It wants to be 2.5 when it grows up

[gocats7]

Great advice, will check all this out tonight. On an off note, my show is going over great this year....many more coming out to see it, getting lots of thank you emails...the local weatherman is supposedly coming by this year.

This is awesome...bad thing (or good thing) is next year I think I want to go nuts and expand, expand, expand!!

[ErnieHorning]

Anybody else having problems scheduling multiple programs?

My show program starts and stops as planned. Shortly after the show, I want some channels on at low levels so I schedule a program to run a sequence that ramps up to around 30 percent. It's only 5 seconds long but sets the lights all night. In the morning I run a program that runs a sequence that shuts everything off; it's also 5 seconds.

Neither of the short programs run. All sequences have all plug-in's disabled except preview. All three programs use the same profile.

I initially had an overlap problem where the show was still running and another program tried to run and turn everything off. It would generate an expected comm port error.

For the past few days, I've had to manually run the dim and off sequences. For the past week the show program has not failed to run. At least it's failed in the most desired way.:-)

[lightman]

Tonight I loaded up the scheduler with previously working sequences that didn't control the dimmers. It couldn't find the plugin. I finally clicked on the "Use a Profile" button in the scheduler instead of the "Use program plugin set up" and then it worked.

BTW.. It was the same profile as attached to the sequences.

Regards,
Lightman

[JonathonReinhart]

Instead of messing with Scripts, I simply made a 1-minute ramp-on/ramp-off sequence, and tacked that onto the end of my regular program, a bunch of times, to fill up just under 30 minutes. So I have 14 min of music, and 15 min of no-music sequences. And that is set to run every 30 minutes.

[ppohlman]

Anybody else having problems scheduling multiple programs?

My show program starts and stops as planned. Shortly after the show, I want some channels on at low levels so I schedule a program to run a sequence that ramps up to around 30 percent. It's only 5 seconds long but sets the lights all night. In the morning I run a program that runs a sequence that shuts everything off; it's also 5 seconds.

I have used 2.5.0.8 to run my program without any scheduling issues. I have the main program (set up 8 sequences) that runs from 5:30 until 10:00/11:00 and then I schedule a single sequence to from from 10:10/11:10 until 7:00 am the next day. It works perfectly fine for me.

A couple of things to note:
- Make sure that the programs or sequences don't overlap each other. If they do, then you will get access to com port errors.
- If you want to have a "Night Time" sequence run throughout the night, try just having the scheduler run a single sequence instead of making a program that runs the same sequence over and over.
- To make sure all of the lights are off at the end, all you need is a few cells at the end of a sequence where everything is off. You don't have to run a 5 sec sequence to do it.


My night time sequence lasts about 4 minutes. It has the front lamp post and lights around the door slowly fade between red, green, blue and white. I have about 200ms at the end of the sequence where everything is off. In the scheduler, I click "Select Sequence" and just run that one sequence repeated until 7:00. The brief "blink" at the end of the sequence before it starts again is barely noticeable (besides, it's in the middle of the night when people aren't really watching). Everything turns off as expected and I haven't had any problems with running the entire schedule.

[ErnieHorning]

I was playing with it a bit this morning. I turned everything off by just running a sequence. Then I went into the program manager and ran the dimmed program and it slowly ramped up like it’s supposed to. Then I ran the all off program and nothing happened. I tried it several times to no avail. I tried running the dimmed program again and it did nothing also. I exited Vixen and back in again and I could run one program but nothing else.

Well at least I have something repeatable. I’ll investigate further tonight.

I guess I should expect this. I’ve had an issue with Vixen each of the last three years. I guess my mind is corrupt enough that I do something that no one else is doing.:-)

[ctmal]

I have the same type of setup...I run an all off at the end of the night. At the moment the additional schedule running the all off sequence is not working but I've been having other issues so I haven't had a chance to work it out. I'm assuming it's the same issue that you're having though.

I was playing with it a bit this morning. I turned everything off by just running a sequence. Then I went into the program manager and ran the dimmed program and it slowly ramped up like it’s supposed to. Then I ran the all off program and nothing happened. I tried it several times to no avail. I tried running the dimmed program again and it did nothing also. I exited Vixen and back in again and I could run one program but nothing else.

Well at least I have something repeatable. I’ll investigate further tonight.

I guess I should expect this. I’ve had an issue with Vixen each of the last three years. I guess my mind is corrupt enough that I do something that no one else is doing.:-)

[ErnieHorning]

I exited Vixen and back in again and I could run one program but nothing else.

The last thing I did before leaving for work was run the off program from inside the manager. Everything has be working flawlessly for three nights. I'm afraid to mess with it.

Give it a shot ctmal.

[ctmal]

The last thing I did before leaving for work was run the off program from inside the manager. Everything has be working flawlessly for three nights. I'm afraid to mess with it.

Give it a shot ctmal.

We got it resolved using another method...Instead of running our "all off" sequence once at the end of the night I scheduled it to repeat for 10 minutes...seems to work.

[KC]

2.5 Sequence Downgrade

Since the 2.5 update has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster this year, there has been interest in taking 2.5 sequences and profiles back to 2.1. Since my primary goal is getting and keeping everyone up and running, I put together a little utility to do just that -- convert 2.5 sequence and profile files from 2.5 to 2.1. Save it anywhere, run it anywhere, it lets you choose the paths for the source files and where to save them to.

It works for both sequence and profile files, but you have to do each explicitly (meaning it won't detect a profile being used and convert it automatically for you). It will copy the file to the location of your choosing, then modify it, so the original file will be untouched. The couple of people who have used it so far report good results.

It doesn't matter to me if people use 2.5 or 2.1, whatever works for you. On behalf of me, myself, and I, I want to apologize for what 2.5 has been this year. I really feel horrible for what it's caused for some people. It's the first time a significant update has happened this way. Know that it is resulting in a change in the way I do things.

The future of 2.5? Don't know. I've been mulling the downgrade topic over in my head all week and with that what would happen to 2.5. #1 priority is to get and keep people running through this season. Once that is complete, then I can worry about what's beyond that.

I just got home from work, so now it's time to go eat. Some chicken is screaming my name. The BBQ sauce is barking pretty loud, too. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a show that won't crap out in the middle while people are filming.