WS281x, SK6812 driver for the Omega2? [Solved]

luz

@LaurentN Although I'm not fluent at all in Python, I'd say there's no reason why Python should not work fine controlling LED chains with p44-ledchain.

@LaurentN said in WS281x, SK6812 driver for the Omega2? [Solved]:

However sometimes (especially when I have to calculate the RGB values and then compose the string), I get an error 'ValueError: invalid \x escape'

That sounds like you are trying to use the literal string syntax (the backslash escapes in \xhh form, with hh being a two-digit hex number) to construct your string, but maybe in a way that sometimes outputs only one digit instead of two, which could be the cause of the ValueError?

Probably there's a more direct way to get numeric byte values into a string or byte array in Python.

LaurentN

Re: [WS281x](SK6812 driver for the Omega2? [Solved])

Hi.
In the last days I played a bit with Python to get the WS281x working wirth Luz' module.
As I want to use HLS color schema (it allows to change the luminosity of the color by only one number), I programmed a function HLS to RGB color string:

def hls2rgb(h,l,s):
	r, g, b = colorsys.hls_to_rgb(h,l,s)
	shr = str(hex(int(r * 255.0)))
	shg = str(hex(int(g * 255.0)))
	shb = str(hex(int(b * 255.0)))
	# print ([int(255.0*r), int(255.0*g), int(255.0*b)])
	if len(shr) == 3:
		shr = shr[0:2] + str(0) + shr[2]
	if len(shg) == 3:
		shg = shg[0:2] + str(0) + shg[2]
	if len(shb) == 3:
		shb = shb[0:2] + str(0) + shb[2]
	col_led_string = shr[2:4].decode('hex') +shg[2:4].decode('hex') + shb[2:4].decode('hex')

By using the following additional function, it allows using a 2 dimensional color matrix which is converted in the corresponding hex color string needed for the module. (It might be useful and easier to use a matrix to handle LED chains instead of a string of hexadigitals)

def hls2rgb_hexstring(hls_matrix):
	dim1 = len(hls_matrix)
	try:
		dim2t = len(hls_matrix[0])
	except:
		dim2t = 0
	if dim2t == 0:
		dim2 = dim1
		dim1 = 1
	else: 
		dim2 = dim2t
	
	if dim1 == 1:
		h = hls_matrix[0]/360.0
		l = hls_matrix[1]/100.0
		s = hls_matrix[2]/100.0
		col_led_string = hls2rgb(h,l,s)
		return col_led_string
	else:
		col_led_string=""
		for i in range(0,dim1):
			h = hls_matrix[i][0]/360.0
			l = hls_matrix[i][1]/100.0
			s = hls_matrix[i][2]/100.0
			col_led_string = col_led_string + hls2rgb(h,l,s)
		return col_led_string

To display a color gradient among several LED's (here 40) one has to run this code, which is using both function above:

color_start = 0
color_end = 359
nr_led = 40
lum = 2
sat = 100
colorMatrix = []
for i in range(color_start,color_end, abs(color_end-color_start)/nr_led):
	colorMatrix.append([i,lum,sat])
	#print [i,lum, sat]
print colorMatrix
with open('/dev/ledchain0','w') as export:
	export.write(hls2rgb_hexstring(colorMatrix))

Jakofff Parker

@luz does it work for the omega 2+ version with kernel 4.4.6?

luz

@Jakofff-Parker sorry for the 2 month delay, must have missed a notification here!

The answer is yes.

The p44-ledchain module does not depend on many kernel internals, the only subsystem it actually uses is hrtimer (high resolution timers), so it should run on any not really ancient kernel version.
On the other hand, it strictly limited to the MT7688 SoC, as it directly uses the PWM hardware without any abstraction. So it's good for Omega2/2S, LinkItSmart and possibly HLK7688.

Marti MG

Hi, just a note regarding WS2811 I had a go with @luz's driver and I found out that even my led strip is branded as WS2811 (BTF-LIGHTING WS2811) it didn't work properly if I set the ledchain to type 0 (ledchain0=0,200,0), but it did work well using type 2 with both 3.3V and 5V signals.

BTW, many thanks @luz for the driver!

luz

@Marti-MG Thanks for this information!

I made a separate mode for the WS2811 because the timing specs from the datasheet I had were definitely not compatible with those I knew working with the WS2812/13. But I had no WS2811 to test back then.

I'm not too surprised that apparently the datasheet is not correct. I saw the same for WS2813 which had the T0L time specified 300nS, which is definitely not working with real WS2813 as I found out.

The modes are actually just timing numbers in a table in the driver, see line 157 in p44-ledchain.c. So it would be simple to nudge the WS2811 entry towards the WS2813 timing until it works.

For the time being, I just added a note to the p44-ledchain README.md to also try WS2813 mode in case WS2811 does not work.

Alexandr Didenko

@LaurentN
export.write(hls2rgb_hexstring(colorMatrix))
TypeError: expected a string or other character buffer object

alt text

Alexandr Didenko

Mr @luz! Can you write full tutorial? It's very difficult for beginners like me.
I want to control RGB LED strip WS2813.

Nikolay Vetrov

@luz
@Jakofff-Parker said in WS281x, SK6812 driver for the Omega2? [Solved]:

@luz does it work for the omega 2+ version with kernel 4.4.6?

When I did the opkg install, I got the error:

 * satisfy_dependencies_for: Cannot satisfy the following dependencies for kmod-p44-ledchain:
 * 	kernel (= 4.14.81-1-5c1ea8a282d7395b1a2c86bf6b1669fc) *

then, after:

 echo-en '\ xFF \ x00 \ x00 \ xFF \ x00 \ x00'> / dev / ledchain0

Omega immediately hung, omega wifi dropping, yellow led turns off, and I did her a power reset.

Is this problem happening because the module is for another kernel?
I have Omega 2+ with 4.4.74 kernel

root@Omega-1D19:~# ls -l
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           940 Jan 14  2019 greeting.py
-rw-rw-r--    1 1000     1000          6936 May 16  2019 kmod-p44-ledchain_4.14.81+2.0-7_mipsel_24kc.ipk
root@Omega-1D19:~# opkg install --force-depends kmod-p44-ledchain*
Installing kmod-p44-ledchain (4.14.81+2.0-7) to root...
Configuring kmod-p44-ledchain.
Collected errors:
 * satisfy_dependencies_for: Cannot satisfy the following dependencies for kmod-p44-ledchain:
 * 	kernel (= 4.14.81-1-5c1ea8a282d7395b1a2c86bf6b1669fc) * 
root@Omega-1D19:~# 
root@Omega-1D19:~# insmod /lib/modules/4.14.81/p44-ledchain.ko ledchain0=0,5,1
root@Omega-1D19:~# echo -en '\xFF\x00\x00\xFF\x00\x00' >/dev/ledchain0
packet_write_wait: Connection to 192.168.3.1 port 22: Broken pipe

Nikolay Vetrov

@Nikolay-Vetrov Yes, it is!

Lazar Demin

@Nikolay-Vetrov Yes, upgrade to the very latest available firmware: oupgrade -l -f and the ledchain kernel module will work right away.

That's actually what controls the notification LED on the Omega2 Pro

Alexandr Didenko

@luz said in WS281x, SK6812 driver for the Omega2? [Solved]:

./scripts/feeds update -a

What plan44@plan44.ch's password???

Create index file './feeds/telephony.index'
Updating feed 'plan44' from 'ssh://plan44@plan44.ch/home/plan44/sharedgit/plan44-public-feed.git;master' ...
Cloning into './feeds/plan44'...
The authenticity of host 'plan44.ch (5.148.180.31)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:2MTxsEAWz1HLbiYcN9wufc0e0pLraCZHbizwVXat0RE.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added 'plan44.ch,5.148.180.31' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
plan44@plan44.ch's password:
Connection closed by 5.148.180.31 port 22
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.
failed.

luz

You seem to have the wrong repo URL for some reason. Where did it come from? Probably a mistake on my part publishing that URL somewhere (it's the url to my private staging repo for preparing stuff before I push to github - and obviously not publicly accessible). If you can point me to where you got that url from into your feeds.conf, I'll correct it, of course

Anyway, just use github URL: https://github.com/plan44/plan44-feed.git , in your feeds.conf (or feeds.conf.default in case you modified that one) then it will work.

Alexandr Didenko

@luz said in WS281x, SK6812 driver for the Omega2? [Solved]:

add the plan44 feed to feeds.conf.default by adding a line
src-git plan44 ssh://plan44@plan44.ch/home/plan44/sharedgit/plan44-public-feed.git;master

Here.
And what we can to write in feeds.conf.default?
This: src-git plan44 https://github.com/plan44/plan44-feed.git?

crispyoz

If you install a new build system and run make, ledchain is included correctly in the Omega2Pro firmware. No other configuration is required.

György Farkas

@crispyoz As @Lazar-Demin wrote above practically every recent firmware already has the ledchain kernel module.
Probably for most of us this is simpler to use (and change its configuration only) than build some custom firmware.

luz

@Alexandr-Didenko thanks for pointing me to that old post! Apparently that was a cut&paste error of mine back in 2017
I just edited it to have it point to the github repo now.

And what we can to write in feeds.conf.default?
This: src-git plan44 https://github.com/plan44/plan44-feed.git?

Yes, I think that would work (master branch should be the default) but to make sure I usually specify the branch explicitly:

src-git plan44 https://github.com/plan44/plan44-feed.git;master

Note that if feeds.conf does not exist already, first copy feeds.conf.default to feeds.conf and then append the new line.

(Side note: It's a widespread error to directly edit feeds.conf.default, altough one should not! feeds.conf is the mechanism intended to customize your build , like .config or the contents of files/. All of these are NOT in the openwrt git repo, and belong to you. feeds.conf.default however belongs to openwrt)

crispyoz

@György-Farkas Yes of course, but it seems @Alexandr-Didenko is building firmware otherwise why would he be using feeds.conf

dixit

@luz Sorry to dragging you back in the past to remind you about this beautiful creation of yours!
I am using p44-ledchain on the Omage 2+ on the pwm0(Pin 18) with 5 ws2812 LEDs with my Custom PCB board.
I used the below command line to insert the driver(as mentioned in the readme);

insmod p44-ledchain ledchain0=0,5,1,10,5100

Here the issue I am facing is that when i give command to update all 5 LEDs, it does not control all five LEDs. Sometimes it glows 3 and sometime 2.
Eg. To glow all 5 LEDs in Bright Blue color; I applied below command but it turned on only first 3 LEDs in Green, 1 bright blue, 1 dim blue.

echo -e "\x00\x00\xFF\x00\x00\xFF\x00\x00\xFF\x00\x00\xFF\x00\x00\xFF" > /dev/ledchain0

I am pretty sure that the driver if okay in terms of controlling the LEDs.
Can you help me to make this work by pointing to the points I might have missed.

TAI

crispyoz

@dixit What configuration parameters have you set for the ledchain module? I expect this is a timing issue, WS2812x seem to vary a bit depending on the manufacturer,