Running Sequencing & Xlights from Raspberry PI

[Ash Brown]

Hi all
apologies if this has already been covered, but i am struggling to find much info on it.
I have a Pi4 that i want to plan on using this year for some very basic sequence, but then step it up for next year
Is there any info on how to setup a Pi to run a sequence with a Pixlite MKII controller ? is it just a matter of installing an OS and running x Lights from the PI, or is there another program to runt the sequencing once its created
If the sequence is run from another program, is anyone running Xlights from a PI, reason being i work away and would like to be able to just use the Pi for designing instead of carrying another laptop to and from work.

Thanks, appreciate the assistance

 

[dkulp]

For running sequences on a Pi, FPP running on the Pi is by far the recommended way to accomplish that. Its pretty much a web based application for managing the schedule and playlists and such.

For actual sequencing, a Pi is not recommended at all. You likely could install the desktop stuff on the pi, checkout the xLights source and follow the instructions and such to get it building on the Pi. However, it is very unsupported and you will likely run into issues. For one, the current raspian images are all 32bit, even on the Pi4. We no longer build/test xLights on 32bit OS's as it became way too limiting. It may work, but it may also consume everything and crash. Some effects like the shader effect may not work at all as none of us have even tried to see if the hardware support for those is even working. It will also be really slow. You are likely better off with getting one of the small Atom based computers that can run full Linux or Windows 64bit and using that for sequencing.

 

[Ash Brown]

For running sequences on a Pi, FPP running on the Pi is by far the recommended way to accomplish that. Its pretty much a web based application for managing the schedule and playlists and such.

For actual sequencing, a Pi is not recommended at all. You likely could install the desktop stuff on the pi, checkout the xLights source and follow the instructions and such to get it building on the Pi. However, it is very unsupported and you will likely run into issues. For one, the current raspian images are all 32bit, even on the Pi4. We no longer build/test xLights on 32bit OS's as it became way too limiting. It may work, but it may also consume everything and crash. Some effects like the shader effect may not work at all as none of us have even tried to see if the hardware support for those is even working. It will also be really slow. You are likely better off with getting one of the small Atom based computers that can run full Linux or Windows 64bit and using that for sequencing.

Thankyou was what i was thinking,
I just realised i left out probably the most important piece , can you use a pi with a pixlite controller ?

 

[keithsw1111]

You can use the pi with the pixlite.

 

[Nojoy]

Pixlite 16 accepts sequencing using E1.31 and ARTNET messaging formats. Controller messaging is defined in the 'Controllers' tab in xLights, and setting it up with FPP is already covered here.