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LOR "Show" computer


lightningrod4life

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I want to start out by saying I really hope this question does not pose as me being completely ignorant as I dont feel that I am just once again would like feedback/recommendations from others on this idea.. I have for the past several years ( about 12 or so) ran my LOR sequences on a dedicated pc that I considered my show pc. I have had to update/upgrade this show pc a time or 2 but it still has worked great for me. However this year I am thinking it would be great if I could run my show on a pc that was not drawing so much power by being on 24/7 through december. I have/am looking at attempting to run it this year on a raspberry pi, atleast that is my thoughts currently.  I currently have the Falcon pi player software installed on one of my pi's and have been able to do some minimal configuration stuff but that is it so far.. I just recently took my LOR software from S3 to S4 and went Advanced to Pro.. however I was curious if anyone has tried or been successful at actually installing S4 on a pi in order to simply run the show editor and scheduler to run the sequences on? From a previous post that I made I was informed that LOR has implemented a thing called intensity files which has helped with not bogging down a pc as much while running a show or even a sequence in the sequence editor. Is it possible to do this on a pi? I ask because I have also read about issues with conversion from an LOR sequence to the required file formats that the FPP needs to run and timing being off and such. Plus with doing the LOR upgrade it would be ideal to stay with the "schedule editor" that I have had so much success with and know works well if at all possible and not feel like I wasted the $ I invested into the update. Appreciate the thoughts/suggestions on this, hopefully I don't sound like a complete newbie with posing this question.

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Where would I access that? I was thinking control panel but control panel on my win7 pc is not showing a scheduler?

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They hid the Task Scheduler under Administrative Tools in Windows.  As I recall, you have to set a startup in the BIOS, not a Windows setting since windows is not running when the computer is shut down.  You CAN however schedule a shut down in the Task Scheduler.

 

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That makes sense since BIOS would have the CMOS battery to keep time as long as it wasn't bad and time was set correctly. will give this a shot and see what happens, thanks guys!

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Modern desktop/server class computers never are 100% OFF. I has a small 'station keeping' current to keep some stuff snoozing.

There is a feature called wake on lan  (WOL) that allows a 'magic packet' to wake it up (if allowed by the BIOS)

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30 minutes ago, TheDucks said:

Modern desktop/server class computers never are 100% OFF. I has a small 'station keeping' current to keep some stuff snoozing.

It's not actually all that small of an amount.  Less than turned of course but not as low as you might think.  If you really are trying to watch the watt hours, you can have a simple appliance timer actually power it off after the scheduled shutdown time.  This MAY have the advantage that you may also be able to set the BIOS to start the computer when power restores.  So for example if your show runs from 5:00 until 11:00 PM, you could have a scheduled shutdown at 11:05 PM and then the appliance times kills power at 11:30 (give it some extra time as the mechanical versions of those times are not real accurate to set).  Then have the timer turn power back on at 4:30 PM, and if the BIOS can't turn the computer on when the power restores, have the BIOS start up the computer at 4:50. 

One other thing to keep in mind is that if the computer is setup to require a login, make sure to set it to log on when it powers up.  Google that to find out how - it's fairly easy.

 

31 minutes ago, TheDucks said:

There is a feature called wake on lan  (WOL) that allows a 'magic packet' to wake it up (if allowed by the BIOS)

Yes, most computers can be set up for Wake On LAN, but you then need to be able to generate a magic packet.  There are utilities that you can run on another computer to send a magic packet, but that requires another PC to be on which may somewhat defeat the purpose.  SOME routers can generate a magic packet either by schedule or on demand, but most consumer grade routers can't.  Therefore, the BIOS setting is likely going to be your easiest solution.

 

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