ws2801 driver setup with 3.4.29

I am trying to setup the driver for a ws2801 strip on a raspberry pi for BiblioPixel 3.4.29.

I confirmed the ws2801 is working with Adafruit’s library for it, but when trying to set it up for BiblioPixel I get unexpected flashing of the first pixel only.

First, bp devices doesn’t show the strip at all. I’m not sure if that it should be there for SPI devices, but I expected it.

Second, this yml results in sporadic light on the first LED in the strip.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

Anyone know what I should be doing differently?

I am trying to setup the driver for a ws2801 strip on a raspberry pi for BiblioPixel 3.4.29.

I confirmed the ws2801 is working with Adafruit’s library for it, but when trying to set it up for BiblioPixel I get unexpected flashing of the first pixel only.

First, bp devices doesn’t show the strip at all. I’m not sure if that it should be there for SPI devices, but I expected it.

bp devices is only for serial devices. SPI devices are one-way communication so no way to query for them.

Second, this yml results in sporadic light on the first LED in the strip.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

Anyone know what I should be doing differently?

Given what you say you are seeing, you likely have something connected wrong.

  • Is data on Pin 19 (GPIO 10) and clock on Pin 23 (GPIO 11)

  • Are you using a level shifter?

  • Is your ground properly connected?

  • How are you powering the LEDs?

  • are you absolutely sure they are WS2801? Those are pretty uncommon these days. Can you link to the adafruit library you are using?

We recommend using something like our PiPixel -> https://www.tindie.com/products/ManiacalLabs/pipixel-raspberry-pi-led-strip-hat/

It will take care of all the above.

···

On Mon, Oct 22, 2018 at 3:23 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah.ritchie@gmail.com wrote:

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I am trying to setup the driver for a ws2801 strip on a raspberry pi for BiblioPixel 3.4.29.

I confirmed the ws2801 is working with Adafruit’s library for it, but when trying to set it up for BiblioPixel I get unexpected flashing of the first pixel only.

First, bp devices doesn’t show the strip at all. I’m not sure if that it should be there for SPI devices, but I expected it.

bp devices is only for serial devices. SPI devices are one-way communication so no way to query for them.

Second, this yml results in sporadic light on the first LED in the strip.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

Anyone know what I should be doing differently?

Thank you, Adam, for taking the time to write up some diagnostic questions.

Given what you say you are seeing, you likely have something connected wrong.

  • Is data on Pin 19 (GPIO 10) and clock on Pin 23 (GPIO 11)

Yes, when using the Adafruit library, I’m identifying it as SPI PORT 0 and SPI DEVICE 0 which corresponds to those pins. I double-checked against a few places including this resource (https://pinout.xyz/pinout/spi) and the breakout board I’m soldering to having SCLK and MOSI identified on the pins I soldered the wires to.

  • Are you using a level shifter?
  • Is your ground properly connected?
  • How are you powering the LEDs?

No level shifter.
I’m using a secondary 5V/3A power supply to the strip. The ground from the secondary supply is connected to the ground on the Pi. I did a continuity test when I was soldering it all together. 5V from the Pi is NOT connected to 5V on the strip. The strip did not come with properly color-coded wire attached so I had to do some research, but since I have it working with the Adafruit library I assumed it was wired correctly.

  • are you absolutely sure they are WS2801? Those are pretty uncommon these days. Can you link to the adafruit library you are using?

Yes, the IC on the strip says WS2801SO and that is what I ordered. The more I dig in the more I think other options would have been better, but I based my purchase on an old Instructable that was in the top of my google search (live & learn). Here is the library: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Python_WS2801

I ran the code in both these example scripts, changing to the hardware SPI instead of specifically identifying the ports. That is to say, for rainbow.py, I commented out lines 19-21 and uncommented 24-26. I get distinct and consistent colors in that script that stayed on.
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Python_WS2801/tree/master/examples

We recommend using something like our PiPixel -> https://www.tindie.com/products/ManiacalLabs/pipixel-raspberry-pi-led-strip-hat/

It will take care of all the above.

Yep, I’d certainly consider that in my next project. It does look much easier to work with. Pretty slick actually.

···

On Monday, October 22, 2018 at 1:34:19 PM UTC-6, Adam Haile wrote:

On Mon, Oct 22, 2018 at 3:23 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah....@gmail.com wrote:

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Ah cool. That had been driving me crazy as what Josiah was describing is usually from a bad connection. But I had wrongly assumed when he said he had tried it with the Adafruit library that it was with an Arduino instead of the Pi. But since it was with a Pi, none of this made much sense.
Another one to test with would be $strip_test

···

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 6:37 AM Tom Swirly tom@swirly.com wrote:

I’ve found something though it doesn’t explain the “first LED on” issue at all.

But there does seem to be an issue with the LarsenScanner animation specifically, at small sizes (like 12) particularly.

It’s likely I caused this with recent changes to add color palettes to $bpa animations - I’m looking at it right now. So far I believe it’s just the LarsenScanner animation that is affected, but I need to look more closely…

To try a known-good animation, if your Project file is your-file.yml

bp your-file.yml + ‘{animation: $bpa.strip.Wave}’

(The + operator makes second bit of YML override the first… !)

I’ll fix that animation and push out a fix pronto.

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 3:11 AM Josiah Ritchie josiah.ritchie@gmail.com wrote:

On Monday, October 22, 2018 at 1:34:19 PM UTC-6, Adam Haile wrote:

On Mon, Oct 22, 2018 at 3:23 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah....@gmail.com wrote:

I am trying to setup the driver for a ws2801 strip on a raspberry pi for BiblioPixel 3.4.29.

I confirmed the ws2801 is working with Adafruit’s library for it, but when trying to set it up for BiblioPixel I get unexpected flashing of the first pixel only.

First, bp devices doesn’t show the strip at all. I’m not sure if that it should be there for SPI devices, but I expected it.

bp devices is only for serial devices. SPI devices are one-way communication so no way to query for them.

Second, this yml results in sporadic light on the first LED in the strip.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

Anyone know what I should be doing differently?

Thank you, Adam, for taking the time to write up some diagnostic questions.

Given what you say you are seeing, you likely have something connected wrong.

  • Is data on Pin 19 (GPIO 10) and clock on Pin 23 (GPIO 11)

Yes, when using the Adafruit library, I’m identifying it as SPI PORT 0 and SPI DEVICE 0 which corresponds to those pins. I double-checked against a few places including this resource (https://pinout.xyz/pinout/spi) and the breakout board I’m soldering to having SCLK and MOSI identified on the pins I soldered the wires to.

  • Are you using a level shifter?
  • Is your ground properly connected?
  • How are you powering the LEDs?

No level shifter.
I’m using a secondary 5V/3A power supply to the strip. The ground from the secondary supply is connected to the ground on the Pi. I did a continuity test when I was soldering it all together. 5V from the Pi is NOT connected to 5V on the strip. The strip did not come with properly color-coded wire attached so I had to do some research, but since I have it working with the Adafruit library I assumed it was wired correctly.

  • are you absolutely sure they are WS2801? Those are pretty uncommon these days. Can you link to the adafruit library you are using?

Yes, the IC on the strip says WS2801SO and that is what I ordered. The more I dig in the more I think other options would have been better, but I based my purchase on an old Instructable that was in the top of my google search (live & learn). Here is the library: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Python_WS2801

I ran the code in both these example scripts, changing to the hardware SPI instead of specifically identifying the ports. That is to say, for rainbow.py, I commented out lines 19-21 and uncommented 24-26. I get distinct and consistent colors in that script that stayed on.
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Python_WS2801/tree/master/examples

We recommend using something like our PiPixel -> https://www.tindie.com/products/ManiacalLabs/pipixel-raspberry-pi-led-strip-hat/

It will take care of all the above.

Yep, I’d certainly consider that in my next project. It does look much easier to work with. Pretty slick actually.

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/t

https://tom.ritchford.com

https://tom.swirly.com

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Thanks guys. I’ll try that.

···

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 5:28 AM Adam Haile adammhaile@gmail.com wrote:

Ah cool. That had been driving me crazy as what Josiah was describing is usually from a bad connection. But I had wrongly assumed when he said he had tried it with the Adafruit library that it was with an Arduino instead of the Pi. But since it was with a Pi, none of this made much sense.
Another one to test with would be $strip_test

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 6:37 AM Tom Swirly tom@swirly.com wrote:

I’ve found something though it doesn’t explain the “first LED on” issue at all.

But there does seem to be an issue with the LarsenScanner animation specifically, at small sizes (like 12) particularly.

It’s likely I caused this with recent changes to add color palettes to $bpa animations - I’m looking at it right now. So far I believe it’s just the LarsenScanner animation that is affected, but I need to look more closely…

To try a known-good animation, if your Project file is your-file.yml

bp your-file.yml + ‘{animation: $bpa.strip.Wave}’

(The + operator makes second bit of YML override the first… !)

I’ll fix that animation and push out a fix pronto.

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 3:11 AM Josiah Ritchie josiah.ritchie@gmail.com wrote:

On Monday, October 22, 2018 at 1:34:19 PM UTC-6, Adam Haile wrote:

On Mon, Oct 22, 2018 at 3:23 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah....@gmail.com wrote:

I am trying to setup the driver for a ws2801 strip on a raspberry pi for BiblioPixel 3.4.29.

I confirmed the ws2801 is working with Adafruit’s library for it, but when trying to set it up for BiblioPixel I get unexpected flashing of the first pixel only.

First, bp devices doesn’t show the strip at all. I’m not sure if that it should be there for SPI devices, but I expected it.

bp devices is only for serial devices. SPI devices are one-way communication so no way to query for them.

Second, this yml results in sporadic light on the first LED in the strip.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

Anyone know what I should be doing differently?

Thank you, Adam, for taking the time to write up some diagnostic questions.

Given what you say you are seeing, you likely have something connected wrong.

  • Is data on Pin 19 (GPIO 10) and clock on Pin 23 (GPIO 11)

Yes, when using the Adafruit library, I’m identifying it as SPI PORT 0 and SPI DEVICE 0 which corresponds to those pins. I double-checked against a few places including this resource (https://pinout.xyz/pinout/spi) and the breakout board I’m soldering to having SCLK and MOSI identified on the pins I soldered the wires to.

  • Are you using a level shifter?
  • Is your ground properly connected?
  • How are you powering the LEDs?

No level shifter.
I’m using a secondary 5V/3A power supply to the strip. The ground from the secondary supply is connected to the ground on the Pi. I did a continuity test when I was soldering it all together. 5V from the Pi is NOT connected to 5V on the strip. The strip did not come with properly color-coded wire attached so I had to do some research, but since I have it working with the Adafruit library I assumed it was wired correctly.

  • are you absolutely sure they are WS2801? Those are pretty uncommon these days. Can you link to the adafruit library you are using?

Yes, the IC on the strip says WS2801SO and that is what I ordered. The more I dig in the more I think other options would have been better, but I based my purchase on an old Instructable that was in the top of my google search (live & learn). Here is the library: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Python_WS2801

I ran the code in both these example scripts, changing to the hardware SPI instead of specifically identifying the ports. That is to say, for rainbow.py, I commented out lines 19-21 and uncommented 24-26. I get distinct and consistent colors in that script that stayed on.
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Python_WS2801/tree/master/examples

We recommend using something like our PiPixel -> https://www.tindie.com/products/ManiacalLabs/pipixel-raspberry-pi-led-strip-hat/

It will take care of all the above.

Yep, I’d certainly consider that in my next project. It does look much easier to work with. Pretty slick actually.

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/t

https://tom.ritchford.com

https://tom.swirly.com

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Here is a short video of what this Project results in with 3.4.30.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

#animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

animation: $strip_test

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtmw0yt2ngpzq0f/BiblioPlex_problem.mp4?dl=0

···

$ bp info

Timestamp: 2018-10-23T19:03:01

Python version: 3.5.3

Platform: Linux-4.14.70-v7±armv7l-with-debian-9.4

bp path: /home/pi/.local/bin/bp

Library path: /home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bibliopixel

Dependencies:

bibliopixel: version 3.4.30, git commit: (none), git tag (none)
BiblioPixelAnimations: version (none), git commit: (none), git tag (none)
loady: version 1.8.10, git commit: (none), git tag (none)

On Monday, October 22, 2018 at 1:23:21 PM UTC-6, Josiah Ritchie wrote:

I am trying to setup the driver for a ws2801 strip on a raspberry pi for BiblioPixel 3.4.29.

I confirmed the ws2801 is working with Adafruit’s library for it, but when trying to set it up for BiblioPixel I get unexpected flashing of the first pixel only.

First, bp devices doesn’t show the strip at all. I’m not sure if that it should be there for SPI devices, but I expected it.

Second, this yml results in sporadic light on the first LED in the strip.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

Anyone know what I should be doing differently?

I’ve found that any animation is a problem. Also, I’ve found that if I have shape: [20] & num: 20 I get 2 pixels and if I have shape: [50] & num: 50 I get 5 pixels. This doesn’t seem to extend to 90.

Also, If I run this script while BiblioPixel is running, suddenly the BiblioPixel animation starts to work properly. I don’t know why, but I wonder if it is because it sets the pixel count somewhere.

···

#!/usr/bin/python3

from future import division

import time

Import the WS2801 module.

import Adafruit_WS2801

import Adafruit_GPIO.SPI as SPI

Configure the count of pixels:

PIXEL_COUNT = 200

The WS2801 library makes use of the BCM pin numbering scheme. See the README.md for details.

SPI_PORT = 0

SPI_DEVICE = 0

pixels = Adafruit_WS2801.WS2801Pixels(PIXEL_COUNT, spi=SPI.SpiDev(SPI_PORT, SPI_DEVICE))

Clear all the pixels to turn them off.

pixels.clear()

pixels.show() # Make sure to call show() after changing any pixels!

exit(0)

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 1:09:14 PM UTC-6, Josiah Ritchie wrote:

Here is a short video of what this Project results in with 3.4.30.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

#animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

animation: $strip_test

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtmw0yt2ngpzq0f/BiblioPlex_problem.mp4?dl=0

$ bp info

Timestamp: 2018-10-23T19:03:01

Python version: 3.5.3

Platform: Linux-4.14.70-v7±armv7l-with-debian-9.4

bp path: /home/pi/.local/bin/bp

Library path: /home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bibliopixel

Dependencies:

bibliopixel: version 3.4.30, git commit: (none), git tag (none)
BiblioPixelAnimations: version (none), git commit: (none), git tag (none)
loady: version 1.8.10, git commit: (none), git tag (none)

On Monday, October 22, 2018 at 1:23:21 PM UTC-6, Josiah Ritchie wrote:

I am trying to setup the driver for a ws2801 strip on a raspberry pi for BiblioPixel 3.4.29.

I confirmed the ws2801 is working with Adafruit’s library for it, but when trying to set it up for BiblioPixel I get unexpected flashing of the first pixel only.

First, bp devices doesn’t show the strip at all. I’m not sure if that it should be there for SPI devices, but I expected it.

Second, this yml results in sporadic light on the first LED in the strip.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

Anyone know what I should be doing differently?

Thanks Tom, understand you can’t be around 24/7. :slight_smile: I removed the num attribute, tested. Then I removed shape and added num back in. All three (incl with both in place) acted in the same way. I’ll pull num out for further testing and to reduce potential conflict between the two. You mentioned better diagnostics. Do I need to do something to trigger that?

I have done the upgrade and now have this output in bp info. I believe that’s the same I’ve been working with all afternoon.

$ bp info

Timestamp: 2018-10-23T21:42:21

Python version: 3.5.3

Platform: Linux-4.14.70-v7±armv7l-with-debian-9.4

bp path: /home/pi/.local/bin/bp

Library path: /home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bibliopixel

Dependencies:

bibliopixel: version 3.4.30, git commit: (none), git tag (none)
BiblioPixelAnimations: version (none), git commit: (none), git tag (none)
loady: version 1.8.10, git commit: (none), git tag (none)

I was surprised the other scripts worked also, but I was just tossing stuff against the wall. :slight_smile: If it is working for you, I wonder if I’m missing a dependency that is silently being skipped or something.

Thanks for the help.

Josiah

···

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 3:23:26 PM UTC-6, Tom Swirly wrote:

Hmm, I didn’t try both setting “num” and “shape” - you need either one or the other, not both - however, my very likely guess is that there should be no difference. I’ll try it right after this but won’t report back unless it changes anything.

I did also try today with a WS2801 strip, just to make sure.

Can you do us a favor and try updating your BiblioPixel installation, if you haven’t done it already today, by typing:

pip3 install -U bibliopixel

and try again? I released some changes today, which I frankly imagine won’t make much difference, but there are at least some better diagnostics?

It might not be that I am able to respond to your next message tonight - it’s a little late here and I got up super-early. Adam might have some ideas, he’s in a US timezone… otherwise, I’ll be on again tomorrow AM.

Very very weird that that other script running at the same time makes it better. I’d have guessed it wouldn’t have worked at all! Any guess, Adam?

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 10:39 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah....@gmail.com wrote:

I’ve found that any animation is a problem. Also, I’ve found that if I have shape: [20] & num: 20 I get 2 pixels and if I have shape: [50] & num: 50 I get 5 pixels. This doesn’t seem to extend to 90.

Also, If I run this script while BiblioPixel is running, suddenly the BiblioPixel animation starts to work properly. I don’t know why, but I wonder if it is because it sets the pixel count somewhere.

#!/usr/bin/python3

from future import division

import time

Import the WS2801 module.

import Adafruit_WS2801

import Adafruit_GPIO.SPI as SPI

Configure the count of pixels:

PIXEL_COUNT = 200

The WS2801 library makes use of the BCM pin numbering scheme. See the README.md for details.

SPI_PORT = 0

SPI_DEVICE = 0

pixels = Adafruit_WS2801.WS2801Pixels(PIXEL_COUNT, spi=SPI.SpiDev(SPI_PORT, SPI_DEVICE))

Clear all the pixels to turn them off.

pixels.clear()

pixels.show() # Make sure to call show() after changing any pixels!

exit(0)

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 1:09:14 PM UTC-6, Josiah Ritchie wrote:

Here is a short video of what this Project results in with 3.4.30.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

#animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

animation: $strip_test

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtmw0yt2ngpzq0f/BiblioPlex_problem.mp4?dl=0

$ bp info

Timestamp: 2018-10-23T19:03:01

Python version: 3.5.3

Platform: Linux-4.14.70-v7±armv7l-with-debian-9.4

bp path: /home/pi/.local/bin/bp

Library path: /home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bibliopixel

Dependencies:

bibliopixel: version 3.4.30, git commit: (none), git tag (none)
BiblioPixelAnimations: version (none), git commit: (none), git tag (none)
loady: version 1.8.10, git commit: (none), git tag (none)

On Monday, October 22, 2018 at 1:23:21 PM UTC-6, Josiah Ritchie wrote:

I am trying to setup the driver for a ws2801 strip on a raspberry pi for BiblioPixel 3.4.29.

I confirmed the ws2801 is working with Adafruit’s library for it, but when trying to set it up for BiblioPixel I get unexpected flashing of the first pixel only.

First, bp devices doesn’t show the strip at all. I’m not sure if that it should be there for SPI devices, but I expected it.

Second, this yml results in sporadic light on the first LED in the strip.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

Anyone know what I should be doing differently?

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/t

https://tom.ritchford.com

https://tom.swirly.com

Whoa… weird. That would imply to me that SPI is not properly initialized.

  • Are you running bp with sudo?

  • Did you enable SPI via raspi-config?

  • Can you try with bp -v run <file>

  • pip install python-periphery and then Try this:


shape: [12]

driver:

  typename: SPI

  ledtype: WS2801

  num: 12

  interface: PERIPHERY

animation: $strip_test

···

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 5:49 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah.ritchie@gmail.com wrote:

Thanks Tom, understand you can’t be around 24/7. :slight_smile: I removed the num attribute, tested. Then I removed shape and added num back in. All three (incl with both in place) acted in the same way. I’ll pull num out for further testing and to reduce potential conflict between the two. You mentioned better diagnostics. Do I need to do something to trigger that?

I have done the upgrade and now have this output in bp info. I believe that’s the same I’ve been working with all afternoon.

$ bp info

Timestamp: 2018-10-23T21:42:21

Python version: 3.5.3

Platform: Linux-4.14.70-v7±armv7l-with-debian-9.4

bp path: /home/pi/.local/bin/bp

Library path: /home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bibliopixel

Dependencies:

bibliopixel: version 3.4.30, git commit: (none), git tag (none)
BiblioPixelAnimations: version (none), git commit: (none), git tag (none)
loady: version 1.8.10, git commit: (none), git tag (none)

I was surprised the other scripts worked also, but I was just tossing stuff against the wall. :slight_smile: If it is working for you, I wonder if I’m missing a dependency that is silently being skipped or something.

Thanks for the help.

Josiah

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 3:23:26 PM UTC-6, Tom Swirly wrote:

Hmm, I didn’t try both setting “num” and “shape” - you need either one or the other, not both - however, my very likely guess is that there should be no difference. I’ll try it right after this but won’t report back unless it changes anything.

I did also try today with a WS2801 strip, just to make sure.

Can you do us a favor and try updating your BiblioPixel installation, if you haven’t done it already today, by typing:

pip3 install -U bibliopixel

and try again? I released some changes today, which I frankly imagine won’t make much difference, but there are at least some better diagnostics?

It might not be that I am able to respond to your next message tonight - it’s a little late here and I got up super-early. Adam might have some ideas, he’s in a US timezone… otherwise, I’ll be on again tomorrow AM.

Very very weird that that other script running at the same time makes it better. I’d have guessed it wouldn’t have worked at all! Any guess, Adam?

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 10:39 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah....@gmail.com wrote:

I’ve found that any animation is a problem. Also, I’ve found that if I have shape: [20] & num: 20 I get 2 pixels and if I have shape: [50] & num: 50 I get 5 pixels. This doesn’t seem to extend to 90.

Also, If I run this script while BiblioPixel is running, suddenly the BiblioPixel animation starts to work properly. I don’t know why, but I wonder if it is because it sets the pixel count somewhere.

#!/usr/bin/python3

from future import division

import time

Import the WS2801 module.

import Adafruit_WS2801

import Adafruit_GPIO.SPI as SPI

Configure the count of pixels:

PIXEL_COUNT = 200

The WS2801 library makes use of the BCM pin numbering scheme. See the README.md for details.

SPI_PORT = 0

SPI_DEVICE = 0

pixels = Adafruit_WS2801.WS2801Pixels(PIXEL_COUNT, spi=SPI.SpiDev(SPI_PORT, SPI_DEVICE))

Clear all the pixels to turn them off.

pixels.clear()

pixels.show() # Make sure to call show() after changing any pixels!

exit(0)

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 1:09:14 PM UTC-6, Josiah Ritchie wrote:

Here is a short video of what this Project results in with 3.4.30.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

#animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

animation: $strip_test

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtmw0yt2ngpzq0f/BiblioPlex_problem.mp4?dl=0

$ bp info

Timestamp: 2018-10-23T19:03:01

Python version: 3.5.3

Platform: Linux-4.14.70-v7±armv7l-with-debian-9.4

bp path: /home/pi/.local/bin/bp

Library path: /home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bibliopixel

Dependencies:

bibliopixel: version 3.4.30, git commit: (none), git tag (none)
BiblioPixelAnimations: version (none), git commit: (none), git tag (none)
loady: version 1.8.10, git commit: (none), git tag (none)

On Monday, October 22, 2018 at 1:23:21 PM UTC-6, Josiah Ritchie wrote:

I am trying to setup the driver for a ws2801 strip on a raspberry pi for BiblioPixel 3.4.29.

I confirmed the ws2801 is working with Adafruit’s library for it, but when trying to set it up for BiblioPixel I get unexpected flashing of the first pixel only.

First, bp devices doesn’t show the strip at all. I’m not sure if that it should be there for SPI devices, but I expected it.

Second, this yml results in sporadic light on the first LED in the strip.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

Anyone know what I should be doing differently?

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/t

https://tom.ritchford.com

https://tom.swirly.com

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Whoa… weird. That would imply to me that SPI is not properly initialized.

  • Are you running bp with sudo?

I am not using sudo for any of the stuff I’m running

  • Did you enable SPI via raspi-config?

Yes, I did

  • Can you try with bp -v run <file>

Sure, here is the output of the command I ran for that

$ bp -v ambenv/ambenv.yml + ‘{animation: $bpa.strip.PixelPingPong}’

INFO - interfaces - file io spi dev /dev/spidev0.0

DEBUG - run - Running file ambenv/ambenv.yml+{animation: $bpa.strip.PixelPingPong}

DEBUG - animation_threading - Animation starts on main thread

^CDEBUG - project - Project <bibliopixel.project.project.Project object at 0x769b0150> stop called on pid 2610

DEBUG - animation_threading - Animation complete

DEBUG - project - Project <bibliopixel.project.project.Project object at 0x769b0150> finishes run()

INFO - run - Received signal SIGINT

  • pip install python-periphery and then Try this:

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

interface: PERIPHERY

animation: $strip_test

That actually did work. Looks like something with the FILE interface? This is a good work-around for me. Thanks!

···

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 4:06:59 PM UTC-6, Adam Haile wrote:

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 5:49 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah....@gmail.com wrote:

Thanks Tom, understand you can’t be around 24/7. :slight_smile: I removed the num attribute, tested. Then I removed shape and added num back in. All three (incl with both in place) acted in the same way. I’ll pull num out for further testing and to reduce potential conflict between the two. You mentioned better diagnostics. Do I need to do something to trigger that?

I have done the upgrade and now have this output in bp info. I believe that’s the same I’ve been working with all afternoon.

$ bp info

Timestamp: 2018-10-23T21:42:21

Python version: 3.5.3

Platform: Linux-4.14.70-v7±armv7l-with-debian-9.4

bp path: /home/pi/.local/bin/bp

Library path: /home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bibliopixel

Dependencies:

bibliopixel: version 3.4.30, git commit: (none), git tag (none)
BiblioPixelAnimations: version (none), git commit: (none), git tag (none)
loady: version 1.8.10, git commit: (none), git tag (none)

I was surprised the other scripts worked also, but I was just tossing stuff against the wall. :slight_smile: If it is working for you, I wonder if I’m missing a dependency that is silently being skipped or something.

Thanks for the help.

Josiah

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 3:23:26 PM UTC-6, Tom Swirly wrote:

Hmm, I didn’t try both setting “num” and “shape” - you need either one or the other, not both - however, my very likely guess is that there should be no difference. I’ll try it right after this but won’t report back unless it changes anything.

I did also try today with a WS2801 strip, just to make sure.

Can you do us a favor and try updating your BiblioPixel installation, if you haven’t done it already today, by typing:

pip3 install -U bibliopixel

and try again? I released some changes today, which I frankly imagine won’t make much difference, but there are at least some better diagnostics?

It might not be that I am able to respond to your next message tonight - it’s a little late here and I got up super-early. Adam might have some ideas, he’s in a US timezone… otherwise, I’ll be on again tomorrow AM.

Very very weird that that other script running at the same time makes it better. I’d have guessed it wouldn’t have worked at all! Any guess, Adam?

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 10:39 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah....@gmail.com wrote:

I’ve found that any animation is a problem. Also, I’ve found that if I have shape: [20] & num: 20 I get 2 pixels and if I have shape: [50] & num: 50 I get 5 pixels. This doesn’t seem to extend to 90.

Also, If I run this script while BiblioPixel is running, suddenly the BiblioPixel animation starts to work properly. I don’t know why, but I wonder if it is because it sets the pixel count somewhere.

#!/usr/bin/python3

from future import division

import time

Import the WS2801 module.

import Adafruit_WS2801

import Adafruit_GPIO.SPI as SPI

Configure the count of pixels:

PIXEL_COUNT = 200

The WS2801 library makes use of the BCM pin numbering scheme. See the README.md for details.

SPI_PORT = 0

SPI_DEVICE = 0

pixels = Adafruit_WS2801.WS2801Pixels(PIXEL_COUNT, spi=SPI.SpiDev(SPI_PORT, SPI_DEVICE))

Clear all the pixels to turn them off.

pixels.clear()

pixels.show() # Make sure to call show() after changing any pixels!

exit(0)

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 1:09:14 PM UTC-6, Josiah Ritchie wrote:

Here is a short video of what this Project results in with 3.4.30.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

#animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

animation: $strip_test

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtmw0yt2ngpzq0f/BiblioPlex_problem.mp4?dl=0

$ bp info

Timestamp: 2018-10-23T19:03:01

Python version: 3.5.3

Platform: Linux-4.14.70-v7±armv7l-with-debian-9.4

bp path: /home/pi/.local/bin/bp

Library path: /home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bibliopixel

Dependencies:

bibliopixel: version 3.4.30, git commit: (none), git tag (none)
BiblioPixelAnimations: version (none), git commit: (none), git tag (none)
loady: version 1.8.10, git commit: (none), git tag (none)

On Monday, October 22, 2018 at 1:23:21 PM UTC-6, Josiah Ritchie wrote:

I am trying to setup the driver for a ws2801 strip on a raspberry pi for BiblioPixel 3.4.29.

I confirmed the ws2801 is working with Adafruit’s library for it, but when trying to set it up for BiblioPixel I get unexpected flashing of the first pixel only.

First, bp devices doesn’t show the strip at all. I’m not sure if that it should be there for SPI devices, but I expected it.

Second, this yml results in sporadic light on the first LED in the strip.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

Anyone know what I should be doing differently?

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/t

https://tom.ritchford.com

https://tom.swirly.com

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Huh… weird. But yay! My guess is some weird permissions thing… sudo likely would’ve made it work with the FILE interface, but honestly periphery is better. We just default to the file interface as it’s lower barrier to use.
Just to check… running latest Raspbian? Lite or full desktop? Probably doesn’t matter… just curious if there’s something different that might be the cause. Maybe they changed something in a recent build.

···

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 6:18 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah.ritchie@gmail.com wrote:

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 4:06:59 PM UTC-6, Adam Haile wrote:

Whoa… weird. That would imply to me that SPI is not properly initialized.

  • Are you running bp with sudo?

I am not using sudo for any of the stuff I’m running

  • Did you enable SPI via raspi-config?

Yes, I did

  • Can you try with bp -v run <file>

Sure, here is the output of the command I ran for that

$ bp -v ambenv/ambenv.yml + ‘{animation: $bpa.strip.PixelPingPong}’

INFO - interfaces - file io spi dev /dev/spidev0.0

DEBUG - run - Running file ambenv/ambenv.yml+{animation: $bpa.strip.PixelPingPong}

DEBUG - animation_threading - Animation starts on main thread

^CDEBUG - project - Project <bibliopixel.project.project.Project object at 0x769b0150> stop called on pid 2610

DEBUG - animation_threading - Animation complete

DEBUG - project - Project <bibliopixel.project.project.Project object at 0x769b0150> finishes run()

INFO - run - Received signal SIGINT

  • pip install python-periphery and then Try this:

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

interface: PERIPHERY

animation: $strip_test

That actually did work. Looks like something with the FILE interface? This is a good work-around for me. Thanks!

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 5:49 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah....@gmail.com wrote:

Thanks Tom, understand you can’t be around 24/7. :slight_smile: I removed the num attribute, tested. Then I removed shape and added num back in. All three (incl with both in place) acted in the same way. I’ll pull num out for further testing and to reduce potential conflict between the two. You mentioned better diagnostics. Do I need to do something to trigger that?

I have done the upgrade and now have this output in bp info. I believe that’s the same I’ve been working with all afternoon.

$ bp info

Timestamp: 2018-10-23T21:42:21

Python version: 3.5.3

Platform: Linux-4.14.70-v7±armv7l-with-debian-9.4

bp path: /home/pi/.local/bin/bp

Library path: /home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bibliopixel

Dependencies:

bibliopixel: version 3.4.30, git commit: (none), git tag (none)
BiblioPixelAnimations: version (none), git commit: (none), git tag (none)
loady: version 1.8.10, git commit: (none), git tag (none)

I was surprised the other scripts worked also, but I was just tossing stuff against the wall. :slight_smile: If it is working for you, I wonder if I’m missing a dependency that is silently being skipped or something.

Thanks for the help.

Josiah

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 3:23:26 PM UTC-6, Tom Swirly wrote:

Hmm, I didn’t try both setting “num” and “shape” - you need either one or the other, not both - however, my very likely guess is that there should be no difference. I’ll try it right after this but won’t report back unless it changes anything.

I did also try today with a WS2801 strip, just to make sure.

Can you do us a favor and try updating your BiblioPixel installation, if you haven’t done it already today, by typing:

pip3 install -U bibliopixel

and try again? I released some changes today, which I frankly imagine won’t make much difference, but there are at least some better diagnostics?

It might not be that I am able to respond to your next message tonight - it’s a little late here and I got up super-early. Adam might have some ideas, he’s in a US timezone… otherwise, I’ll be on again tomorrow AM.

Very very weird that that other script running at the same time makes it better. I’d have guessed it wouldn’t have worked at all! Any guess, Adam?

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 10:39 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah....@gmail.com wrote:

I’ve found that any animation is a problem. Also, I’ve found that if I have shape: [20] & num: 20 I get 2 pixels and if I have shape: [50] & num: 50 I get 5 pixels. This doesn’t seem to extend to 90.

Also, If I run this script while BiblioPixel is running, suddenly the BiblioPixel animation starts to work properly. I don’t know why, but I wonder if it is because it sets the pixel count somewhere.

#!/usr/bin/python3

from future import division

import time

Import the WS2801 module.

import Adafruit_WS2801

import Adafruit_GPIO.SPI as SPI

Configure the count of pixels:

PIXEL_COUNT = 200

The WS2801 library makes use of the BCM pin numbering scheme. See the README.md for details.

SPI_PORT = 0

SPI_DEVICE = 0

pixels = Adafruit_WS2801.WS2801Pixels(PIXEL_COUNT, spi=SPI.SpiDev(SPI_PORT, SPI_DEVICE))

Clear all the pixels to turn them off.

pixels.clear()

pixels.show() # Make sure to call show() after changing any pixels!

exit(0)

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 1:09:14 PM UTC-6, Josiah Ritchie wrote:

Here is a short video of what this Project results in with 3.4.30.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

#animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

animation: $strip_test

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtmw0yt2ngpzq0f/BiblioPlex_problem.mp4?dl=0

$ bp info

Timestamp: 2018-10-23T19:03:01

Python version: 3.5.3

Platform: Linux-4.14.70-v7±armv7l-with-debian-9.4

bp path: /home/pi/.local/bin/bp

Library path: /home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bibliopixel

Dependencies:

bibliopixel: version 3.4.30, git commit: (none), git tag (none)
BiblioPixelAnimations: version (none), git commit: (none), git tag (none)
loady: version 1.8.10, git commit: (none), git tag (none)

On Monday, October 22, 2018 at 1:23:21 PM UTC-6, Josiah Ritchie wrote:

I am trying to setup the driver for a ws2801 strip on a raspberry pi for BiblioPixel 3.4.29.

I confirmed the ws2801 is working with Adafruit’s library for it, but when trying to set it up for BiblioPixel I get unexpected flashing of the first pixel only.

First, bp devices doesn’t show the strip at all. I’m not sure if that it should be there for SPI devices, but I expected it.

Second, this yml results in sporadic light on the first LED in the strip.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

Anyone know what I should be doing differently?

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For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.


/t

https://tom.ritchford.com

https://tom.swirly.com

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Latest lite Raspbian. sudo didn’t seem to change it.

···

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 4:22 PM Adam Haile adammhaile@gmail.com wrote:

Huh… weird. But yay! My guess is some weird permissions thing… sudo likely would’ve made it work with the FILE interface, but honestly periphery is better. We just default to the file interface as it’s lower barrier to use.
Just to check… running latest Raspbian? Lite or full desktop? Probably doesn’t matter… just curious if there’s something different that might be the cause. Maybe they changed something in a recent build.

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 6:18 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah.ritchie@gmail.com wrote:

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 4:06:59 PM UTC-6, Adam Haile wrote:

Whoa… weird. That would imply to me that SPI is not properly initialized.

  • Are you running bp with sudo?

I am not using sudo for any of the stuff I’m running

  • Did you enable SPI via raspi-config?

Yes, I did

  • Can you try with bp -v run <file>

Sure, here is the output of the command I ran for that

$ bp -v ambenv/ambenv.yml + ‘{animation: $bpa.strip.PixelPingPong}’

INFO - interfaces - file io spi dev /dev/spidev0.0

DEBUG - run - Running file ambenv/ambenv.yml+{animation: $bpa.strip.PixelPingPong}

DEBUG - animation_threading - Animation starts on main thread

^CDEBUG - project - Project <bibliopixel.project.project.Project object at 0x769b0150> stop called on pid 2610

DEBUG - animation_threading - Animation complete

DEBUG - project - Project <bibliopixel.project.project.Project object at 0x769b0150> finishes run()

INFO - run - Received signal SIGINT

  • pip install python-periphery and then Try this:

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

interface: PERIPHERY

animation: $strip_test

That actually did work. Looks like something with the FILE interface? This is a good work-around for me. Thanks!

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 5:49 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah....@gmail.com wrote:

Thanks Tom, understand you can’t be around 24/7. :slight_smile: I removed the num attribute, tested. Then I removed shape and added num back in. All three (incl with both in place) acted in the same way. I’ll pull num out for further testing and to reduce potential conflict between the two. You mentioned better diagnostics. Do I need to do something to trigger that?

I have done the upgrade and now have this output in bp info. I believe that’s the same I’ve been working with all afternoon.

$ bp info

Timestamp: 2018-10-23T21:42:21

Python version: 3.5.3

Platform: Linux-4.14.70-v7±armv7l-with-debian-9.4

bp path: /home/pi/.local/bin/bp

Library path: /home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bibliopixel

Dependencies:

bibliopixel: version 3.4.30, git commit: (none), git tag (none)
BiblioPixelAnimations: version (none), git commit: (none), git tag (none)
loady: version 1.8.10, git commit: (none), git tag (none)

I was surprised the other scripts worked also, but I was just tossing stuff against the wall. :slight_smile: If it is working for you, I wonder if I’m missing a dependency that is silently being skipped or something.

Thanks for the help.

Josiah

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 3:23:26 PM UTC-6, Tom Swirly wrote:

Hmm, I didn’t try both setting “num” and “shape” - you need either one or the other, not both - however, my very likely guess is that there should be no difference. I’ll try it right after this but won’t report back unless it changes anything.

I did also try today with a WS2801 strip, just to make sure.

Can you do us a favor and try updating your BiblioPixel installation, if you haven’t done it already today, by typing:

pip3 install -U bibliopixel

and try again? I released some changes today, which I frankly imagine won’t make much difference, but there are at least some better diagnostics?

It might not be that I am able to respond to your next message tonight - it’s a little late here and I got up super-early. Adam might have some ideas, he’s in a US timezone… otherwise, I’ll be on again tomorrow AM.

Very very weird that that other script running at the same time makes it better. I’d have guessed it wouldn’t have worked at all! Any guess, Adam?

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 10:39 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah....@gmail.com wrote:

I’ve found that any animation is a problem. Also, I’ve found that if I have shape: [20] & num: 20 I get 2 pixels and if I have shape: [50] & num: 50 I get 5 pixels. This doesn’t seem to extend to 90.

Also, If I run this script while BiblioPixel is running, suddenly the BiblioPixel animation starts to work properly. I don’t know why, but I wonder if it is because it sets the pixel count somewhere.

#!/usr/bin/python3

from future import division

import time

Import the WS2801 module.

import Adafruit_WS2801

import Adafruit_GPIO.SPI as SPI

Configure the count of pixels:

PIXEL_COUNT = 200

The WS2801 library makes use of the BCM pin numbering scheme. See the README.md for details.

SPI_PORT = 0

SPI_DEVICE = 0

pixels = Adafruit_WS2801.WS2801Pixels(PIXEL_COUNT, spi=SPI.SpiDev(SPI_PORT, SPI_DEVICE))

Clear all the pixels to turn them off.

pixels.clear()

pixels.show() # Make sure to call show() after changing any pixels!

exit(0)

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 1:09:14 PM UTC-6, Josiah Ritchie wrote:

Here is a short video of what this Project results in with 3.4.30.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

#animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

animation: $strip_test

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtmw0yt2ngpzq0f/BiblioPlex_problem.mp4?dl=0

$ bp info

Timestamp: 2018-10-23T19:03:01

Python version: 3.5.3

Platform: Linux-4.14.70-v7±armv7l-with-debian-9.4

bp path: /home/pi/.local/bin/bp

Library path: /home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bibliopixel

Dependencies:

bibliopixel: version 3.4.30, git commit: (none), git tag (none)
BiblioPixelAnimations: version (none), git commit: (none), git tag (none)
loady: version 1.8.10, git commit: (none), git tag (none)

On Monday, October 22, 2018 at 1:23:21 PM UTC-6, Josiah Ritchie wrote:

I am trying to setup the driver for a ws2801 strip on a raspberry pi for BiblioPixel 3.4.29.

I confirmed the ws2801 is working with Adafruit’s library for it, but when trying to set it up for BiblioPixel I get unexpected flashing of the first pixel only.

First, bp devices doesn’t show the strip at all. I’m not sure if that it should be there for SPI devices, but I expected it.

Second, this yml results in sporadic light on the first LED in the strip.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

Anyone know what I should be doing differently?

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Glad to help. I’d be glad to further troubleshoot the FILE method further if you guys have some diagnostics I can do.

···

On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 2:27 AM Tom Swirly tom@swirly.com wrote:

Whoa!

So am I right that this worked for you as a workaround? Makes no sense, but I’m not going to look a gift fix in the mouth!

(I’m in the last 20% of the documentation, and there’s a mostly-empty troubleshooting section that this will go into so the next guy knows about this…)

I have fairly recently tried an RPi on this, but I haven’t updated the OS in six months or so. When I get some spare time, I’m going to update everything and try it all again.

Ah, and keep us posted if you have any other unexplained problems. Stuff like this, where you have a standard system with standard OS and pretty common lights and an updated release and yet you get anomalies - these make me nervous. :smiley:

Thanks for a very clear trouble report!

On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 6:10 AM Josiah Ritchie josiah.ritchie@gmail.com wrote:

Latest lite Raspbian. sudo didn’t seem to change it.

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 4:22 PM Adam Haile adammhaile@gmail.com wrote:

Huh… weird. But yay! My guess is some weird permissions thing… sudo likely would’ve made it work with the FILE interface, but honestly periphery is better. We just default to the file interface as it’s lower barrier to use.
Just to check… running latest Raspbian? Lite or full desktop? Probably doesn’t matter… just curious if there’s something different that might be the cause. Maybe they changed something in a recent build.

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 6:18 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah.ritchie@gmail.com wrote:

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 4:06:59 PM UTC-6, Adam Haile wrote:

Whoa… weird. That would imply to me that SPI is not properly initialized.

  • Are you running bp with sudo?

I am not using sudo for any of the stuff I’m running

  • Did you enable SPI via raspi-config?

Yes, I did

  • Can you try with bp -v run <file>

Sure, here is the output of the command I ran for that

$ bp -v ambenv/ambenv.yml + ‘{animation: $bpa.strip.PixelPingPong}’

INFO - interfaces - file io spi dev /dev/spidev0.0

DEBUG - run - Running file ambenv/ambenv.yml+{animation: $bpa.strip.PixelPingPong}

DEBUG - animation_threading - Animation starts on main thread

^CDEBUG - project - Project <bibliopixel.project.project.Project object at 0x769b0150> stop called on pid 2610

DEBUG - animation_threading - Animation complete

DEBUG - project - Project <bibliopixel.project.project.Project object at 0x769b0150> finishes run()

INFO - run - Received signal SIGINT

  • pip install python-periphery and then Try this:

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

interface: PERIPHERY

animation: $strip_test

That actually did work. Looks like something with the FILE interface? This is a good work-around for me. Thanks!

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 5:49 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah....@gmail.com wrote:

Thanks Tom, understand you can’t be around 24/7. :slight_smile: I removed the num attribute, tested. Then I removed shape and added num back in. All three (incl with both in place) acted in the same way. I’ll pull num out for further testing and to reduce potential conflict between the two. You mentioned better diagnostics. Do I need to do something to trigger that?

I have done the upgrade and now have this output in bp info. I believe that’s the same I’ve been working with all afternoon.

$ bp info

Timestamp: 2018-10-23T21:42:21

Python version: 3.5.3

Platform: Linux-4.14.70-v7±armv7l-with-debian-9.4

bp path: /home/pi/.local/bin/bp

Library path: /home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bibliopixel

Dependencies:

bibliopixel: version 3.4.30, git commit: (none), git tag (none)
BiblioPixelAnimations: version (none), git commit: (none), git tag (none)
loady: version 1.8.10, git commit: (none), git tag (none)

I was surprised the other scripts worked also, but I was just tossing stuff against the wall. :slight_smile: If it is working for you, I wonder if I’m missing a dependency that is silently being skipped or something.

Thanks for the help.

Josiah

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 3:23:26 PM UTC-6, Tom Swirly wrote:

Hmm, I didn’t try both setting “num” and “shape” - you need either one or the other, not both - however, my very likely guess is that there should be no difference. I’ll try it right after this but won’t report back unless it changes anything.

I did also try today with a WS2801 strip, just to make sure.

Can you do us a favor and try updating your BiblioPixel installation, if you haven’t done it already today, by typing:

pip3 install -U bibliopixel

and try again? I released some changes today, which I frankly imagine won’t make much difference, but there are at least some better diagnostics?

It might not be that I am able to respond to your next message tonight - it’s a little late here and I got up super-early. Adam might have some ideas, he’s in a US timezone… otherwise, I’ll be on again tomorrow AM.

Very very weird that that other script running at the same time makes it better. I’d have guessed it wouldn’t have worked at all! Any guess, Adam?

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 10:39 PM Josiah Ritchie josiah....@gmail.com wrote:

I’ve found that any animation is a problem. Also, I’ve found that if I have shape: [20] & num: 20 I get 2 pixels and if I have shape: [50] & num: 50 I get 5 pixels. This doesn’t seem to extend to 90.

Also, If I run this script while BiblioPixel is running, suddenly the BiblioPixel animation starts to work properly. I don’t know why, but I wonder if it is because it sets the pixel count somewhere.

#!/usr/bin/python3

from future import division

import time

Import the WS2801 module.

import Adafruit_WS2801

import Adafruit_GPIO.SPI as SPI

Configure the count of pixels:

PIXEL_COUNT = 200

The WS2801 library makes use of the BCM pin numbering scheme. See the README.md for details.

SPI_PORT = 0

SPI_DEVICE = 0

pixels = Adafruit_WS2801.WS2801Pixels(PIXEL_COUNT, spi=SPI.SpiDev(SPI_PORT, SPI_DEVICE))

Clear all the pixels to turn them off.

pixels.clear()

pixels.show() # Make sure to call show() after changing any pixels!

exit(0)

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 1:09:14 PM UTC-6, Josiah Ritchie wrote:

Here is a short video of what this Project results in with 3.4.30.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

#animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

animation: $strip_test

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtmw0yt2ngpzq0f/BiblioPlex_problem.mp4?dl=0

$ bp info

Timestamp: 2018-10-23T19:03:01

Python version: 3.5.3

Platform: Linux-4.14.70-v7±armv7l-with-debian-9.4

bp path: /home/pi/.local/bin/bp

Library path: /home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bibliopixel

Dependencies:

bibliopixel: version 3.4.30, git commit: (none), git tag (none)
BiblioPixelAnimations: version (none), git commit: (none), git tag (none)
loady: version 1.8.10, git commit: (none), git tag (none)

On Monday, October 22, 2018 at 1:23:21 PM UTC-6, Josiah Ritchie wrote:

I am trying to setup the driver for a ws2801 strip on a raspberry pi for BiblioPixel 3.4.29.

I confirmed the ws2801 is working with Adafruit’s library for it, but when trying to set it up for BiblioPixel I get unexpected flashing of the first pixel only.

First, bp devices doesn’t show the strip at all. I’m not sure if that it should be there for SPI devices, but I expected it.

Second, this yml results in sporadic light on the first LED in the strip.

shape: [12]

driver:

typename: SPI

ledtype: WS2801

num: 12

animation: $bpa.strip.LarsonScanners.LarsonScanner

Anyone know what I should be doing differently?

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/t

https://tom.ritchford.com

https://tom.swirly.com

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