Feature Request: Support for HUB75 display

[freaknils]

It would be very cool, if OLA would support HUB75 LED (like https://www.adafruit.com/product/607) displays similar to SPI pixel strings.

There is a library (under GPL v2) for this display so it should be easy to implement: https://github.com/hzeller/rpi-rgb-led-matrix/tree/master/examples-api-use

Thanks!

[peternewman]

Firstly have you seen our FAQ question:
https://www.openlighting.org/ola/get-help/ola-faq/#Can_you_add_support_for_the_ltinsert-name-heregt_device

So the good news is:
https://github.com/hzeller/rpi-rgb-led-matrix/blob/master/examples-api-use/README.md#running-some-demos

To run the actual demos, you need to run this as root so that the GPIO pins can be accessed; as soon as that established, the program will drop the privileges.

Which means if they have sufficient permissions beforehand it shouldn't need root access.

I think there are two options here, it could be a standalone OLA client which just receives frames of DMX, or could be integrated into the OLAd core. The former is probably the easiest way to start. Although after more than 13x13 RGB pixels will hit the limits of one universe and sync type stuff is probably easier within the core (although would work, just possibly a bit more clunkily), outside it.

See the sync ports config here for some details of sync considerations:
http://docs.openlighting.org/ola/conf/ola-spi.conf.html

Do you have the device and how's your C++ @freaknils ?

TBH with this one you could probably get some code working in C++/Python or even Bash:
https://github.com/hzeller/rpi-rgb-led-matrix/blob/master/examples-api-use/ledcat.cc

[freaknils]

Firstly have you seen our FAQ question:
https://www.openlighting.org/ola/get-help/ola-faq/#Can_you_add_support_for_the_ltinsert-name-heregt_device

I am sorry, I did not read the FAQ.

Do you have the device and how's your C++ @freaknils ?

Yeah, I have got three devices, but my C(++) is really bad.

TBH with this one you could probably get some code working in C++/Python or even Bash:
https://github.com/hzeller/rpi-rgb-led-matrix/blob/master/examples-api-use/ledcat.cc

Thanks for the hint, maybe I will get this to work!

[peternewman]

Firstly have you seen our FAQ question:
https://www.openlighting.org/ola/get-help/ola-faq/#Can_you_add_support_for_the_ltinsert-name-heregt_device

I am sorry, I did not read the FAQ.

No worries @freaknils . We've just been bitten in the past (such as #400 ) either by people disappearing after code is written and needs testing, or by issues that can't be easily resolved remotely/need too many round trips.

Do you have the device and how's your C++ @freaknils ?

Yeah, I have got three devices, but my C(++) is really bad.

Are you willing to learn/try? We're happy to help. As you say it should be pretty easy given they do all the heavy lifting.

TBH with this one you could probably get some code working in C++/Python or even Bash:
https://github.com/hzeller/rpi-rgb-led-matrix/blob/master/examples-api-use/ledcat.cc

Thanks for the hint, maybe I will get this to work!

Please post here if it works, for others that find it. The only challenge with this approach is probably dealing with the multiple universes needed for any reasonable number of pixels. It's possible either way but may be a little simpler internally.