Hanson RPi-28D+ upgrade probs with FPP6

[Gerald]

Hi
A new year and new problems, I am having various troubles with upgading to FPP 6 , specifically with my Hanson cape ( which worked fantastically last year running my mega tree )
The problem is I cannot seem to get FPP to accept the Virtual firmware to then allow me to insert my signing details, I have followed the process using information gathered from the web to no avail' I have attached some screenshots of errors which may have a bearing on this as one of them states a mismatched eeprom ??
I also have one regarding "pin configuration" which also baffles me, I assume I must be doing something wrong but am now at a loss as to where to go next.

An e mail has also been sent to the support dept at FPP and await hopefully their reply regarding this

As always I hope that someone out here who knows a great deal more than me can help an old timer out
Thanks
Gerald

 

[Skymaster]

So the mismatched header EEPROM isn't too bad because it means that the physical EEPROM does not have the correct data, but then it goes to show that it's using the virtual on-disk eeprom.

If you got to Help -> Cape Info
What do the various pages in there show after a reboot?

 

[Gerald]

HI
The page requests an eeprom install to which I download the rpi file and then the second screenshot shows thge Hanson splash screen, however on re booting it goes back to the original screen requesting an upgrade to the firmware

 

[AAH]

I haven't got a board set up at the moment but if you go to the input/output setup and under the output setup can you change to the rpi-28D+ there and save the cape type which should "burn" to eeprom. Can you do a screenshot there and after a reboot check to see if that change was sticky or not. If it was then let us know it was. If it wasn't can you post the screenshot as there may be something relevant that shows up on the eeprom burning screen.

 

[stevelee]

Are you using the DPIPixel configuration ?

If not you don't need to do anything with the EEPROM.
I successfully setup a rPi-28D+ with Raspberry Pi 4B+ lastweek to test 5V seed pixels

 

[Gerald]

HI
Thanks for the time, (stevelee No currently not using the DPIP config , but I wanted to upgrade to FPP6 to avoid all of the nag screens when using xlights and to avoid any possible more issues further on in the year with anything else that may not work if usinf 5.5, I also thought that as I have paid my 10$ I might as well use it to expand the functionality of the RPi board if I wanted it in the future)

Alan Thanks to you also for your time . I have done the process you described and attach screenshots, However going through everything again I keep geting back to the original page as having an "unprogammed physical eprom" , the program is not updating for some reason

Do you think it may be a faulty sd card or a suspect v6 upgrade ? I did as descreibed on the FPP website and did a completely new install from 5.5 rather than an in program upgrade

I am beginning to think that one of your previous comments earlier in the year when all this controversy kicked off that come November there might be a lot more of us asking for help

 

[AAH]

All of those screenshots kinda look perfect. There is 1 thing that is an annoyance to me but it's not important. There's text that says "virtual eeprom" when it's actually an eeprom that is being written to.
After it does what looks to be a successful write to a (non) virtual eeprom as seen in screenshot 59 and you do a reboot what do you see afterwards? In theory you should see me logo at the top right, on the pixel strings page it should say that there's a rpi-28d configured and on the help/about cape page it may say that you have an unsigned cape (rpi-28d+) and that you need install the key. You have signed the cape according to the screenshot so in theory everything "should" be working.
Everything "should" be working is as far as I would go. A number of people had issues around the start of December 2022 and in pretty much every case to get them going I got them to roll back to FPP5.5 which worked every single time. The FPP6 and licence thing has been a huge frustration to me and others like Skymaster who have been sorting people on ACL, Zoom and Facebook.

 

[Gerald]

You are correct in that the page shows your logo , however now when looking at the cape ifo page it is displaying this screenshot, ever decreasing circles it would seem

 

[stevelee]

Alan, I just noticed something with FPP and my rPi28D+

My 5V Test Rig is a Pi4B+ and is running FPP6.3 it only lets me select a PiHat and only use the 2 WS2811 channels.
My 12V Test Rig is a Pi3B+ and is running FFp5.4 calls them PiCapes and can select rPi-28D+ and use the 2 WS2811 ports and the WS2801 port

Is that something they have done on purpose in FPP6 ? Only let piHats use 2 ports unless you upgrade.

 

[AAH]

Alan, I just noticed something with FPP and my rPi28D+

My 5V Test Rig is a Pi4B+ and is running FPP6.3 it only lets me select a PiHat and only use the 2 WS2811 channels.
My 12V Test Rig is a Pi3B+ and is running FFp5.4 calls them PiCapes and can select rPi-28D+ and use the 2 WS2811 ports and the WS2801 port

Is that something they have done on purpose in FPP6 ? Only let piHats use 2 ports unless you upgrade.

All I've done with FPP6 is pull my hair out and I have very little of that. I have absolutely zero input with what Falcon Christmas do with Falcon Player. The changes that have been made to FPP6 having been making my life fun for about 6 months or so now as people find things broken with FPP6 and in order to get lights happening I get them to roll back to FPP5.5 or earlier. On top of that the driving force for the FPP6 licence system went pretty much entirely MIA on Falcon Christmas and the relevant FB pages almost on the day FPP6 was released and that has continued right up until now.

@Gerald :
You are correct in that the page shows your logo , however now when looking at the cape ifo page it is displaying this screenshot, ever decreasing circles it would seem

The screenshot shows kinda correct information on that page. For the rpi-28D+ (in WS281x mode) there is no need for a signed eeprom. If you use the board in DPI mode which would allow the 2 281x outputs as well as the 2801 output to be used as 4 ws281x outputs and would also allow the onboard audio to be used (at the expense of losing the hdmi video). I started to document this process months ago but sadly CaptainMurdoch at Falcon Christmas failed to reply to a bunch of questions that I had about configuring FPP for 2 ws281x plus 1 ws2801 vs 4 ws281x vs 2 ws281x (in DPI mode) and 1 WS2801 with onboard audio. A very few of the questions @dkulp may have been able to answer but as Chris/CaptainMurdoch is the licencing man I need details from him. While he is MIA it's very hard (read impossible) to document a process that involves input from him.

 

[Gerald]

Thanks Alan, I have given up on trying to license this cape as it appears there must be something not right with the virtual eeprom coded in the FPP6 version or something as I still have the miss-matched header error
Anyway I have paid my 10bucks and you will be pleased to know that your logo is proudly displayed in the top right of the splash screen, so at least I have something for my money lol
I hope that when I get to using the lights everything will work , but if not its back to 5.5, although rumour has it version 7 is in the wings so we can hopefully look forward to better days!
Thanks for your time and patience

 

[AAH]

I hope that when I get to using the lights everything will work , but if not its back to 5.5, although rumour has it version 7 is in the wings so we can hopefully look forward to better days!
Thanks for your time and patience

FPP7 is in the wings and Dan has told me that the way in which capes are defined and where that info is will be changing. Each vendor will have their own repository of their own .json config files on their own websites. This may or may not make things easier and down the track I can see this breaking stuff if a vendor stops making stuff and drops or changes their website.

 

[stevelee]

Anyway I have paid my 10bucks and you will be pleased to know that your logo is proudly displayed in the top right of the splash screen, so at least I have something for my money lol

I didn't pay 10 bucks and finally got Alan's logo on my start up screen.

I also managed to get the use of the WS2801 port back. I had to open the advanced user UI so I could select the rPi-28D eeprom and then I got it back and the logo.