I need a Zara Radio Guru to consult

[Erik 0]

Richard Hamilton wrote:

Ok, just to point this out again. I had the same issues a few years ago. There were several reasons that I had issues.

1. Versin 1.6.1 did not work for me, but 1.6.2 did.
2. ZR is sensitive to the tones. I hope you are using the ones I created and posted above.
3. Settings in Zara need to be correct.


Last choice is that you might need to do an external loop around.

I did find 1.6.2 last night and installed it and I've tried the tones you posted as well as the ones a couple other mentioned here.

[Richard Hamilton 17]

Ok, good. There is a "Mixer" tab in Zara. What setting does it show?

[Erik 0]

Richard Hamilton wrote:

Ok, good. There is a "Mixer" tab in Zara. What setting does it show?

Attached files

[Richard Hamilton 17]

Hi Erik, sorry for delay. I am travelling.

I guess you are still restling with this? My setting for the mixer is the same as yours, so that looks right.

Just to verify (I can't easily see all previous threads on this iPad), on the DTMF tab of the options, you should have the "Enable the Detector" checkbox on, disconnect tone is 90 (my action is to choose "Play the List", and connect tone is 69 (with associated option button selected.)

Assumming you have the above set and it still doesn't work, then you may be down to one of two choices...

Manually get Zara and LOR in sync: Create an event to stop Zara a few seconds before your LOR show is about to begin, and create another event that starts up Zara again a few seconds after your show is finished for the night.

or use the loopback external cable method as described earlier in this thread.

I am still a bit baffled why some systems seem to work ok and others don't. For me, I know there was an issue with v er 1.6.1, yet you said you are using 1.6.2, so that can't be the reason.

[Richard Hamilton 17]

Oh rats! I fogot to mention something else that was on my mind. Somewhere earlier in this thread, I saw someone show the Zara options dialog and showed the "Satellite" tab. They had selected "Line-In" for the RECORDING. I have never gotten that to work either. Maybe that is needed if you use the external cable loop-back method.

In my situation where I do NOT use the external cable loop-back, I have the "Line-In" selected for PLAYBACK (not recording). Any other setting on that tab didn't work for me. Please try that.

[Erik 0]

Thanks for all the help Richard, I've tried different setting in the satellite tab as well as different tones with no luck, I think this year I will just schedule it and work on the DTMF after, have a few last minute items that need attention.

[Greg 1]

Erik,

I am sure you tried this but is the detector on and do you have your correct connection and disconnection tones enabled.

greg


Attached files

[coasterbp 0]

Another thing to check is the log. Play the tones a couple of times and then check the log to see if the tones are being logged. If they aren't, you either need to check more settings are get another sound card. I had to get a new sound card for my older computer. It was around $20...

-=CoasterBP

[Richard Hamilton 17]

coasterbp wrote:

Another thing to check is the log. Play the tones a couple of times and then check the log to see if the tones are being logged. If they aren't, you either need to check more settings are get another sound card. I had to get a new sound card for my older computer. It was around $20...

-=CoasterBP

I presume you are referring to the LOR log file, not the Zara log file.

Also, he should be able to actually hear the tones that LOR is playing. If not, that is a good clue that they are not being played.

[coasterbp 0]

I was actually referring to the Zara Log. If the Zara Log isn't recording the tones, then I would suggest a newer sound card.

[Richard Hamilton 17]

coasterbp wrote:

I was actually referring to the Zara Log. If the Zara Log isn't recording the tones, then I would suggest a newer sound card.

Hmmm, OK.

Just an FYI, my Zara log does NOT record the tones (records everything else). Howvever, everthing works well for me.

[Erik 0]

Nothing shows in the Zara log, I can hear the tones from the speakers. For this year I'll just set an event to start and stop and spend some time if the off season to work on DTMF. Thanks all for the help and suggestions

[CKSedg 4]

On 8/29/2009 at 11:26 AM, Tim Dill said:

Greg, Thanks for All the help! The way I added the playlist Zara was looking at it as 1 big song so it could't find a stoping point. I reloaded the songs and now it WORKS!!

I don't think my soundcard will let me use DTMF tones if I loop it from output to input I get feedback through the speakers and transmitter. I tried to use the Front mic for the DTMF input but that doesn't seem to work either Scheduling a start and stop will work for Me.

Tim

I know the post I'm quoting is old, but I can't find an answer anywhere in the forums.

I am having this exact same problem as Tim Dill.  Do I need a second sound card to make it work?  As soon as I enable the input line, It just feeds back terribly.

[k6ccc 1,070]

CKSedg,  I'm not inspired to go back and read the 237 previous posts in this thread.  I'm pretty good with Zara and might be able to help.  Tell me what you are trying to do and what is or is not working right.

 

[Greg 1]

I was having trouble with zara dtmf tones since moving to a 64 bit machine.  I eliminated them all together and now use a program called AutoIt V3 to create a executible macro to call keyboard commands to start zara playing.  Wors great in fact better, no more tones playing.

Edited December 13, 2016 by Greg

[k6ccc 1,070]

I assume you mean to get Zara (after it's already running) to start playing.  If it's on a schedule (for example, at the end of your light show), why don't you just use a scheduled event.  If you schedule an event to happen immediately, it will happen at the scheduled time, unlike a scheduled event that has a delay window which will not happen if Zara is not in play.  For example, my weekday Christmas show ends at 22:01:25.  I have an immediate play scheduled for 22:02:00 on Monday through Thursday.  On the weekend, the show ends at 23:04:35 so Zara has a schedule immediate play command at 23:05:00 on Friday through Sunday.  On the other end of the show, there is a stop command with a five minute window at 16:55:30, and in case it's a long song playing, there is an immediate stop at 16:59:55.  The light show starts at 17:00:00.

 

[OzAz 29]

how are you doing the " Zara schedule immediate play command " ?

[k6ccc 1,070]

24 minutes ago, OzAz said:

how are you doing the " Zara schedule immediate play command " ?

On the main Zara control panel, select the events page by left clicking on the events calendar button. (the red arrow below).

That will bring up the events listing.  Click the "New" button (the green arrow below).  That will bring up a new event box (the screen capture was taken after pressing the "New").  On the new event screen, enter the desired date and time info and then select Immediate (the purple arrow below).  Select the event type of Play (the black arrow below).

Got it?

 

 

[OzAz 29]

Thanks, excellent how-to.

[k6ccc 1,070]

2 minutes ago, OzAz said:

Thanks, excellent how-to.

You're welcome.  I think I've gotten pretty good with Zara if you have any other questions.

 

[Richard Hamilton 17]

On ‎7‎/‎25‎/‎2009 at 8:57 AM, Greg said:

The way I use zara to start and stop for the show is this way, since both programs run on the same computer they both use the same system clock so I program a stop event about 3 seconds before the start of the lor show. In the lor program I creat a sequence that only runs dtmf tones, as the last thing in the show close. I have zara set up to listen for the tones once LOR runs that sequence and zara detects the tones zara starts running the program until the next lor show run. Last year it worked great not a single problem

Interesting, I do EXACTLY the same thing.  I guess our minds are in the same gutter :-)    I also put DTMF tones at the beginning of my LOR show just in case ZR screws up and doesn't stop like it is supposed to when LOR starts.  On rare occasions, ZR wouldn't stop even though I had a stop event programmed at 6 pm when my LOR starts.

[Richard Hamilton 17]

On ‎12‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 2:45 PM, k6ccc said:

On the main Zara control panel, select the events page by left clicking on the events calendar button. (the red arrow below).

That will bring up the events listing.  Click the "New" button (the green arrow below).  That will bring up a new event box (the screen capture was taken after pressing the "New").  On the new event screen, enter the desired date and time info and then select Immediate (the purple arrow below).  Select the event type of Play (the black arrow below).

 

 

 

K6, nice explanation.  Just out or curiosity, how come you don't have the "play immediate" command only on week-days.  Do you not have shows on the weekend?  Or perhaps you were just making a demo for the other member?

[k6ccc 1,070]

7 hours ago, Richard Hamilton said:

K6, nice explanation.  Just out or curiosity, how come you don't have the "play immediate" command only on week-days.  Do you not have shows on the weekend?  Or perhaps you were just making a demo for the other member?

That was real data.  My show runs an hour longer on the weekends.  There is a different "play immediate" for a few minutes after the weekend show ends.

 

[CKSedg 4]

I hope someone can help me with another Zara question:

Although the season has ended, I am playing music on my Zara radio, with Time, Temperature, and Humidity announcements every so often.  All of a sudden the file selection under TTH will not stay.  I can select it and it works to update once, but if I go back into it, there is no file there and Units have defaulted back to Celsius.  Nothing will update until I select the file again, and then it only works immediately and is gone again.   I can't figure out how it could change when it worked perfectly all season.  Any ideas how I can get the file to "stick" in the selection box?  Weird!

[k6ccc 1,070]

That sort of sounds like something I was having last year.  In my case, the issue was lack of administrator access.  I was using an account that had rather limited access.  Ended up giving the show account local administrator access (but not domain level admin access).