Raspberry Pi - Ollies Loop Lites Lightshow Project

When It All Started

So it all started years ago, when I discovered YouTube video of people that had put up Christmas lights, and had them blinking in sequence to music.  It really struck out how the lights interacted with the music.  It sure lit a fire within me to figure out how it was done as I was hoping to replicate it for my house.  After researching, I learned that they were using control systems by a company called Light-o-Rama.  The controllers were 16 channels each, but the cost of each controller was in the hundreds of dollars.  Add on the cost of the lights used with those controllers, and one quickly would find out that this wasn't a project for individuals on a budget.  As I researched I also discovered that the light show was setup to the timing of the music.  Each I/O had to be set to the milli-second of music, and depending on how many lights you wanted to control, and how you would like the show to be displayed to your audience, you have that much IO to setup.  More lights strings or individual lights, the greater effect you could do, but a big drawback, especially sequencing on your own, one song, would add countless hours to setup just right (or so I thought at the time...more on that later).  Sure, you could find individuals who had done sequences and put them on the internet to download, but you would still have to spend time to set it up to your display (as everyone's display is different/unique), or you could purchase music/sequence combos, but again, more money being spent, and you would still have to spend countless hours tweaking it to your setup.  So I shelved the idea at the time...

Then along came Christmas-2013.  During that Christmas season, some friends told us of a house not to far away from us that had their lights synced to music (using one of the Light-o-Rama controllers, I thought).  My family took a drive by and we were all impressed.  It's one thing to see YouTube video clips, but a whole other thing to actually view one of these systems live.  Actually, the owner has put up a YouTube video that can be viewed below:

That just re-ignited the desire again.  Though I knew using the Light-o-Rama controllers were out of the question, I had to figure out a more economical solution.  Since I had a Raspberry Pi kicking around, and I wasn't using it in the car over winter, I started to wonder if anyone had thought about controlling lights via music using the Pi's GPIO.  Low and behold, an individual who went by the blog name Chivalry Timbers started a blog about using a RPi to control lights with midi music.  As cool as this project was, the main problem here was that midi music, though designed for controlling things, is very boring and lifeless to listen to.  I wanted to use more lively audio recordings using mp3, flac or some other accurate compression algorithm.  That's when I happened on the project called LightshowPi.  Like the Chivalry Timbers project, LightshowPi works by sampling the music frequency and turning on/off IO according to the FFT math calculations.  It does this in Real Time.  The project proved to be less time consuming than setting up timing sequences to music, and less expensive since being done on the Raspberry Pi platform.  On the downside there are drawbacks in this system; A user is constrained on the amount of customisation to be able to sequence the lights to music to setting different frequency points.  The lights would light on the frequencies dedicated to them, but if you know music, you don't just get the primary frequency bar, but you get secondary harmonics...which would light additional lights.  You combine it all, and it looks fine if you can hear the music with the lights.  But in cases you can't...it just looks like a blitz of scattered blinking lights.

Regardless, I ran the Lightshow Pi show to the delight of the community every Christmas from 2017 to 2023.  I had a dedicated Christmas playlist for a main show that ran for 2 hours, with smaller playlists throughout the remainder of the evening.  The show would run throughout the month of December and into January.  After Christmas, I would change the playlist to one of party, dance and rock songs...basically anything that would blink the lights nicely.

As the 2023 show was going on, I decided that I wanted to expand the system, after running the same show for the past 7 years.  I first thought of sticking with Lightshow Pi, and expanding on the GPIO using the PI's I2C communication.  I also thought about expanding Lightshow Pi by including the neighbors and using a Master/Slave setup, but that would require updated hardware (not to mention getting a neighbor or two on board).  I then started to think about looking more at the alternative....having the lights flash in the timing of the music, basically how the pros are doing it.  This decision became more solidified when my wife mentioned that she likes viewing the singing trees, which can be achievable going with the latter.

See, in the years of using LightshowPI, another community of DIY'ers were working on a Pi OS called Falcon Pi Player, or FPP for short.  They developed it for the purpose of a DIY platform replacing the professional Light-O-Rama setups.  FPP has the capabilities to send control out to various types of controllers to make up some pretty elaborate setups.  Even the open source software used for creating sequences has developed substantially...with the two prominent community driven ones being Vixen, and xLights.  The latter being the more defacto choice now.

So below is my continued journey of this fun DIY project/hobby.

Hardware:

Lightshow Pi setup from 2014 and official startup 2017 to 2023

Raspberry Pi (B version used here)

I used the Gen1 Rev B version that comes with 512Meg of memory, 2xUSB ports, 1xLAN port.  This board has a 26-pin header with 8 I/O available (more if you don't want to use some of the other protocols available), and an extra 8-pin headless location with an additional 4 channels of I/O.

I took advantage of this board for all its worth and loaded pretty much all the GPIO it had.  In the end, Ollies Loop Lites using Lightshow Pi was controlling 18 channels of GPIO to approximately 2000 LED bulbs and 2x RGB flood lights.  Pretty impressive for this 1st generation Pi module.

Custard Pi 1 Interface board

I ended up saving a little and picking it up in kit form, which I then soldered together.  It basically adds terminal connections to the 26-pin header, and adds protection and current limit resistors for all pins.  I tried to design my own interface board, and had one actually etched, but my soldering skills were a little lacking.  Soldering a commercially grade board that has gone through the proper process was so much easier.  The Custard Pi 1 board has been a great addition.  Unfortunately the Custard Pi 1 board is no longer available commercially, so I have included the specifications/instructions here.

SainSmart 4 channel SSR Board

This is the smaller brother to the SainSmart 8 board.  It only contains 4xSSR, but other than that it is the same as the SainSmart 8.  The intentions were to use this board for driving the hacked 10w RGB floods, but for reasons that I will get into later, this board will be put to other uses.

After the 2023 show, I will most likely be relocating the circuits from this board to the a SainSmart 8 channel board.  I still do have plans to possibly use this to expand the system in the future. or use the board in the event I need some backup relays should I run into issues.

Additional Circuitry

International Rectifier's FZ34NS N-Channel MOSFet for low-side switching of low voltage circuits (i.e. RGB 12v floods)

The original plan was to use the Sainsmart 4 port relay board to control the hacked versions of the 10W RGB floods.  Upon testing with the 8 Channel board, I found out there was issues where the relay would hold a static charge across the load contacts, keeping the RGB lights on until I physically shorted the contact terminals.  Which I then realized that these SSR boards are strictly for using with AC loads, not DC loads.  So I simply used the FZ34NS Fet as a simple low-side driver for each colour.  I put a 10k ohm resistor on the gate to current limit and protect the RaspPi IO.  The resistive loads on the RGB LED are what was included in the RGB flood.  More on the RGB Flood hack further down.

FZ34NS Datasheet

*FUTURE EXPANSION*

MCP23017 IO Expansion Board

Dependent on the direction I was going to go post 2023 show, I had one of these boards for the last few years, but haven't set it up to use outside of experimenting with it.  This board is an I2C expansion board, which will allow for upto an additional 16 channels of IO to be added to the LightshowPi show.

Had I decided to expand on the Lightshow Pi show, I would have used this board, but after 2023, I decided to take this hobby on a different route using FPP/xLights, so this board isn't going to be used in the near future.

Hardware:

Ollies Loop Lites 2024 and beyond...

The general wire diagram of the new system is show below, with a breakdown discription of the parts used in the build.

Raspberry Pi 2B

I've had been using various 2nd Gen Raspberry Pi's in my music distribution system, so I figured I'd try out FPP on one of them.  FPP's minimum Pi requirement is a Gen 2 or better.  For the current show I'm designing, the 2B should work just fine, but as the show evolves in the future, it will warrant a more powerful Pi controller.  So I'll most likely end up looking into replacing it with a 4th Gen Pi as they are becoming more readily available, and getting off-loaded as the 5th Gen Pi is getting more into production.

The Pi is the central controller for the Ollies Loop Lites, as I will be utilizing 26 of the 28 available GPIO on the 40-pin header.  The last two are going to be spared up in the event I have some issue and need to patch one of them in.

The Pi running FPP also acts as the music player (like Lightshow Pi), as well as the schedular for the show times.

SainSmart 8 channel SSR Board

So in order to turn the lights on/off, you have to connect the Pi I/O to some sort of relay system.  You could just use discrete relays, but I chose to use a SainSmart 8 channel SSR relay board.  This board has 8 drive circuits that run off 5V, and 8 Omron G3MB-202P Solid State Relays.  These boards by SainSmart were designed for use in small Arduino and Pi projects.  They are relatively inexpensive, and easy to hook up.  The SSR type boards are 2A capable, which is just fine for strings of LED lights.  If you figure your load will draw greater than 2A, then SainSmart does sell a version that uses mechanical relays that can handle 10A current loads.

The previous LightShow Pi system used 2 of these boards...the second only partially loaded.

The new system based on FPP will be using 4 boards.  I also have one board spared on hand with 7 good channels.  I had a catastrophic short occur which drew more than 2A that the onboard relay couldn't handle, and as  a consequence, I blew the channel.  So I'm looking into replacing the SSR and have a full board available to swap should I have to.

CZH-05B FM Transmitter

What's a Christmas light show if the public can't hear the music?  I could broadcast the music through my home audio system, though this would most likely upset the neighbors, and when it's cold out, why would anyone want to be outside of their warm vehicles?  So I ended up picking up a CZH-05B for the cheap.  There wasn't too much public opinion on the unit other than a short YouTube video, and somebody wrote up a blog review, but they both had nice things to say about it.  The price was also right, though this unit in particular didn't include a power source, something I learned the hard way.  The unit itself is pretty powerful, as I had it in the basement of my home, and I was still picking up a signal a good block away.

So, as mentioned the unit didn't include a power source, but I figured it didn't matter, since I had on hand a 12VDC wallwart.  I figured that wrong.  The 60Hz hum was so bad, that you couldn't even hear the actual audio signal.  Luckily I had on hand a Symbol 12V 9A switch power supply from an eBay purchase a while back, and it was just sitting collecting dust...well, not anymore.

Various Power Units

12VDC 9A Symbol power supply

I originally bought this sort of supply to power a car audio amp in a portable PA system.  For that project I had only ordered two but the ebay seller included a third for some reason.  I ended up leaving this in a box and it collected dust for many years.  It was brought out of storage because it was required to power the FM broadcast system, since it is a nice clean power source.  The supply itself is capable of outputting 9A, and soon became the perfect power unit to power the entire LightshowPi system (control side).  So this supply powers not only the FM transmitter, it sources the DC to DC converter shown below for 5 volts to bias the SainSmart relay boards.

For the new show, I will be using a second one of these supplies to drive the hacked RGB floods (mentioned below) via a DMX Led Controller.  I measured the load on the supply, and the DMX controller in standby draws 25mA.  measuring the draw of one flood connected, all LED's on, the current draw was only 750mA.  So no issue driving 4 RGB floods off one supply.

I'm also looking at using a third supply with a second DMX LED Controller to drive some hi-powered Offroad LED Floods for strobe/flash effects.

5VDC 10A power supply

After performing some testing, I came to realize that the DC to DC converter unfortunately does not put out enough current to properly drive the Gen2 Pi.  I have had this 5V supply kicking about for years, so I'm going to put it in the system and see how it drives the Pi.  It shouldn't be an issue as it puts out 10A at 5V.

12VDC to 5VDC 4xUSB port converter

This unit is a nice clean DC to DC converter, and basically takes the 12VDC from the Symbol supply and converts it to 5V via 4 USB ports, or two screw down terminals.  This was a great ebay purchase, as it is used to power the RaspberryPi, and relay boards.

DSD Tech USB/DMX Interface

Another advantage of using FPP is the ability to intermix other controllers and protocols into the system.  This was a short-coming with LSPi.  With the previous show, I was able to control the floods by turning on/off the red/green/blue channels to achive those three colours, some basic blends when turning on two of the colours together, or creating a white effect when all three were turned on.  But there was no additional affect, or fades capable, and I used 3 GPIO ports on the Pi to do it.

I  decided to add DMX control into this system to take advantage of the extra abilities and effects and not tie up any additional GPIO on the Pi itself to do it.

This was a pretty inexpensive purchase on Amazon at only $25.

12 Channel DMX LED Controller

As mentioned above, I found out a way to get the most from the hacked RGB floods by diving into the world of DMX control.  This piece is integral in controlling the different channels of the flood lights.  It allows for up to 4 RGB floods to be connected (or 12 individual LED lights).

It to, was a pretty cheap buy on Amazon at only $50.

It draws under 30mA at 12V in standby, and upon testing it under load with the 10W floods I indicate below, it only draws about 750mA per channel with all three colours on.  So the above 12V supply should be more than ideal to control the RGB floods.

I'm looking into purchasing a second one of these that I can daisy chain using CAT5e cable and setup a second group of hi-powered white LED floods for strobe/flash effects.

Specialty Lights

4x Hacked 10w RGB Flood lights.

I ended up getting a couple of these off ebay for pretty cheap.  I researched on how to hack these lamps to control them using the RaspPi.  These make a nice addition and brings a certain amount of ambience and mood to the display.  For the original LSPi show I used two of these controlled by 3 GPIO ports on the Raspberry Pi.  Now that I'm going to use DMX to control them, I'm in the process of purchasing an additional 2 units to expand the display to 4 floods.  

The hack for hard wire control is well known for these floods and explaining pretty good here:


The original RGB floods modified for Ollies Loop Lites were a little different from what the video displayed above.

This was the unit when it first arrived.  The black cord was an open ended 3 conductor cable for 120V termination.

This is what the inside looked once the face glass was removed.

And when the reflector was removed, it exposed the circuit board seen to the left.  I would disconnect the IR circuit.  Measuring the LED, it was getting a common high side, meaning the LED banks were driven direct by power, and switching occured on the low side.  This is pretty common, and the parts required for low side switching is minimal.  The red, green, blue wires coming off the LED and terminating at the large wattage resistors would be kept.  Below is a closer view of the circuit board.

I snipped out the red and black wires from the circuit board.  These two wires went though holes on either side of the LED die.  I also snipped the resistors leads on the left side of the above image from the circuit board and attached my control leads to them.  The wiring used was CAT5 cable.  Though the wire AWG was small at about 28 AWG, it just met the minimum requirements for the amount of current draw.  I used the following schema for attaching the CAT5 cable:

CAT5 RGB

Orange Red

Green Green

Blue Blue

Brown +12V

The image above show the original power, ground and I/R cables detached from the circuit board.

The compartment on the backside of the RGB flood housed the LED driver power supply, a small 120VAC to 12VDC converter box.

Here is the power supply removed from the flood.  The nipple that the AC cable went through will be repurposed for the CAT5 cable to route through and be sealed off as the cable is about the same diameter.

These flood were definitely easier to work with as they had the resistors already on hand that I used to current limit the floods. Unfortuately I did't take any pictures of the finished product prior to sealing it back up and after years of use, I'm a little reluctant in opening them again as the screws are corroded.

To note, this hack was done back in 2014, and the floods have been used in the Ollies Loop Light show to this day.  I'm hoping for just as much success when the next two come in. 

The next set of floods came in, and their design was a little different.  They didn't have small circuit boards, as everything seemed to be encapsulated into the power puck in the rear of the unit.  The picture below shows the front cover and reflector removed.  Again 12V DC drives the RGB LED chip and the three colors are switched to ground.  The RGB chip appears to be a 20-RGB, which could mean that it is really a 20W capable LED (still looking for the data sheets on it).


That backside indicates an operating voltage of 85V to 265V at 50 to 60Hz.  It says it is 10W.  It would indicate the white colour temperature if it was only a white LED.  The rest of the labelling is pointless as it is all in Chinese.  The cable ends aren't terminated so it would allow for the connection of all the different types of plugs.  Removing the cover reveals some very interesting (albeit it, concerning) issues.

Pulling off the back cover reveals the LED driver model 9-12W (trying to find datasheets on it).  Again the label is in Chinese.

And then you realize that the build quality of these products are sorely missing.  The AC earth is not terminated.  It has a ring lug crimped, but it isn't screwed down.  Also on one of the floods, the wires were crimped so bad that the wire could have shorted against the metal shell.

prior to removing the unwanted hardware, I took some voltage measurements across the LED chip and found this:

Red:  6.22V, Green: 8.6V, Blue 8.7V

I added the resistor to the red line.  I didn't have any 18R 2W on hand, but I did have 33R 2W and used that.  I then took some current measurements and found the following:

Red (with the 33R resistor): 170mA current draw, Both Green and Blue (no resistor): over 1A current draw

So I must dispell what the gent in the video indicates that only the Red LED requires a resistor.  All three colors require some sort of current limit resistor in place, or you will risk in a premature failure.  I had some 13R 1W resistors on hand and installed them inline of the Green and Blue LEDs.  That seemed to do the trick as I then measured the following:

Red (with 33R resistor): 170mA, Green and Blue (both have a 13R resistor): 210mA

Below are the the floods at various stages of the modification.  The first flood modded, I replaced all the original wiring with CAT5e (24AWG single strand conductor).  The second flood, I reused the original wire that was already soldered to the RGB chip.


First flood with all three lines with inline resistors soldered.

<== Second flood with original wiring to terminate to.


Resistors terminated and in line.==>

BLOG

2014 - The Beginnings Of An EnLIGHTING Hobby

As I mentioned above, around Christmas (2013) I started to search the web on individuals who may have used a Raspberry Pi to synchronise lights to music, and I ended up coming across the LightshowPi project.  So now I found the software, I started to work on the hardware side.

I ended up doing this hack to the Pi, since I had extra USB cables laying around, and it saves from the plug accidentally coming unplugged.  In addition, I cut the USB B ends off of two additional cables, and terminated them to the relay boards.  Now all 5V devices are quickly terminated to the USB ports on the 5VDC converter.

I had originally designed and had fabricated a double sided circuit board that I was going to use to make my interconnections to.  Once it was done, I tried to solder to it, and just ran into issues.  I then happened on the Custard Pi 1 in kit format.  So to save a couple of bucks, and to give me some soldering practice, I had pieced together the kit in about an hour.  I now have a pretty decent interface to connect my relays, and FET circuits to.  The Custard Pi 1 has all the connections for the I/O, and different communication protocols, current limit resistors on every line, as well as protection Zener diodes for over-voltage protection.

Now the basic hardware is setup on the Pi, I preload the SD card with the most recent version of Raspbian, installed the card and powered on the Pi.  Connected for the first time to a monitor, and a keyboard, I installed any Raspbian updates and verify that SSH terminal is running, so from this point forward, I can use Putty or some other SSH terminal to log into the Pi remotely.  In case you don't know, Putty is a free Telnet/SSH Client program.  Putty is great for sending Linux commands remotely and controlling the Pi across a network.  Another SSH client program that I like to use is called WinSCP.  Actually it really is a SCP/FTP client program, and I use it for quick transfer of mp3 files from my computer to the Pi.  It is also great for editing the config file, since it opens into a simple text editor.

Now after getting Raspbian up and running, the next step is to install LightshowPi.  It is very simple to get up and running, by just following the instructions on the LightshowPi page.  After doing that, the next step is to transfer audio files to the SD card.  Again, I use WinSCP for this.  The final step at this point is to enter the config file called defaults.cfg and edit the appropriate lines.  Again, editing is very easy to do via WinSCP.  Each section in the defaults.cfg file has blurb-age on how to setup the various settings, but the low-down is shown below:

Under [hardware]

The number of GPIO pins is defined by the gpio_pins = setting

How the outputs operate either by flashing on/off or fading is defined by pin_modes = 

If using pwm mode, then you will want to define the pwm frequency by setting the pwm_range = 

Under [lightshow]

Set the playlist path by defining the setting playlist_path =

You can indicate what to do with the lights in between songs by the preshow = setting

You can define IO to be always on, always off, or invert channels by the settings always_on_channels =, always_off_channels =, invert_channels =

Under [audio_processing]

Define the min and max frequency range by the min_frequency = , and max_frequency = settings

Custom channel mapping is defined by the custom_channel_mapping = setting

Custom channel frequency is defined by the custom_channel_frequencies = settings

There is also a sms section that can be setup for using texting from a cell phone to control the system, but since I'm not in the US, I can't take advantage of that feature, so I will not comment on it.

That's it.  Once you save the default.cfg file, your almost ready to run...but you wont be able to see anything happen unless you get a relay board at least hooked up to the IO.

crontab setup:

My crontab setup that is working.  Under the Christmas lightshow configuration, I've setup a prelude audio file, and control of all the lights coming on for a minute, then shut off.  The rest of the show will commence by playing back the playlist for a set duration of time.

My first live test back in 2014:

December 2017

It has been a long, long while since I took a serious stab at this project.  I first started this endeavor about 4 years ago (when I viewed my 1st Christmas light show YouTube video).  Did a live test at my previous house about 3 years ago, which I posted on YouTube (linked above).  But Since moving, I didn't really look at this project again.  Wanted to, and every year, during the year, I thought about getting all the parts together to finally get the system running...but then I'd get busy with other things.  Next thing, it's Christmas time, and not having a chance to work on it, I put the project back on the shelf, only to re-hash the same issues a year later.

This year was different.  A few parts that I'd never imagined, just came together, which allowed for a chance to cobble the system together.  After 2 nights of testing, I have officially started the Ollies Loop Lite Show.  It runs from 5:30 pm until about 7:30 pm.  It covers roughly 30 tracks, which starts with a Christmas Vacation intro that I put together a few years back.  The system consists of the following:

The plan this year is to introduce the community to the light show, see how they like it (so far all positive), and then throw more channels and lights into the mix next year.

Here is some video of the First Annual Ollies Loop Lite Show:

I have now added a Twitter feed; @OlliesLoopLites, which give current updates on the songs being played from the playlist.  I am also going to look more into a feature in the more recent version of Lightshowpi that allows for master/slave pi's to be setup.  This will allow for a master pi running the outside lights, and a slave pi running indoor lights.  Or could allow of running synchronized lights from multiple family homes in the neighborhood.

Lessons learned:

December 2018

Ollies Loop Lites are back for the 2018 Christmas season.  A few changes to the show.  Introducing a couple mini trees made from steel EMT 1/2" conduit held in place by 4' rebar pounded down about 1.5' into the ground.  Also additional lights on the gutters.  I/O is now maxed out at 18, and so looking into an I2C expansion board and more relay boards.  As well as needing to get additional floods for next season.  A few songs swapped out for different, more vibrant music to help drive the lights to their max.  Twitter feed in full swing, and the show is broadcasting on 90.9 fm from 5:30pm to about 10:30pm every evening.

October 2019

Well Christmas 2019 is fast approaching.  I've started to test/prep the system.  Some new things are happening; coming out with a new control bay.  Before I had all the heart of the electronics under a small boat, which left everything somewhat exposed to the elements.  I've been constructing/wiring a new pedestal enclosure for the PI, supply, FM transmitting, and main relays.  Finishing the wiring on that now.  It will allow for a better visual when troubleshooting, as well as get the electronics out of the elements.

Also have 2 additional 8ch relay boards, and I'm waiting on a I2C MCP23017 serial extender board.  This will allow expansion from 12 channels (and 3 RGB Flood channels) with an additional 16 channels - 28 channels of GPIO.

I've also started to experiment with streaming music to the lightshowpi via shoutcast streams right now.  But should be able to stream any internet to the pi if the streaming channel is known.

Finally, along with the GPIO expansion, I'm going to expand on the light display to make it an even more impressive experience.  More to come in the near future.   

December 2023

I haven't really reported to much in the last few years on the lightshow.  With 2020 being a down year due to Covid (I ran the show, but didn't really mention it too much).  Following year in 2021 I didn't setup the show as I was travelling for work, but finally had the show back up in 2022.  Now after this year (2023), I'm finally going to go with the expansion of the system with the MCP23017 board and extra relay boards.  I also have some plans for DIY trees, stars and lights around the windows.

After this expansion and future 2024 show, I'm going to re-evaluate the system and might perform a major overhaul with new hardware (Pi from first gen to maybe a 3rd or 4th gen) and go with a FalconPiPlayer (FPP)/Xlights setup.

*UPDATE*

Upon experimenting with xLights and creating several sequences and testing them on a Pi 2B running FPP, I think I will be moving away from LSP for the 2024 show, so this current LSP will be retired after the 2023 season.  It was a very enjoyable run, but better things await.

In fact, I have been able to setup and simulate sequences in xLights, which might be included in the 2024 show:

January 2024

Start of the new year, and already starting to prepare for the new show...countdown...11 months.

Been working on song sequences and currently working on the song 6.

On the hardware side, I have a serial to RS485 adapter and have successfully connected it to the Raspberry Pi.  RS485 is the communication protocol used in DMX.  So I have been thinking of moving my floods off of the Pi GPIO and onto a dedicated DMX controller.  That will allow for further colour choices, hues, saturations and fades.  This will also free up three additional GPIO for doing some other things.

Also on the hardware side, I have started to bench test the Pi connected to the existing relay boards and running sequences, and playlists.  Link to a Youtube video below.

On the software side, I have been reviewing how to create playlist in FPP, and messing with BRP plugin to allow for the audience to select the the songs they would like to hear/watch.

And as always right now, continuing the learning curve of using xLights. 

Decided to dive into the world of DMX controlling and figured it would be a good way of controlling the RGB floods.  Seen several uses of a cheap DMX LED Controller for that purpose.  I also figured I had an older Serial232 to RS485 adapter (DMX protocol uses RS485 communication), and an USB to RS232 converter cable, but after purchasing and trying the DMX LED Controller, it didn't work.  Even though DMX used RS485 protocol as the commnication backbone, I figured the BAUD rate of the RS232 to 485 was too low.  I decided to try a USB to DMX cable as it uses Open DMX and that is one of the settings in FPP.  After everything came in and connected, I had control, but then after connecting an actual flood, another issue arose.

When playing a song, and the sequence turned on the RGB flood, you could here a high frequency whine injected in the audio.  I tried all sorts of things to take the interference away, then looking at the instructions it shows additional grounds going to the two terminals on the RJ45 side of the LED Controller.  In all the user video I watched, these two connections aren't even mentioned.  Even though the terminals are tied internally to the power ground terminal on the other side of the controller, these two terminals need to be connected to ground as well.  I take it that it helps ground out the input side of the board as maybe when not connecting, the input side biases high, and creates the high frequency audio distortion.  After grounding all connections, the audio interference is now gone.  Images below describe what I'm talking about.

So I'm also looking at a second LED Controller as they can be daisy chained together.  The second controller will drive 4 hi-powered LED lights to create a strobe/flash affect with certain music.  More details to follow.

On the sequencing side I currently have 10 songs and the intro completed. That's about 37 minutes of music so far.  I might slack off on that front, and only do a song a week, as it is so time consuming.

February 2024

The beginning of February, and I'm piecing together the hardware enclosure.  Did a test run and found out the DC to DC converter would not supply enough current to properly supply the Gen 2 Pi, so I'm going to try out a 5VDC 10A supply.  I placed it in a general location to get an idea if it would work.  Below are some pics of the new setup in progress.

Nearing mid-February the latest update is that I have pretty much completed the updates to the controller side of the Controller Box, and have a good portion of the AC side wired, just need to get a few more receptacles to complete that.  But below is the latest test video where I'm testing the Pi, FM Transmitter, power supplies and control relay boards.

Currently on the sequencing front, I now have 12 songs (including intro) ready to go, which constitutes to about 40 minutes. 

Mid February I have the box wired up, and have been performing some AC testing with lights plugged in.  I was able to verify all mapping from the Pi GPIO through to the outlet.  I haven't had a chance to video it yet, but here is a photo. 

But I have run into some quirks, as listed below:

1) I've been testing the BRP plugin, which I think is a great idea for getting the audience involved and makes the show so interactive.  This plugin allows for the audience to choose the next song to listen to.  But I have found some cavets, which I'm hoping the plugin developer will look into.

2) FPP's web server crashed on me for no apparent reason.  I started the system up and when I went to the browser, I kept on getting a 500 server error.  Tried to investigate it, but ended up just re-imaging the SD card.  I'm going to make sure I have a backup card ready for the actual show in the event I run into issues.  Everything about the show still worked ie. scheduling, songs, sequences.  I could SSH into the Pi, I just couldn't access it via web server.

The final thing I need to do to the controller enclosure is to seal the space between the two boxes, then I can basically set that away until closer to the show date.

Have almost 45 minutes worth of music sequenced (12 songs + intro) and continuing with more music, though at a slower pace.  In the end, I'm hoping to have over an hours worth of music to randomly play throughout the showtimes.

March 2024

A quarter the way to the 2024 show.  Things have gone into a bit of a lull right now.  Haven't really worked on any of the music in the last while.

The 2 new floods came in and have been modified to work off the DMX controller.  The modification is indicated above.

Only other thing done is the base of the trees have been completed.

April 2024

Added a countdown timer to the top of the page for the start of the 2024 Ollies Loop Lite Show on November 29th.  This helps in the realism that the show is coming, and I need to be ready for it.

Added another song to the playlist, total songs 15.  That gives a playing time of 51 minutes, 28 seconds.  I'm nearing completion of another song, albeit only 1 minute 45 seconds long, but it is going to be a complete light show bonanzas.  I might have to put a warning on it for anyone who might get triggered over flashing lights.

I have 3 more songs to sequence for the 2024 show, which should put the playlist over an hour long.

Also started to work on the external DMX enclosure, and tested 3 of the 4 DMX RGB floods.