Time between sequences

[Guest guest]

I'm going to have several blowups at Christmas, er, I mean air-blown lawn decorations.

I've modified these so that the fan power is seperate from the light power. My original thinking was, have the fan on all the time via one of the LOR channels, and the lights come on at the appropriate moments during the music via another LOR channel.

The question is this, and it's due to reading many previous posts: When I construct my show editor, what is the best function to use to keep the fan blowing the entire time, including the 1/2 second or whatever between musical sequences? Include this "what if" question: What if I decide I want to have the fan stop blowing during a musical sequence - I don't want a particular function in the show editor to override my sequences.

As always, Thx in advance.

[Guest guest]

I don't believe there's any way to do that currently. You could have a background sequence running that keeps the fan on all the time, but then you would lose control over it via musical sequences

If you make it stay on the entire musical sequence, it's going to drop out for a bit between sequences.

[Guest guest]

If that's the case, what I'll probably do is hook up the air fans to a line that leads to a seperate timer and outlet outside of the LOR setup. Not a big deal; only downside is I won't be able to deflate them during a certain song, if I had wanted something hidden behind the blowups (which are right next to each other) to appear for a certain song.

[Guest guest]

A couple comments...

I am doing something similar and have decided to control the fans via X-10 rather than waste a LOR channel. The only downside with X-10 is that commands get lost sometimes and you should repeat them every now and then to avoid problems.

If you want it on all the time you can put the command in the background section as mentioned above. Check the LOR Wiki. I just updated it a bit on this topic.

You might be able to get around the deflation time between musical sequences by running a " deadtime" sequence that does nothing more than keep the fan running rather than use a the delay option in the show editor. This would work either with LOR or X-10.

[Guest guest]

roadnut wrote:

If that's the case, what I'll probably do is hook up the air fans to a line that leads to a seperate timer and outlet outside of the LOR setup. Not a big deal; only downside is I won't be able to deflate them during a certain song, if I had wanted something hidden behind the blowups (which are right next to each other) to appear for a certain song.

You COULD hook the fans up with a timer as you mentioned but use a SPDT relay to send the power through between the timer and the fans and attach the fans to the Normally closed contact (NC) and control the relay with a channel.

In other words..with the channel "off" power would pass through to the fans. When you wanted the fans to turn off you would turn the channel "on" which would open the normally closed relay contact there by turning the fans off.

Essentially you would be "inverting" the channels output.

This would allow you to turn the fans on with a timer..but yet be able to turn them off during a sequence if you wanted.

[Guest guest]

dschwab9 wrote

If you make it stay on the entire musical sequence, it's going to drop out for a bit between sequences.

If I'm not mistaken, I think that in LOR II, it will stay on continusely.

[Guest guest]

I would use an X10 to control the fan seperately. Just buy a CM11A (about $30?) and an application model ($10?) will do. If you have more things to control, just need to buy more application models

[Guest guest]

I wasnt planning on blow-ups but i do have several animated deer. I will use x-10s, as that is what I have used in the past for my static displays, to keep the deer moving for the entire show.



Dave