Can a background sequence in show editor turn on my fm transmitter?

[kneel999]

I think this should work but it isn't so I don't know whether I'm doing something wrong or not.

I manually turn on my FM transmitter but I have a small radio that plays outside for passerby's who aren't in a car.

I want my LOR controller to turn on the radio for the whole show. I made an animation sequence at a length of 4 hours, made sure

it was 'ON' for the full time, assigned the single channel to my controller #3, channel 1 and saved it.

In the show editor under background sequence I added in my newly created animation sequence to my scheduled show.

The musical light show starts, but the radio doesn't turn on. Now the show editor states under background sequence "list the animation sequence that will run for the entire show"

so I'm assuming this should turn on the radio and work but it doesn't

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks

[Aaron Maue]

What license level do you have? You can only use a background sequence in Standard and Advanced versions of the license.

[Guest wbottomley]

Plus... you don't need a four hour animation sequence. One minute works fine.

Oh... make sure that channel is not defined in your other sequences and other channels in that sequence.

Edited October 1, 2012 by wbottomley

[kneel999]

Thanks for the response. I have the advanced version.

I thought it might be that the channel is defined in the sequences (although OFF in all of them) so I took it out of one but that didn't seem to matter.

I quickly wrote another animation sequence at just one minute instead of the 4 hours and that worked! Odd, but hey whatever works.

Thanks again.

[k6ccc]

The reason for not having that channel defined in any other sequence is that your background sequence will be operating at the same time as your sequences in the animation or musical sections. If the channel is defined in two sequences that are both running at the same time, the result is that on sequence might be telling that channel to be on while another sequence is telling it to be off. The result is confusion and rather un-predictable operation from that channel.

[Steven]

The result is confusion and rather un-predictable operation from that channel.

It's actually not that unpredictable. Whenever the 1-minute background sequence loops and starts again (i.e. every 60 seconds) it turns that channel on. Whenever a sequence that has that channel off starts, it turns that channel off. If you have the "turn unused channels off at the end of each sequence" checked, then that channel will be turned off again when that (musical) sequence ends. (I'm actually not 100% sure about that. It may only turn channels off that weren't already off.)

So if you know how long each of your sequences are, you could actually predict the operation.

It's still not easy, and most often not a good idea.

[Guest wbottomley]

It's actually not that unpredictable. Whenever the 1-minute background sequence loops and starts again (i.e. every 60 seconds) it turns that channel on. Whenever a sequence that has that channel off starts, it turns that channel off. If you have the "turn unused channels off at the end of each sequence" checked, then that channel will be turned off again when that (musical) sequence ends. (I'm actually not 100% sure about that. It may only turn channels off that weren't already off.)

So if you know how long each of your sequences are, you could actually predict the operation.

It's still not easy, and most often not a good idea.

Uh... I've never seen that. I have the option checked to turn off lights at the end of a sequence and the background does not do it. It stays on until the show is finished.

[Steven]

Uh... I've never seen that. I have the option checked to turn off lights at the end of a sequence and the background does not do it. It stays on until the show is finished.

I'm sorry, I was talking about musical sequences. (Like kneel999 said in post #4 that this channel was also defined (and OFF) in the musical sequences.) The "turn unused lights off" option does not appear in the background tab, but does in all the other tabs.

[Guest wbottomley]

LMAO. Maybe I need to read these post a little better.

[Chris B]

Im trying to do the same thing, only with 4 relays for my inflatables. And it was doing the same thing as the op said. I actually just made a post before seeing this. Thanks guys Chris