Request for configuration help

[HowardShank]

First, thanks in advance to all whom look at this. I appreciate your knowledge and the time you put forth to respond to my scenario.

My current system includes:
1 dedicated PC running S2
3 LOR1602W controllers for 48 channels of lights

My expanded design
1 dedicated PC running S2
3 LOR1602W controllers for 48 channels of lights
1 or more CTB16PC controllers for additional channels
1 DIO32 controller
1 CR150D controller
2 IR Sensors
4 servo based animations (Skulls for Halloween, dancing candy canes for Xmas 4 servo’s in each)
2 Pneumatic animations (24vdc solenoids)
3+ 600w/400w Foggers
3 Electromechanical animations (12vdc/120vac)

Given the attached diagram, how would I go about rewiring all the connections so it will function properly.

I want trigger 1 to activate Animation 5 sequence.
I want trigger 2 to activate Animation 6 sequence.
Animations 1 thru 4 will be integrated into the main show sequences and be controlled from the DIO32 controller
Animations 7, 8 and 9 will be integrated into the main show sequences and run from a standard channel controller.

So, my request for assistance is;

How do I wire all the animations and triggers and to what controllers? (obviously the CR150D is wired and the servo’s go on the DIO32 1-16 channels)

Does S2 running on a PC allow for triggers to activate sequences or do triggers only activate sequences loaded onto a controller?

Can two or more sequences control different channels on a controller simultaneously? i.e. Can seq1 run 1-8 and seq2 run 9-16 at the same time?

Can S2 PC run an animation sequence on one controller while the main musical sequence is running on another?

Can a trigger on Controller X activate a sequence on Controller Y or can it only activate a sequence on the same controller?

Do I have to download sequences to the controllers to make this work or can it all run inside S2 on the PC?

To control a fogger, due to the high wattage, with the DIO32, I presume I need the Relay switch daughter board, is that correct?

Since I think I want to use some of the channels 17-32 on the DIO for inputs, I’d need some other configuration to control the high wattage foggers, is that correct?



Attached files

[michael.farney]

There's a few questions I can answer. I think you already have some of your questions answered in different posts, but here is a summary. Please correct anything if it's wrong here for others searching this thread.

You standalone controller doesn't get hooked to the network and can be activated by a trigger, although I believe you only get one trigger. So I don't think you can have separate triggers for animation 7, 8, and 9 unless you have 3 controllers in standalone mode. I've never done standalone myself, so I am not sure beyond this.

Your other boards can have up to 3 triggers wired per board (two on CTB16PC). These triggers can control any channels on any boards on your PC network. You'll be activating sequences stored on your PC, and two different sequences running concurrently can control the same controller at the same time -- as long as the channels are not double assigned. Your example of i.e. Can seq1 run 1-8 and seq2 run 9-16 at the same time? will work fine as long as seq1 doesn't have channels 9-16 defined and seq2 doesn't have channels 1-8 defined.

You can run an animation sequence on one controller while another a musical sequence plays on another, as long as you do not have the channels double assigned. (see paragraph above.) You'll have to play around with the show editor to make sure you can get this to work the way you want. Depending on your exact goal, you may need to copy the animation sequence programming directly into your musical sequence or use the S2 feature to play a sequence in a sequence instead of using the show editor to schedule the sequence. Again, depends on your show format.

Other than any controllers in standalone mode, all sequences will run from the PC.

I'm not sure how you're planning on using the fogger. Are you hard wiring the input switch?? I use 3 foggers myself, but I have them on a DMX network which requires no modification of the foggers. So I just power them directly to an outlet instead of using an LOR controller. Then I control them using DMX in S2.

[HowardShank]

Thanks Michael!

Foggers first. My foggers are not DMX capable, but any I purchase in the future I am going to make sure they are capable of being controlled by LOR software. I have the add-on timer controllers that are manual pushbutton. I have a spare to hack with, so maybe I can use a relay or DIO32 to wire into the circuit a relay that can open/close the button circuit.

After speaking with Dan and getting clarification on issues and messages with other LOR members I think I have a plan to build and execute the complex show I want to do.

Here is my plan as of today to take care of my multiple input triggers, musical sequence and multiple animation sequences (with additional sound).

S2 software will run on my PC. The PC will have one RS485 network with all my LOR controllers. The PC is also on my internal Ethernet network. I will have a 2nd computer on the network also as part of the show (More on the 2nd PC in a minute).

The primary show will be running on the PC with music animation. Sound output is sent to my FM transmitter (and local sound monitor). This will control a majority of the channels on the LOR network.

The animated sequences will also run on the S2 scheduler software on the PC (without sound... more to come). These animated sequences will be started by various triggers from different controllers (or the DIO32). Animated Sequences can run simultaneously on the PC and they can be configured to have different groups so multiple animation sequences can be active at same time, as well as, the musical animation.

I will utilize the windows shell command option at the beginning of each sequence when executing the animation sequences. This will issue a command to the 2nd PC via REXEC or RSH (haven't decided which yet). The 2nd PC will be running J. River Media Center software (more below). This will allow me to activate synchronized sounds with each of the triggered animations. If there is any momentary lag between executions of the sounds with execution of the animated sequence I'll adjust the sequence timing so the sound is in sync. The sound synchronization does not need to be exact in the case of a monster roar or scream and the animation movement. Except for the talking skulls which I will probably make a stand alone controller handle that.

With this configuration I will be able to do the following:
1. Have main musical animations running as part of my scheduled show.
2. Have multiple simultaneous triggered activated animations started by IR, Momentary Switch, etc. (trash can horror, Popup Skele, Talking Skulls, etc).
3. Play individual sounds by virtue of the Windows Shell Command associated with each of the animation sequences.

Now, the other PC;
The other PC will be running J. River Media Center software. It is a commercial app that can utilize/control multiple Sound Cards. Each sound card is addressable by the software and is not dependent on the OS. The media software also allows multi-Zone control through each sound card. So each animation/effect will be a zone with its own sound track. The software allows command line control of the server application. The software has a lot of other abilities too.

Thanks for everyone assistance in helping me figure out the ins-and-outs of LOR network, controllers and software.

[michael.farney]

HowardShank wrote:

Thanks Michael!

Foggers first. My foggers are not DMX capable, but any I purchase in the future I am going to make sure they are capable of being controlled by LOR software. I have the add-on timer controllers that are manual pushbutton. I have a spare to hack with, so maybe I can use a relay or DIO32 to wire into the circuit a relay that can open/close the button circuit.

After speaking with Dan and getting clarification on issues and messages with other LOR members I think I have a plan to build and execute the complex show I want to do.

Here is my plan as of today to take care of my multiple input triggers, musical sequence and multiple animation sequences (with additional sound).

S2 software will run on my PC. The PC will have one RS485 network with all my LOR controllers. The PC is also on my internal Ethernet network. I will have a 2nd computer on the network also as part of the show (More on the 2nd PC in a minute).

The primary show will be running on the PC with music animation. Sound output is sent to my FM transmitter (and local sound monitor). This will control a majority of the channels on the LOR network.

The animated sequences will also run on the S2 scheduler software on the PC (without sound... more to come). These animated sequences will be started by various triggers from different controllers (or the DIO32). Animated Sequences can run simultaneously on the PC and they can be configured to have different groups so multiple animation sequences can be active at same time, as well as, the musical animation.

I will utilize the windows shell command option at the beginning of each sequence when executing the animation sequences. This will issue a command to the 2nd PC via REXEC or RSH (haven't decided which yet). The 2nd PC will be running J. River Media Center software (more below). This will allow me to activate synchronized sounds with each of the triggered animations. If there is any momentary lag between executions of the sounds with execution of the animated sequence I'll adjust the sequence timing so the sound is in sync. The sound synchronization does not need to be exact in the case of a monster roar or scream and the animation movement. Except for the talking skulls which I will probably make a stand alone controller handle that.

With this configuration I will be able to do the following:
1. Have main musical animations running as part of my scheduled show.
2. Have multiple simultaneous triggered activated animations started by IR, Momentary Switch, etc. (trash can horror, Popup Skele, Talking Skulls, etc).
3. Play individual sounds by virtue of the Windows Shell Command associated with each of the animation sequences.

Now, the other PC;
The other PC will be running J. River Media Center software. It is a commercial app that can utilize/control multiple Sound Cards. Each sound card is addressable by the software and is not dependent on the OS. The media software also allows multi-Zone control through each sound card. So each animation/effect will be a zone with its own sound track. The software allows command line control of the server application. The software has a lot of other abilities too.

Thanks for everyone assistance in helping me figure out the ins-and-outs of LOR network, controllers and software.

Wow, you bring up an excellent point here. I was just going to ask why you didn't run two musical sequences at once to get your sound effects, but it looks like that is not possible. The magic toy would be perfect for this, but it doesn't support musical sequences. Did you ask Dan if they were looking into support two musical sequences at a time? It makes sense in terms of sound effects like you are doing.

For the foggers, if you just get the timers set right, then they would work on power on. Unless you don't want continuous fog all night...?

So you are going to a lot of trouble to use a second PC to get sound. Why not just use windows shell commands to launch the MP3 file directly?

[HowardShank]

So you are going to a lot of trouble to use a second PC to get sound. Why not just use windows shell commands to launch the MP3 file directly?

Windows XP will support and configure many sound cards, but the OS only allows one to operate at a time unless the application is capable of direct sound card access.

The sound card in the PC running the show will be commandeered by Windows Media Player. You can not start multiple copies of Windows Media Player. If I was to launch an MP3 on the same system it would either be run by the same instance of Windows Media Player as the primary musical animation or throw an error saying the player was busy.

You can only run one instance of Windows Media Player. You can run multiple instances of WinAMP and configure it to use a different sound card for each instance, however you have to RECONFIGURE it each and every time you launch WinAMP. But, with the J. River Media Center, you can configure it ahead of time so that each card is a zone and then access each instance without further configuration. So to avoid configuration issues of the sound boards so that LOR scheduler and Windows Media Player do not conflict with another application trying to access sound cards, I'll just use a second PC.

My goals are:
I want the sounds to be resettable.
More than one animation may activate at the same time so more than one sound needs to be able to play that does not interrupt the musical animation.
I want the sound to be localized to the prop that triggered it and not be merged with sound from the main musical sequence. Do not want sound effect to play over the FM transmitter as it's a side event and not part of the main show.

I thought about a continuous loop CD or some thing like that where I could just power on a CD player at each location but do not want to put a player at each location.

So, with the $40 software, a PC that I already have and the ability to configure the system with multiple sound cards (which I also have) I can achieve a scalable/expandable multi-zone sound configuration that will work with all my sequences.

I'm a computer software developer and network engineer. The configuration is pretty basic to me so it's not a big deal.

[michael.farney]

HowardShank wrote:

The sound card in the PC running the show will be commandeered by Windows Media Player. You can not start multiple copies of Windows Media Player. If I was to launch an MP3 on the same system it would either be run by the same instance of Windows Media Player as the primary musical animation or throw an error saying the player was busy.

Yeah, that would be a major oversight. You'd lose the first audio if two triggers were activated too close to each other. Sounds like you're miles ahead of me, lol.

[Max-Paul]

Kind of sounds like the "Forbin Project".

[Denny]

I don't know what type of fog machines you have, but Chauvet makes a dmx adapter that works on their machines and some others. http://www.chauvetlighting.com/dmx-adapter-for-all-chauvet-fogger.html

[HowardShank]

Looks like that DMX adapter is discontinued. I am unable to find any sites online that have one in stock

[michael.farney]

HowardShank wrote:

Looks like that DMX adapter is discontinued. I am unable to find any sites online that have one in stock

How many do you need?

[HowardShank]

If they work for my models... I'll have to go dig them out of the boxes... 3

I have two Eliminator EF 400 (400w) and 1 Forum FX10 (1000W) foggers. I'd still need to purchase cables and the iDMX adapter. Hmm... more $$'s

[michael.farney]

I do have 3 spares, although I don't know how to find out if they work with your models or not. Let me know if you want them. I don't know if I have record of what I bought them for or not. I think they were around $30 each.