Running Falcon F4V3 without pc attached.

[KAS]

Hello, I'm hoping I will be able to produce shows, load the program and setup in areas where a PC is not realistic.  My Falcon has an SD card reader but I believe this is not actually working yet and rather for a future setup. 
My questions are.
Is the SD indeed not usable at this time? 
Is the purpose of SD for this purpose,  to run separate from PC? 
Is a Raspberry Pi the only way to operate it without being attached to the PC? 
Are there any other convenient ways to run a Falcon F4v3 board not connected to a pc?
Thank you
KAS

[jnealand]

I would plan for using a Raspberry Pi and if the Firmware comes down for the F16 and F4 count it as a bonus.  You will probably need to add a clock to the Pi for scheduled operation.

Jim

[jeremy0203]

Yes
No
No
Yes

[KAS]

Thank you Jim, and Jeremy! 

I believe the Pi3 come with a clock installed so that's a bonus and it's roughly 50% faster than the 2. 

Jeremy could you please expand on some other ways other than a Pi?  I'm looking at Pi's but being very new at all this I am interested in other options to cut the pc umbilical cord so to speak.

Thanks again guys!  Great stuff!!
KAS

[algerdes]

Which RPi comes with a clock?  None of mine have one that I didn't add or weren't on a PiHat/PiCap/etc. 

[KAS]

Sorry aljerdes, I must have misread the clock thing.  I just purchased a Pi3 B+ but can't find where I read that.  Anyhow I am completely new to PI and Linux but I'm determined to learn this at my age.  I'm no programmer by any means and have only known and operated Windows O/S.  I see I can load a washed down version of Windows 10 Iot, but I'm not sure if that's any easier than Raspbian, or whether it will run a Falcon controller.

At this time I only want the Pi for separating the Falcon from my pc.

Can anyone please offer their thoughts as to the best way to get started with a PI strictly for using with my Falcon controller.  Something for dummy's.   

Thank you!
KAS

[jnealand]

Well first of all go sign up for the Falcon Christmas forum  http://falconchristmas.com/forum/.  that is the place to learn about using the Falcon Player program which runs the Pi.  Skip all the version 1 stuff and go straight to the FPP beta 2 version.  It is pretty stable and seems to work well.

[aknflyer]

I believe the F4v3 will never be capable of running wireless. The F16v3 will, whenever the next update becomes available.
That being said, you can run it as I did with my F16v3 by using a pi connected to your controller via ethernet, and running the pi in bridge mode...the pi sends data to the F4v3 on the network port.  A few routing commands are required to get access to the F4v3 as the F4v3 will have to be on a different network.