Setting up! Help Please

[rgabr0]

Hey all, so ive gotten my control boxes made up with baldrick 8 in each and i have 2 of these boxes then i have a f16 with 16 port expansion as my main house controller and a second controller a pixlite 4 card and basically wondering how the process of setting up is with wifi so i have a rpi 5 which will run either fpp or Ezplayer to then control the 4 control boards and my plan was to ethernet from my normal home router to pi then run a line to a switch which would go off to all boards and i just connect to everything over that but im wanting at least 60fps and i want like no delay and ease of control on my phone and wanted advice on it and whether i should set up a second router not connect to home network to run everything and make it so i have to switch networks to control on my phone. Please let me know the best process.

 

[merryoncherry]

So there are two schools of thought here. One is you just put everything on your home network (logically). This could be a wired or wireless connection from your home network to your show network, which would have a switch with ethernet cables to the Pi and all the controllers... the exact physical topology doesn't matter much. This means the Baldricks can reach the internet to get firmware updates, they get DHCP addresses, and so on, from your home router. This setup is fine.

Other people do isolate the show network. This is often not as fancy as having a router, just make sure the player (PC, Pi, etc) is on the home network, then connect a second network port of that player to the switch that has the show network switch + controllers. This means, though, that you have to set up all the IP addresses for the show network, and that (without proxying) data won't get in and out of the show network. This means setting up the Baldricks on a network where they can DHCP, since they do not have configuration OLEDs... once the firmware is updated, set static IPs and save and move the board over to the show network and make sure you can reach it there. The F16 can be configured on the show network by using the OLED + buttons.

Yes, there are other variants, you can use a router, you can have the player act as a proxy/bridge, internet connection sharing, DHCP on the show network, etc. So just pick an approach that feels right to you.

 

[christmasdave]

I've got my Pi (FPP) setup as a proxy for my show which works well, and the baldricks can access the net for updates and I can control them easily, access FPP, etc without any need to change networks. (baldrick buddy app is also amazing)

Pi is connected to my home wifi, then I have a switch connected to the Pi that all the controllers connect to. This also means no need to set static IP on any controller as FPP will take care of that.
I use mostly Baldricks, but also have 1 older pixlite 4 which you wont be able to access via proxy with the advatek assistant like you can with the baldricks (unless the newer advateks do, but the older assistant app (v2.3.24) can't.

A good video on how to do this:
View: https://youtu.be/rte1jbS5DHw?si=vdMC68BDeCvKzB1K


Like merryoncherry said though, find what's best for you and your setup, this hobby is definitely not a one size fits all