Help needed with triggering off a fire alarm.

[JeffF]

I'm trying to help out a friend who runs the local arcade. The short of it is he has 28 10w RGB floods inside that do all kinds of funky stuff... looks cool. Now he's being made to install a sprinkler system and separate fire alarm system and the city would like all the floods to turn white when the fire alarm is tripped.  Simple request... or so I thought.

Right now I have the trigger connected which will run an "all white" sequence. This works, but every 5 seconds the lights flicker and the sequence that was trumped over by the triggered sequence will display for a split second during this flicker. It's a little confusing to me because the "all white" sequence is 1 minute long... not 5 seconds.

I noticed this flicker at 5 seconds coincides with the update in the LOR Status window.

So, so far I've tried putting the animation sequences he runs into the animation tab, the musical tab, and I even tried to have them on another interactive sequence sequence file running off another trigger that I hard wired shut.

All of these result in the 5 seconds blink.

OS is Windows 10 Home edition and I updated the LOR software to the most current from 4.2.2(which did the same thing).

I have a couple days to figure this out and right now I'm stumped. Anybody run into this before? The only idea I have is to bring my trusty Windows XP notebook in and try that to see if maybe it's a Windows 10 thing.

Thanks,

Jeff

[k6ccc]

I use interactive sequences all the time, so should be able to help.  It sounds like the original "funky lights" sequence is still running.  When you look at the status window, does it show that the "funky lights" sequence is being interrupted, or is it continuing to play?  Remember that two sequences with the same or overlapping channels will result in somewhat un-predictable behaviour.  What type of interactive format is being used?

 

[JeffF]

Hmmmm... that is what is happening Jim. You are right, both sequences are running.

Maybe I'm not thinking of triggering correctly then? I thought I could run the "funky" sequences normally under the "Animation" tab and then add the "all white" sequence to the "Interactive" tab. I tried all three formats for the interactive tab and like you said, the "all white" and the "funky" sequences run together.

What would you suggest? How should I run the "funky" sequences so they will stop when the "all white" sequence is triggered?

I'm probably overlooking something silly. This is the *first* time I've ever HAD to do something with LOR and having the alarm guy, my friend, and the city counting on me is horrible! This is a total hobby for me.

Thanks again Jim!!!

[k6ccc]

As I understand it (and I could be wrong), with multiple sequences running that have overlapping channels, for each channel, whichever sequence sent the last command is what is active in the controller at that instant.  For example:

Sequence 1 has the following commands for one channel:

0:00.01  Ramp intensity from 10% to 100% over the next 1 second

0:02.00  Intensity to 75%

0:05.00  Ramp intensity from 90% to 0% over the next 1.5 seconds

 

Sequence 2 has the following commands for the same channel:

0:03.00  Intensity to 100%

 

The result would be:

0:00.01 - 0:01.01  Ramp intensity from 10% to 100%

0:01.01 - 0:02.00  Intensity at 100%

0:02.00 - 0:03.00  Intensity at 75%

0:03.00 - 0:05.00  Intensity at 100%

0:05.00 - 0:06.50  Ramp intensity from 90% to 0%

 

What you need to do is have the existing sequence stop playing as soon as the interactive group is triggered.  I don't need that to happen in my landscaping show, but in reading the docs, it looks like if both the "funky lights" sequence and the "all white" sequences are musical sequences rather than animation sequences, then it should do what you want.  Just make an audio file of whatever length is needed for silence and copy and paste the animation sequence into a new musical sequence file.  Audacity can make a silent file of whatever length you need, and if you don't have Audacity, I can make silent files for you.  I will try to test this if I have time today.

 

 

[JeffF]

Ah, that seems logical. I will try to convert sequences over to musical sequences then. I should be able to test it this evening.

Thanks!!!

[k6ccc]

Quick test worked.

Created a musical sequence with a 4 minutes of silence music file (Sequence 1).  The sequence had only one channel ramping up from 0 to 100% over the four minutes (on a non-existent controller).  Then created a second musical sequence with 30 seconds of silence music file that had the same channel with it full on (Sequence 2).  Next created a show that had sequence 1 in the musical tab, and an animation group of the Jukebox type with sequence 2 in it.  The trigger was a real channel that is connected to a magnetic switch on my front door.  Set the show to run on a calendar entry starting about 30 seconds after I entered it.  Watched the status display and watched the show start with sequence 1 running.  Then called my wife and had her open and close the front door.  As soon as the trigger was detected, sequence 1 stopped and sequence 2 started.  At the end of the 30 seconds for sequence 2, sequence 1 re-started.  Here is the log:

09:11:36: Schedule loaded
09:12:00: Starting show: L:\Sequences\Delete this test 2016-04-20.lss
09:12:00: Registering interactive triggers
09:12:01: Loading compressed sequence: L:\Sequences\Delete this test sequence 1 2016-04-20.lms.lcs
09:12:02: Starting Musical: L:\Sequences\Delete this test sequence 1 2016-04-20.lms.lcs
09:13:25: Trigger detected: Regular, Unit 01, Input 1
09:13:25: Loading compressed sequence: L:\Sequences\Delete this test sequence 2 2016-04-20.lms.lcs
09:13:26: Ending Musical: L:\Sequences\Delete this test sequence 1 2016-04-20.lms.lcs
09:13:26: Starting Interactive: L:\Sequences\Delete this test sequence 2 2016-04-20.lms.lcs
09:13:56: Ending Interactive: L:\Sequences\Delete this test sequence 2 2016-04-20.lms.lcs
09:13:57: Starting Musical: L:\Sequences\Delete this test sequence 1 2016-04-20.lms.lcs
09:17:57: Ending Musical: L:\Sequences\Delete this test sequence 1 2016-04-20.lms.lcs

I could not see if the lights did as expected for two reasons.  First is that it used a non-existent controller, and second is that I'm 25 miles from home and in broad daylight, my cameras would not be able to detect any lights on anyway.  However, I assume that they would have worked.

 

[LightORamaDan]

Sound like the musical sequence will help as they are forced to stop. 

One thing I will mention here is that the input connecting LOR to the alarm system should be implemented in such a way that it is isolated from the alarm system.  Perhaps an optical connection.  Our equipment is not certified to for use in medical applications or other critical applications such as alarms systems.  

In this particular case where the alarm system is simply influencing LOR to do something with some lights (that is not a critical part of the warning or notification system), it seems a reasonable thing, but we would never condone using LOR equipment as a critical part of a system responsible for someone's life. 

In the past (maybe still) LOR controllers were used to control street lights in a South American country. CTB16D controllers running in standalone mode would sequence the street lights through Green/Yellow/Red.. Never heard of any issues BUT applications like that require "special" hardware and should not be LOR.

Best regards,

Dan

 

[JeffF]

Awesome, thank you! Will update tonight after I verify it functions correctly.

And understood Dan. The owner of the store is trying to go above and beyond for maybe a little brownie points with the city.

[k6ccc]

40 minutes ago, LightORamaDan said:

One thing I will mention here is that the input connecting LOR to the alarm system should be implemented in such a way that it is isolated from the alarm system.  Perhaps an optical connection.  Our equipment is not certified to for use in medical applications or other critical applications such as alarms systems.  

Good point Dan.  Obviously the protection is to keep the LOR from causing any sort of problem with the alarm system.  Other than damage to equipment, protection the other way is not critical.  Optical isolation would certainly be a cat's meow, but a simple relay controlled by the alarm system should suffice.  The fire inspector would likely want some sort of isolation to prevent the LOR equipment from preventing the alarm system from operating properly.  A relay would accomplish that and likely be far less expensive that an optical isolation.

 

[JeffF]

Success!!!  HUGE THANKS JIM!!!

And I'll probably just use a relay to begin with and then play around with an opto-isolator. I did mention this is in an arcade right? Opto emitters and receivers are used in loads of games so I should be able to re-purpose one, no problem.

Thanks again Jim! You went above and beyond! And thank your wife too for being the switcher.

[k6ccc]

Glad it worked.  And I have thanked my wife....

 

[EmmienLightFan]

On 4/20/2016 at 5:43 PM, LightORamaDan said:

In the past (maybe still) LOR controllers were used to control street lights in a South American country. CTB16D controllers running in standalone mode would sequence the street lights through Green/Yellow/Red.. Never heard of any issues BUT applications like that require "special" hardware and should not be LOR.

Best regards,

Dan

 

Interesting.

 

It probably was just decorative lighting and not the street lights themselves, so not as critical.