Using Computer to Control Lights and Timer

[marsh28]

This is my first year with LOR and since I have an extra computer, I want to run the lights through my PC. However, I imagine there will be some evenings where I won't be home or out of town and will still want to do a light show. Is there a way to put the PC and LOR software on a timer so they will start themselves? I know you can use the Mini Director but would prefer not dropping an additional $100.

[otisriggs]

Yes leave your pc on.

[snafufireman]

You can use a timer to start your computer. Just set you BIOS to turn the computer on when the power is restored (if your BIOS allows that). Your best bet would be to just leave your computer on. I have my computer set to turn on when the power is restored in case of a power outage. I also use a switched PDU so if the computer locks up I can log into the PDU and reboot the outlet that the computer is plugged in to remotely.

[Gary Levelius]

You don't even need a timer. Just leave the computer on. Simply use the show scheduler set when the shows are to run and enable the shows (by right clicking on the little light bulb in the system tray and selecting "Enable shows") Why make it any more complicated than it needs to be?

As for protecting from power failures, the BIOS setup tips above are excellent. Most BIOS have the ability to set the "power on" function to "TURN ON" or "INSTANT ON" under the power saving function menu.

-Gary-

[Guest wbottomley]

Read page 116 from this link: http://www.lightorama.com/downloads/2.9.4/LORHelp.pdf

[marsh28]

This is a great forum. Problem solved.

[aurickle]

Don't set your computer and forget it, though. Last year I used my laptop to run the show and discovered that every couple of days LoR would become unresponsive for some reason. Probably had to do with the fact that my laptop keeps trying to hibernate no matter what I do in the Windows settings. Anyway, make it a point to check things on a daily basis if you can. You can do it at any time of day. If you go a week without any issues then I would say you can be confident for the rest of the season. But if you encounter problems you'll be glad you caught them before they affected your show!

Also, keep in mind that the audio your audience will hear is your computer's audio -- not specifically what LoR is outputting. So anything you do on the computer that makes a sound is going to be heard by your visitors.

These are very minor things, really. I loved having the freedom to modify my show at any time if I felt it was necessary, without having to then go out into the cold and load it onto a director controller.

[Surfing4Dough]

aurickle wrote:

...I loved having the freedom to modify my show at any time if I felt it was necessary, without having to then go out into the cold and load it onto a director controller.

I keep my mini-director and FM Transmitter mounted in the attached garage. Pretty easy to take a SD card out to the garage to swap with the existing show card. This is why I think having a stand-alone director is advantageous over a controller with the director built into it which will probably be out in the yard. You're right, you wouldn't catch me going out in 2 feet of snow to swap the card then (well to be honest, I probably would since we all do crazy things for this hobby, but I wouldn't like it one bit).

[Steven]

Surfing4Dough wrote:

I keep my mini-director and FM Transmitter mounted in the attached garage.

I keep my show computer and FM Transmitter in the attached garage. It's a surplus computer from work, about 4 years old. It may not run Windows 7, or be any good for sequencing, but it runs the show player just fine.