Network setup for ESPixelStick

[perigalacticon]

A possible solution would be to purchase a wifi access point such and a ubiquiti nanostation and get a cheap network switch.

Build a new network without internet access. - show network

Connect the fpp rpi to the switch, the nanostation to the switch - connect the ESPixelSticks to the wifi of the nanostation.

You can either connect the pc as needed to the show network, or configure the wifi of the rpi to connect to the cable router wifi (this will allow you to upload sequences to the rpi from the normal network)

If you then allowed routing on fpp you could potentially route to the other devices from you pc, but my normal approach to all this stuff, is do one step, test, refine. Don’t try to do it all at once as it is too hard to debug.

Thanks I am new to networking. What model Nanostation is working for you ? Could you tell me what specs I need for the the switch, or could you recommend a least-cost one that should work well?

 

[ICon]

In my experience all of the ubiquiti gear I have used has outperformed anything else at the same price point. The reason to consider a nanostation, is you can put it outdoors with line of sight to your ESPs, this removes signal loss of obstacles, such as walls. I suspect even the cheapest will out perform your current router if positioned well.

For a switch I have found the small 5 port netgear 1 gigibit switches to be reliable. Almost any switch will cope with this sort of thing, as cable outperforms wireless for reliability and consistency all the time.

Full disclosure though I am running ubiquiti unifi access points (the cheap AP-AC-lite model + AP-AC-mesh outdoor unit for show) , switches, and gateway now, but this is more complex as it also requires a controller. My show network though has resulting in me pulling out a old netgear switch and putting that with my rpi, falcon controller, and access point.

 

[perigalacticon]

My PC is connected by ethernet, I tried disabling it, and then unplugged the cable, but the glitching from FPP was still the same. I am running a 10s test sequence, I have it on repeat. For some reason, every 4th repeat, it freezes for ~500ms at exactly the same place in the sequence, and there are other shorter glitches (but randomly) during each 10s repeat. I'm going to try different sequences.

If it's not the sequence then wouldn't you say I need a seperate router rather than a switch and AP? Because the FPP is glitching now, connected to the router, even when the PC is disconnected from the router. If so what would be a good router for me, FYI I'm only running probably 3000 pixels. Thanks.

 

[perigalacticon]

You haven't created a new subnet though, all of your devices are in the same /16 subnet.

Your current configuration has all IP's from 10.0.0.0 to 10.0.255.255 in the same subnet.

Do you have a 'full-sized' pi (with an ethernet port) and a wifi dongle? This would allow you to use it either in proxy mode or routed mode, to separate your home network from your show network:

Home Network Address: 10.0.0.0
Home Network Mask: 255.255.255.0
Home Network Gateway: 10.0.0.1 (Comcast Router IP)

Show Network Address: 10.0.2.0
Show Network Mask: 255.255.255.0
Show Network Gateway 10.0.2.1 (FPP eth0 IP)

Then you would just adjust the subnet mask / ip on your ESP sticks, and set wlan0 on the FPP to obtain an address via DHCP and enable routing between interfaces (or leave this unchecked and use the newer proxy option). You would also need to add a persistent network route on your PC to be able to access the show network. Personally, I still use the route between interfaces option.

Not saying this is going to fix your problems, it will make it a little more optimal however. Personally I am having some issues with Pi Zero's and Wifi connections this year (first year with them), they are only running Tune To signs for me so they're not critical for me.

Are you saying to change the FPP eth0 config to:

FPP IP Address = Show Network Address: 10.0.2.0 (or 10.0.2.1 ?)
FPP Netmask = Show Network Mask: 255.255.255.0
FPP Gateway = Show Network Gateway 10.0.2.1 (FPP eth0 IP)

then the ESPS configs would have static IPs such as 10.0.2.2, with 255.255.255.0 netmask and 10.0.2.1 gateway?

 

[ICon]

Is your fpp up to date? Some versions have issues that have been resolved.

just saw your other post - quite current fpp,

you should switch to multicast - need to make setting on esp accept multicast and fpp send multicast.

multicast does not wait for an acknowledgement from the destination, just keeps sending.

 

[perigalacticon]

Thanks for the advice. The once per second glitch is persistent so far, it doesn't matter if I run it from xLights, or from FPP; it doesn't change if I enable multicast on everything and run it from xLights or FPP either. Actually there is additional glitching if I run multicast from FPP in addition to the 1 per second glitch. And this occurs even if I close the xLights program. I found a post where Keith talks about a UI update every second, I think this is what it may be but not sure why I have it and no one else does? I attached a vid of the glitch happening from FPP on unicast:


View: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1am88UpLXsMwN_ia9pxIXRT1iBRRyDV8M

For what it's worth I attached the xml file. Why is it not allowed to upload sequence files?

 

[DarstLightShow]

In my experience all of the ubiquiti gear I have used has outperformed anything else at the same price point. The reason to consider a nanostation, is you can put it outdoors with line of sight to your ESPs, this removes signal loss of obstacles, such as walls. I suspect even the cheapest will out perform your current router if positioned well.

For a switch I have found the small 5 port netgear 1 gigibit switches to be reliable. Almost any switch will cope with this sort of thing, as cable outperforms wireless for reliability and consistency all the time.

Full disclosure though I am running ubiquiti unifi access points (the cheap AP-AC-lite model + AP-AC-mesh outdoor unit for show) , switches, and gateway now, but this is more complex as it also requires a controller. My show network though has resulting in me pulling out a old netgear switch and putting that with my rpi, falcon controller, and access point.

Hi I was doing some research for adding wifi and espixelsticks to my show and ran across this thread. I just wanted to confirm that with all e1.31 devices (including the pixel sticks) configured with static addresses, I can get by with just an AP like the nanostation or other outdoor unifi AP without having a router on the show network.
Thanks!

 

[Notenoughlights]

Hi I was doing some research for adding wifi and espixelsticks to my show and ran across this thread. I just wanted to confirm that with all e1.31 devices (including the pixel sticks) configured with static addresses, I can get by with just an AP like the nanostation or other outdoor unifi AP without having a router on the show network.
Thanks!

If you don't have a DHCP server assigning them an address, and they are static, and everything you are running in your show network is on the same subnet, then it should work just fine.