Generating FPP configuration from my XLights configuration

[keithsw1112]

With 98 universes configured I was not looking forward to redefining my universes in FPP so I knocked up a little program which reads your E131 config in XLights and generates the contents of the FPP universes file.

You can download the source and a pre-compiled executable from bitbucket https://bitbucket.org/keithsw1111/fppuniversesgeneratorfromxlights/overview

This comes without warranty. It works from my current XLights build and the FPP v1.0-119-g3874ec4. As the file is to the best of my knowledge undocumented i cant promise it wont break in future builds.

[gerry]

Hi Keith,

I have an enhancement  request out for this. I manually added all mine in , but would not mind trying this out.

How do you execute it , eg do You have to download it to your show directory etc ?

I saw a post from Captain a while ago indicating that he was considering reading the xl setup and creating the FP setup. Have you let him know about this ?

Am posting this from my iPad , so have not tried the download.

[keithsw1111]

Full instructions are in the readme file. Basically you run the program. Select your show directory and it generates the universes data. You can then copy and paste it into your universes file. It does not modify anything directly meaning it also can't stuff anything up.

[jediknight2]

How does it deal with com port controllers?

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[keithsw1111]

Right now it doesn't. But if you send me your sample XLights and falcon config happy to see if I can generate it for you.

[gerry]

Hi,

Sorry, but I got stuck at the stage , 'go to the media folder'. What is the path name to the directory ?

(I am assuming that I had to use fpp as the username). I located a media directory as soon as I logged in via putty, but don't think that , that is the one as there was no universe file.
 

[keithsw1111]

The file you are looking for is universes ... not universe. I will need to fire my pi up tomorrow to double check the full path. Bh the way I am logging on as pi ... that could make a difference.

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[jediknight2]

Yeah..the new username pw is different..easy change in code though

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[keithsw1112]

Some confusion here I wanted to clear up.

To try out the program you do not need access to your Pi at all. When you run the program you get the opportunity to pick your XLights show directory on your PC. The program then locates the XML file in that directory that contains your setup (E131 controllers). When you click generate it populates a text box on the screen the contents that should go in the universes file. It is then up to you to get it there either using Putty or an FTP program.

All of my controllers are unicast and E131 ... the code works for that scenario. Happy to enhance it on request with appropriate samples or let others do so for other configurations. It also only works on the PC ... not Linux or mac.

I knocked it up to avoid the error prone entry of config for 98 universes and shared it because others might find it either immediately useful or as a base for something that would make their job a little easier.

The "universes" file for me is in the media subdirectory of the home directory of the "pi" user on my pi. Depending on the user you log into your pi with your circumstances may be different. Different controller configurations may be stored differently by FPP ... again this was a quick job to simplify the entry of my config ... not an exhaustive attempt to create a tool for porting Xlights config to FPP ... at least not yet.

[vincerules]

I will definitely try this tool out. I had asked last year if xlights and fpp could have import/export ability for this and it didn't get much attention. Your tool is a step in the right direction.

[CaptainMurdoch]

FPP's channel output configs are migrating to JSON slowly.  Once this happens the. We might tackle having an import utility that can be run via the FPP file manager screen.  Upload your xLights config, highlight it and hit import.  That is the goal but was lower priority this year so didn't make it in.

[darylc]

Perfect, thanks so much for sharing that Keith.  Realised I needed to do this tonight for almost 250 universes and googled up this thread.  5 minutes later all done :-)

Daryl

[deonb]

Is this tool still the best current way to export configuration from xLights to FPP?

[keithsw1111]

No. This functionality is built into xlights now. Access it via the tools menu. Fpp connect.

[deonb]

No. This functionality is built into xlights now. Access it via the tools menu. Fpp connect.

Hah! Thanks. I was literally one dot release too early. I upgraded and now I have that. Works great!

Well, uploading controller configuration works great. Uploading sequences just gets a few % in, then pegs a CPU at 100% forever until you cancel it.

Not particularly important though (to me anyway) - the FPP site is easy enough for uploading sequences.

Thanks!