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OK, here is the background to my question, and what I've done so far. Newbie here, with 32 channels in his first year doing this. I've created a template for my 32 channel layout. In that layout, all 32 channels have been named, and show up in each new musical sequence I create. Ive sequenced 2 songs so far, and have started messing around with the show editor to see how it will all come together. Now...working towards my question: I plan to pick up a FM transmitter soon, and want to make a sign so people know which freq to tune too.....SO......Lets say I have Unit 2/channel 16 controlling my "Tune your Radio" sign. I understand the show editor is broken out into different sections....Background, than Start up, than animations, then Musical sequences, than Shutdown.

Lets say I want to have my inflateable santa come on...and STAY on all night. THEN.....i want a "Tune Your Radio sign to light up next ( I'm assuming those 2 events would go in the start up program), and then I want the radio sign to start flashing for about 20 seconds BEFORE each musical sequence......to highlight the fact a song is about to begin, than go to constant on while each musical sequence plays, then shut off after the musical sequences end.....leaving the inflateable santa powered up until the next musical show stars, what is the easiest way to set that up. I figured I could control the flashing at the begining of each song, but dont know how you can put a 10 or 20 second delay at the BEGINING of a song?? From what I can tell, you can only change the total length of the song....which adds dead time to the end, not the begining.

The other question I have is this......do I have to include that channel in the musical sequences and have that channel in a constant ON state for it to light up DURING the musical shows, or does the start up and shut down programs overide any channel control done during the musical sequences?? Hopefully that made some sense.....LOL. Lots of work to do......but I'm really looking foward to seeign all this stuff come together this year! All this, and I will be experimenting with the control boxes for a small halloween set up too!!!

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Okay, first remember you can't program the same channels in two different sequences that might be playing at the same time.

With that in mind, for your case, you might consider just incorporating the 2/16 into all of your sequences.

Within the sequences, you would simply leave that channel 'ON'.

Then, you would create a 20 second (but the length is up to you) sequence which would run in-between the shows. This is where you would program the flood light to flash.

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IMHO, I would put a standard timer on that inflatable santa and keep it off LOR... Only to free up a channel, it would be much easier to use a standard Leviton timer... Turn it on at 7pm and off at 4am, or whatever...

Another thing that you could do, again, IMHO is pick up a set of those lights that twinkle, or replace a standard bulb with the red-tipped flashing one. Outline the sign with these lights. Then, I would tie the radio transmitter (most are transformed down to lower voltage anyway) and the 'Tune Your Radio' sign on the same channel.

This would turn your radio and your sign on at the same time, which makes sense and give your sign attention by a little twinkle... So, if you were going to run the sign, radio and inflatable off three channels, you just gained two channels to use for something else. Walgreens has these great deer, two for $10... :D Again, MHO... Let us know how you make out...

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X-10 is great for stuff like this. You keep your 'fancy' dimmable (and more expensive per channel) LOR circuits for things that you want to animate, and the static stuff goes on X-10 modules. This requires a small ($30-$50) investment in X-10 hardware to get going, but after that you can get the modules or 'super socket' outlets for about $5-$8 each if you shop around...

In LOR you set up and program an X-10 channel just like a regular LOR one, except it's much more limited by X-10 itself. So you just set up a background sequnce to keep your static stuff lit all night. This is exactly how we do it.

I like this a lot better than using a manual timer, because a) stuff is all programmed in one place, :D you're guaranteed things will turn on and off together at the beginning and end of the night, and c) We run longer on weekends than on weeknights, and most manual timers don't allow for that.

-Tim

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With 32 channels for the first year, I have plenty to work with. I wont have time to program all that in before christmas anyways, so I will want to include the whole show into the LOR controls, and be able to manage the whole show by computer. But EAB, I understand what your saying....and as my sequencing of songs increases, and I start needing more open channels, I will probably do exactly what you were talking about (running the inflateables on seperate timers. And Don, I follow what your saying, but that 20 second animation will only happen before the first song in the show starts playing, correct? If I add about 10 seconds to the END of each song, and then put have the sign flash a few times before the next song starts, I'm thinking that might work.

I will have a better understanding of the shows tomorrow, when I set up the controller and run the lights for halloween. I plan on getting outside tomorrow to start pulling it all together.

Halloween is mainly a test run to see how everything interacts. I figured it was a perfect chance to get a little practice in.

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