Setting Up Big Red Button Input

[Itsthatsemple]

This is my 4th season setting up large scale Christmas light shows but I've never set up any kind of external trigger in any of my shows before. This year we want to add some interactive components so my thought was to have a big red button trigger a few shows of dialogue and sound fx that would be "voiced" by a few singing RGB trees using an MP3 mini-director.

Can anybody point me in the right direction of what button I would need and how I would go about wiring it? I'm not an electrician by any means so I'm a little lost as to how the button is powered and how it communicates with the director.

[k6ccc]

12 minutes ago, Itsthatsemple said:

This is my 4th season setting up large scale Christmas light shows but I've never set up any kind of external trigger in any of my shows before. This year we want to add some interactive components so my thought was to have a big red button trigger a few shows of dialogue and sound fx that would be "voiced" by a few singing RGB trees using an MP3 mini-director.

Can anybody point me in the right direction of what button I would need and how I would go about wiring it? I'm not an electrician by any means so I'm a little lost as to how the button is powered and how it communicates with the director.

I use interactive triggers every night in my year round landscape lighting "show", so might be able to help.  First of all, how to wire up the button is easy.  The two wires on the push button connect to an input on a controller card that has inputs or an input on an InputPup controller.  Look in the manual for your controller for wiring on the controller.  One important note:  A controller that is used for one or more inputs MUST NOT be on an Enhanced LOR network.  Must be a non-Enhanced LOR network.

As for how to set up inputs to do something.  In the Show Editor, on the Interactive tab, you create Interactive groups which will contain Sequences and triggers.  Rather than me spending an hour typing it all up, read the manual for Interactive Groups.  There are different types of interactives and you will need to re-read that section several times before you figure out what you need to use.  In my case I am using "Jukebox" type interactives, but your needs may be different.  Each type has it's own capabilities and limitations.

For the last part, I have no idea if this is different to set up or possible when using a Mini-Director.  I have always run my show from a computer.