Controlling FPP from Vixen3

This article was authored by mwestling. Used here with his permission.

Assumptions:

• You are using a Rasberry Pi B version 3
• You are running FPP 1.8-X-X, you can get to the WebUI and you have a monitor/projector connected to see it working
• You are using Vixen 3.x and are somewhat familiar with it
• You have completed the setup of network, video output, etc. on your FPP
• You have separated the audio file from the video file using a video editor
• You are prepared to have an increase in your CLAP symptoms with video side effects

Setup your FPP & Scripts

1. In the FPP WebUI, go to Content Setup -> Script Repository Browser

2. Scroll down to Media/PlayVideo.sh/Play a Video and click 'Install'.

3. [Optional] You will probably also want to be able to stop a video so scroll down a little further to Media/StopAnyRunningVideo.sh/Stop Any Playing Video and click 'Install'.

4. It is suggested that you keep the original script as a source and edit copies of the script, so you should do the following:

A. Go to Content Setup -> File Manager, then select the Scripts tab

B. Highlight the PlayVideo.sh entry and click the download button

[NOTE] Once you have done this, now would be a good time to shutdown your FPP and grab your thumbdrive as the file transfers will be faster directly to the thumbdrive

C. Go to the downloaded file on your computer and use a text editor to edit the file. (Remember, WordPad will always append the .txt extension to your file so you will need to clean this up after editing the file)

D. In the VIDEOFILE entry line, Enter the exact name of your video enclosed in quotes "MyFileName.mp4" including the file extension. Save the file to a name you will recognize and ensure you keep the .sh extension.

E. Do this for however many video files you will be triggering remotely from Vixen3.

F. If you followed the note above, then insert your thumbdrive into your computer, if not you will use the FPP WebUI to upload your files. Copy your scripts to the 'scripts' directory on the thumbdrive

G. Now, ensure you copied your videos to the 'videos' directory on the thumbdrive. If you have not, then do that now.

5. Once you have copied your scripts and videos to the thumbdrive, eject it from your PC and put it back into the FPP. Restart your FPP.

6. You can now test your scripts by going to Content Setup - File Manager. Highlight your script and click the 'run' button. This should trigger your video to start playing. You can stop the video by highlighting the 'StopAnyRunningVideo' script and clicking 'run'

7. If you are going to use CURL, you will need to copy the URL that comes up when you run the script. It will be something like http://[IPAddressofYourFPP]/runEvent...hp?scriptName=[NameofYourScript.sh]

To Trigger A Video using CURL

1. Install CURL (Install thread: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9...l-on-a-windows)

2. In Vixen, setup an Element 'Video'. Then setup a 'Command Controller' controller with one channel

3. Patch the Video element to the Controller Channel

4. Create a new vixen sequence, associate the audio you seperated earlier to the sequence

5. Add in a 'Launcher' Device Action from the 'Effects' and then highlight the effect.

6. In the Launcher configuration Effect Editor, give the effect a description

7. In the Executable section, browse to where you installed CURL and select Curl.exe

8. In the Arguments section, copy and paste the URL from step 7 in the setup section

9. Save your sequence and test.

[NOTE: You may need to add some blank space in your audio file as this method has a slight delay from when you call the script to when the video starts. I found mine to be about 1.5 seconds]

To Trigger a Video using Streaming ACN E1.31 (Network connected controller wired or wireless)

1. In FPP, navigate to Status/Control -> Events

2. Click on 'Add Event'. Give the event an ID of 1/1 (Major/Minor) using the dropdown. In the script dropdown, choose the script you want to run. Click 'Save' and this event should now show up in the Events list.

[Optional: Add another event with an ID of 10/10 and associate the StopAnyRunningVideo.sh script to this event so you can stop your video with a command from Vixen]

3. In Vixen, setup an Element 'Video' with two channels. [Mine are V1 and V2]. Add a Streaming ACN (E1.31) Controller with two channels. [Start =1, On = Checked, Universe = 1, Size = 2, Destination = Unicast to your FPP IP Address]

4. Patch your two Video elements to your two E1.31 channels

5. Create a new vixen sequence, associate the audio you separated earlier into the sequence

6. Add a 'Custom Value' effect into each of the two video channels. In the first channel configuration, ensure '8 Bit Value' is chosen as the Data Type and assign it a value of 10. In the second channel Custom Value, assign it a value of 10

[NOTE: You have to use a 10x multiplier to the event Major/Minor control channels. i.e 1/1 = 10/10, 3/5 = 30/50. Don't ask me why but that is how FPP automagically translates what you send to a Major/Minor event id]

7. Next, navigate to Status/Control -> Status and change the FFPD Mode to Bridge. This will tell FPP to listen for E1.31 commands and execute them. You should see a Bytes Transferred screen with Universe, Start Address, and Bytes Transferred values.

8. Save your Vixen sequence and run it. It should trigger the video to play with the sound coming from your computer.

[NOTE: I noticed sometimes that even though I entered a value into the Custom Value value section it would revert back to 0. What helped most of the time is once I entered the value, I would tab out of that field and it would stick most of the time]

Ok, this is how I got mine to work. It may not be the right way, but it worked for me. After scouring the forums and asking questions this is what I came up with.

Disclaimer Here: Your mileage may vary, may cause serious side effects, I don't warranty this, as a matter of fact, when I click post the warranty expires, has been known to increase you CLAP Addiction symptoms, price subject to change at any time, taxes and fees not included.