, it just decided to not work at all today.

Unplugging WLED and plugging the pixels into the Pi running FPP and turning on test mode does nothing. One of the light strings turned all white once as I was messing with the wires (Took that as a good sign), but that's the only time they have lit up over the past 2 and a half hours.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Notenoughlights]

I tried that, but now the pixels won't turn on at all, no matter what.

Even just plugging the string into WLED and trying to control it that way does absolutely nothing (FPP Pi unplugged, xLights computer shut down). I tried a 3.3v data line, 5v data line. data and power enter on the same side, string is WS2811 50 pixels long (Tried two 50pixel strings just in case I somehow broke the first). Putting a multimeter on the other end shows 12v is being passed through the string so I am assuming it is a data issue with something somewhere. I have not changed the WLED settings, port, board, etc, it just decided to not work at all today.

Unplugging WLED and plugging the pixels into the Pi running FPP and turning on test mode does nothing. One of the light strings turned all white once as I was messing with the wires (Took that as a good sign), but that's the only time they have lit up over the past 2 and a half hours.

Any thoughts on this?

Has WLED been configured correctly, GPIO pin correct etc.

 

[GR9]

Has WLED been configured correctly, GPIO pin correct

Yes, I haven’t changed it from yesterday when it was working, and everything was unplugged overnight.

Using IO4 on the WT32 (Third from the top left), GPIO4 is set in WLED for a length of 50.

 

[Notenoughlights]

Yes, I haven’t changed it from yesterday when it was working, and everything was unplugged overnight.

Using IO4 on the WT32 (Third from the top left), GPIO4 is set in WLED for a length of 50.

LED's have been connected correct way around? Data in vs data out?

 

[GR9]

LED's have been connected correct way around? Data in vs data out

I have these 12v ones: https://amzn.to/4fAMdcZ

So only one data line. I have power going in on the two PI cables, and data going into the data line (middle white wire) on the same end of the string.

 

[Notenoughlights]

I have these 12v ones: https://amzn.to/4fAMdcZ

So only one data line. I have power going in on the two PI cables, and data going into the data line (middle white wire) on the same end of the string.

But, is the data line going in the right direction, addressable leds are directional, usually there's either a marking on the PCB, or an arrow DI = data in DO = data out, data should flow in the direction the arrow is pointing.

 

[GR9]

data should flow in the direction the arrow is pointing.

I was using it the same was I was yesterday, but tried it the other way to check, no chnage

 

[Notenoughlights]

I was using it the same was I was yesterday, but tried it the other way to check, no chnage

Could be the first led has died, tried bypassing/replacing/skipping it?

 

[GR9]

Could be the first led has died,

Thought of that, tried two different strings, neither works. I did get one string to light up all white (all pixels) as I was messing with the wires once, so I know that string does not have broken wires.

Both strings were also working perfectly fine yesterday, so I have no clue what happened.

 

[Notenoughlights]

Thought of that, tried two different strings, neither works. I did get one string to light up all white (all pixels) as I was messing with the wires once, so I know that string does not have broken wires.

Both strings were also working perfectly fine yesterday, so I have no clue what happened.

Have you got a photo handy of how you've got your test setup running, showing the wiring clearly?

 

[GR9]

Have you got a photo handy of how you've got your test setup running, showing the wiring clearly

Really hard to get good pictures, but let me know if you have questions:

Setup:


The PI lines (Individual red and blue cable) is connected to a 4A fuse going to 12v power source. Fuse is not broken, and power is working, as testing the other end of the strip with a multimeter shows 12v:



(Little hard to see, but I am using the PI cables on the other end of the strip to test DC voltage)

At the top, black is ground and white is data:



The terminal block the white one is on is linked to GPIO4

But just in case the PCB is the issue, I touched it directly:

(Third from top left, assuming the ethernet jack is the top center)


And my WLED setup:


I tested it by touching directly to GPIO 2, which is why that is also there



I also tried "Android" as that was a moving animation and worked yesterday (Just so there was constant data moving though, I'm not sure how often the line is refreshed with the Solid option).

Thank you so much for the help thus far, hopefully you can figure this out!