by Matt26 » 02 June 2018, 19:58
Hello, me again with the two time-triggered buttons. I am installing these systems in a lot of places, so I really want tot be able to solve this this in an efficient way.
So, now I have sort of the opposite problem that I had before. I want one of my time-triggered buttons, which is a timeline, to OCCAISIONALLY stay active until it is manually changed, instead of the usual daily cycle of trading places with the other time-triggered button, which is a different timeline.
My first problem which I sort of solved (see previous posts) was I wanted one of the time-triggered looks, the one that was mostly static and bright white, to SOMETIMES take over and stay until manually changed. Since giving a button a time-trigger confers god-like power unto it and makes it trigger at its appointed time no matter what other settings you may attempt with any other buttons, the second time-triggered look, the active "light show" look, insisted on firing and taking over at its appointed time.
So to fix that, on another page I set up two macros, both the same, with a static look that was a good imitation of the bright white look I wanted to take over, and made those 2 macros chase back and forth at 1 sec. intervals, killing the other time-triggered button when it was invoked, thereby keeping my "static" look active. A work-around to be sure, because it allowed the time-triggered other look to initiate for 1 sec before it was killed by the next macro chasing. Sorry for the long explanation, bu here is why I wrote that:
This time I am looking to keep my 2nd look ("light show") active, and NOT have the bright white look invoke itself until manually chosen. Precisely the opposite problem. Well, why don't I just make 2 macros that have this look, and make them chase, etc, just like I did for the first problem? The difference here is that the bright look could be replaced by a static look, which could re-initiate every 1 second. This other look, the "light show" look, is a 15 min timeline, with lots of moving head movement, and it does not work to have it re-initiate every 1 sec. Some of the moving head chases need 10 secs or more before they begin again. I could find out how much time it needs to cycle (10 sec?), and make the 2 macros chase at that length, but then my other "bright white" look would have 10 seconds to initiate when its time-trigger goes, before it gets killed off by my chasing macros. It is possible I could live with that, but, come on, that is definitely an inferior work-around.
This would be so much easier if, when I was making these new buttons, I could check a box the said "give this button god-like power and ignore whatever any other button thinks it wants to do". Is it a major engineering challenge to make that option available on a button-by button basis during programming?
Another reason this "2 macros chasing back and forth" is not good is that sometimes the entire rig blinks out and back on again when one macro takes over from the other. This may be a function of computer horsepower, but if I wasn't chasing macros, this would not be an issue.
I really want to keep using ShowXpress in these venues, because it really is the easiest and most sensible of the laptop-based programs. I am going to install this in a bunch more places, so if I can't get this to work a bit more elegantly, I may have to try using something else. C'mon, guys, help me here. I am using a Windows 10 Samsung laptop (not new) w/ v.8228 of ShowXpress. I can get more computer specs if I need to.