FPP stopped working after adding WLED player

I just went to turn the lights off after sending that last post, and they lit up as I disconnected the power. I wanted to try and get a video of it, so here is the power setup:

Smart plug with a physical power button is connected to the 12v power supply. I am pressing the button on the smart plug to turn it on/off.

Turning the power on again to get a video, the first few lights turned on (This did not happen earlier). The first video starts with the lights on, and then I cut power (You see them all flash on then off). I then turn it back one (One pixel turns on) and off (All flash):


View: https://youtube.com/shorts/8JvIwjc2t5s?feature=share


Then I moved the lights to try and get them all in the frame, but they no longer turned on when I turned the power supply on. However, they did still do the light up thing on power-off, so here's that video:


View: https://youtube.com/shorts/LT-uhkMR7p8?feature=share


I feel like this indicates something, but I have no clue what (Or for that matter what I should google to see if it does in fact indicate something).

Thanks again for the help!
 
Notenoughlights said:
Are you using two power supplies, one on the ESP32, and one on the leds? Do you have a common ground link between the two? Without one, there is no return path for the "data voltage"
Click to expand...
Yes. The PI connectors (That the fuse is on) has both the 12v line and a ground line going to the PSU. The ESP is powered via USB on my laptop, the black wire on the terminal block is a ground.

Although one of the grounding circuits could be broken, I will add another ground wire from the ESP back to the power supply just to make sure and let you know if that makes a difference.
 
Notenoughlights said:
Do you have a common ground link between the two?
Click to expand...
I do. Put the multimeter in resistance mode and tested ground between the ESP and the PSU, Pi and PSU, ESP and Pi, Pixel and PSU, Pixel and ESP, etc..., all had between 1-14 ohms resistance.

I also tried adding a second string (100 pixels total) and have power at both ends, data from ESP on one end. Interestingly, when I cut power, only the first string flashes like the video here (
View: https://youtu.be/LT-uhkMR7p8
), the second string does not (Yes, still common ground between the strings).

Even when feeding power and data from two different ends, only the string on the data side has the power-off effect:

POWER IN ---- String #2 ---- String #1 ---- DATA IN

Only String #1 has effect

if I do:

POWER IN ---- String #2 ---- String #1 ---- DATA IN & POWER IN

Only String #1 has effect


If I plug the Raspberry Pi running FPP as the data provider (Instead of the ESP running WLED as previously), the power off effect no longer happens, but the lights also don't work (Still common ground).


Changing the data provider back to the ESP, the power off effect still shows only on string #1


At this point I have absolutely no clue what is going on, so thank you for the help! Do let me know if you want more pictures / have another suggestion of something to test.
 
Notenoughlights said:
14 ohms is pretty high for a common ground, any way you can add a better connection there?
Click to expand...
Heck even 1 ohm is high, that's a volt of loss at only one amp flowing.
Sounds to me that the 14 ohm is a red herring and it's actually flowing through some of the electronic equipment, rather than being direct.
 
Skymaster said:
Heck even 1 ohm is high, that's a volt of loss at only one amp flowing.
Sounds to me that the 14 ohm is a red herring and it's actually flowing through some of the electronic equipment, rather than being direct.
Click to expand...
Got it down to between .5 and 2. I also don't think the multimeter I have is the most accurate thing in the world, it was really cheap and does not feel high-quality.

Also, the flash that I recorded and posted above only happens if the pixels are connected to the WLED controller. If they are connected to the Pi or nothing, the flash does not happen.

Thanks again!
 
So currently you're at a stage where the lights flash if you turn them on/off but then do nothing?

Have you:

Disabled FPP's output to itself in the channel outputs page as shown below in the image, also change universe priority to 1
ul6H5XW.png



Confirmed with WLED that you're not receiving data (WLED isn't in live mode) when testing the leds, if it's in live mode and you're telling the leds to be off, I'd be expecting the leds to be off, you need to stop sending data to WLED (Turn off FPP/xlights) and load the wled control interface and switch to a couple of effects to verify.

Can you send a screenshot of the sync interfaces page on WLED, as you're saying the leds stay off even when sending from xlights/fpp (the settings shown in the image are going to be different from what you should be using)
RrZSs94.png
 
Notenoughlights said:
So currently you're at a stage where the lights flash if you turn them on/off but then do nothing?
Click to expand...
Only when turning off, and only when connected to the WLED controller.

To recap (It's been a confusing topic lol):

When lights are connected to FPP / Raspberry Pi 4b, they don't turn on at all. Not when plugged in, not when testing mode is on, not when power is cut. Does not matter if WLED device is on or off.

When lights are connected to WLED, they only do the flash when power is cut (And it only seems to be the pixel string closest to the controller, see video above). Does not matter if FPP device is on or off.


FPP Screenshots:

1735605532018.png

1735605556661.png

1735605623411.png


WLED screenshots:

1735605676907.png

1735605731132.png


xLights is not running on the PC it is installed on (Does not appear when searching for it in task manager). Lights also don't work if the xLights PC is powered down.

Lights also don't work if FPP is unplugged, xLights is not running, and lights are plugged into WLED (The flash will always happen if the lights are plugged into WLED when the power is cut to the PSU).

Let me know if the screenshots are missing something / uploaded too low of quality.

Thank you!
 
Do you have 1000 leds connected to the Pi, currently you are showing 500 on output 1 and 500 on output 2 of the pi.

Output settings for FPP for WLED_1 try set the drop down menu under "Output type" to DDP - raw channel numbers not DDP - one based, and then in the wled sync-interfaces setting set your DMX start address to 151
 
Notenoughlights said:
o you have 1000 leds connected to the Pi, currently you are showing 500 on output 1 and 500 on output 2 of the pi.
Click to expand...
No, I have 50 there now. Have it set to 500 as that was what was there before. It did not make a difference when it was working, but changed it, unfortunately no effect.

1735606580830.png
1735606748034.png
1735606708417.png

Changing those settings does bring back this screen on WLED:

1735606829798.png

But the lights don't do anything even when FPP is in test mode. Still nothing when disabling FPP test mode and controlling in WLED either. Even touching the lights data line directly to IO2 on the ESP does nothing.

Connecting the pixels back to FPP and turning on test mode also does nothing.
 
Do you have a way to verify your leds are actually still working and responding to data? A test controller etc. Test mode should be sending data to all channels (so long as you've told it to)

Just noticed that you've set your source to WLAN 0. is your FPP connected via Wifi, or hardwired. Ideally it should be hardwired.
 
Notenoughlights said:
Do you have a way to verify your leds are actually still working and responding to data?
Click to expand...

Unless there is a way to do it without a WLED / FPP controller, no. The ESP32 and Pi 4b are the only two controllers I have.

With the test mode in FPP, I tried all the options in the dropdown (All channels, all local channels, WLED_1, etc), no change.

Notenoughlights said:
is your FPP connected via Wifi, or hardwired
Click to expand...
WiFi right now, wanted to make sure it worked before using ethernet. I also don't have an extra ethernet cable right now, I am waiting for one to come in.
 
These?

1735607889574.png

Sorry, not quite sure what you mean by "mess it up".

I can reinstall WLED if you think that might help
 
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