Baking your first light show - a recipe to get started Printable version

Getting started is a confusing time. There’s lots of electronics, there’s lots of software, and other bits and pieces that all need to be hooked up in the right ways, and there are many ways to do this. With this in mind, here is a basic recipe for getting started with a pixel light show. It’s not intended to be comprehensive. It’s not going answer all your questions, but should serve as a recipe to bake a simple show and give you some points of reference you can use to investigate each stage further.

One note up front, there are several BBB FPP based controllers on the market, and these are a great option, however I am not going to talk about them here, at least in this first iteration.

To be clear you will need a basic understanding of networking to run a light show. You'll need to know about IP addresses, subnet masks, default gateways, and you'll need to set these on various components.

You'll also need some basic electrical knowledge. In some cases you'll be wiring up AC mains voltage leads to power supplies. In many places around the world this is required to be done by a licenced electrician.

You'll need some tools. At the minimum:

• pliers/side cutters for cutting wires
• wire strippers

Also recommended:

• a basic Digital Multi Meter (DMM)

And now... on to the cooking.

Ingredients

1 PC or Mac
1 Raspberry Pi and power supply
1 micro SD card (16GB)
1 basic network switch
1 pixel controller (eg Baldrick 8, Falcon F16)
1 string of pixels (5volt or 12volt). Typically 50 or 100 nodes.
4 Ethernet cables
1 power supply (5v or 12v to match your pixel string) eg meanwell LRS series.
1 SD card reader
Assorted cables of sufficient AWG for powering your controller and pixel string



Method

1. On your PC download and install the latest versions of the following software:
   - Raspberry Pi Imager (https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/)
   - xLights (https://xlights.org/releases/)
2. Insert your new SD card into the card reader and connect it to your PC
3. Launch Raspberry Pi Imager and install the latest version of FPP. Ensure you select the version for the Raspberry Pi.
4. Move the SD card to the Raspberry Pi
5. Connect the pixel controller to the power supply using the appropriate AWG cable. Make sure you get the wires the right way round!
6. If your controller has a voltage switch, ensure that it matches your power supply. (Getting this wrong will burn your recipe and let out the magic smoke......)
7. Connect your pixel string to port 1 on your controller. Make sure you get the wires the right way round!
8. Using the four ethernet cables, connect your Raspberry Pi, pixel controller and PC to the switch and connect your switch to your internet router. The last part is important as your internet router is used to hand out initial IP addresses.
9. Power up the Raspberry Pi and pixel controller.
10. Configure the network on your FPP. (Open your browser and go to http://fpp.local)
    1. You will need to run through initial setup. For the purposes of this recipe:
       1. Do NOT change the name of the FPP instance, leave this as FPP.
       2. Do NOT set a Web UI Password. This will break things
       3. Leave the OS password at the default (fpp/falcon)
11. If you are using a Baldrick controller, go to http://baldrickboard.local/ and press the "Let's Go" button to download and install the firmware.
12. Configure the network on your pixel controller (For a Baldrick, open your browser and go to http://baldrickboard.local. For a Falcon use the buttons near the OLED screen)
13. Launch xLights on your PC and follow the prompts to set up a show folder. This should be an empty folder where you store all xLights related show details.
14. In the Controllers tab click Add Ethernet add your Raspberry pi/FPP. Set:
    • Vendor: FPP
    • Model: FPP Player Only
    • Active: xLights Only
    • Protocol: Player Only
    • IP Address: as set earlier
15. In the Controllers tab click "Add Ethernet" add your pixel controller. Set:
    • Vendor: iLightThat (for Baldrick)
    • Model: Baldrick8 (for Baldrick)
    • Auto Layout Models: checked
    • Auto Size: checked
    • Full xLights Control: checked
    • Monitor: checked
    • Protocol: DPP
    • IP Address: as set earlier
16. Click the red "Save" button.
17. Move to the layout tab and create a single line model. Configured the Nodes/String to the length of your pixel string (50 or 100). Click the red "Save" button.
18. Go back to the Controllers tab, select your pixel controller and click the “Visualise...” button.
19. From the list on the right hand panel drag your Single Line model onto port 1 of the pixel controller.
20. Exit the Visualiser then click the "Upload Output" button. xLights will upload the model information to the controller.
21. Go to the Sequencer tab, and in the "File" menu choose "New Sequence".
22. In the wizard, select "Animation", "40fps", then click "Done"
23. In the Sequencer tab locate the "Butterfly Effect" from the "Effects" window and drag it onto the timeline for the single line model. Extend it out to the beginning and ending of the sequence time period (ie 30 seconds)
24. Click the "Render All" button. It looks like a paint pallet.
25. Click the Save and save the file.
26. In the Tools menu choose "FPP Connect".
27. In the pop up window, your FPP instance should already be detected. If it is not, click the “Add FPP” button and add the IP address of your FPP/Raspberry Pi.
28. In the FPP instance line set:
    • Upload: checked
    • Media: checked
    • Models: All
    • UDP Out: All
    • Pixel Hat/Cape: FPP Player Only checked
29. Check the box next to your sequence in the bottom half of the screen.
30. Click the "Upload". xLights will upload your model information and sequence to your FPP.
31. Load FPP in your web browser.
32. On the status/control page select your sequence and hit play
33. Your pixel string should now light up.