Running LEDTriks with LOR

[ranger_391xt]

I know a lot of people use BetaBrites and have shared how they update them during their shows. I have built a LEDTriks system (details can be found at doityourselfchristmas.com), and thought I'd share how I integrated it into my display such that I am able to inform passers by what song is playing. I know there is at least one other LOR user out there that has built the LEDTriks, and I figure there may be others that have or are considering it.

My goal was to be able to provide visitors to my display information such as the FM freuqeuncy to tune to, show times, and the title and artist of the currently playing song. To do this, I created several LEDTriks sequence files using Vixen. One sequence contains the Tune To information, another sequence contains the show time information, and then sequences for each song/artist were created.

To start the LEDTriks display when the show started, I created a windows cmd (batch) file which is executed by my background sequence. This file runs in a loop, displaying the Tune To information, then the show time info, and then the song/artist information. The song artist information to display is determined by reading a .txt file which contains the name of the song/artist LEDTriks sequence. This .txt file is created/updated by other batch files that are executed when the sequences start. The LEDTriks stops display information if another .txt file (showdone.txt) exists, which is created by a batch file that is executed by my shutdown sequence.

The batch file to "drive" the LEDTriks board is as follows:

REM-----------------------------------------------------------------------
REM
REM Batch file to send updates to LEDTriks board with LOR show is running
REM
REM By Chris Hoover, December 2, 2009
REM
REM-----------------------------------------------------------------------

:INIT
C:
CD "Program FilesLTC"

setlocal
set currentsong=
set showrunning=
IF EXIST "C:Program FilesLTCcurrent.txt" DEL "C:Program FilesLTCcurrent.txt"
IF EXIST "C:Program FilesLTCshowdone.txt" DEL "C:Program FilesLTCshowdone.txt"
ECHO Show Started %Date% %Time%> "C:Program FilesLTCshowrunning.txt"

:TuneTo
IF EXIST "C:Program FilesLTCshowdone.txt" GOTO END
LTC TuneTo.led #FRM #DLY15000

:ShowTimes
IF EXIST "C:Program FilesLTCshowdone.txt" GOTO END
LTC ShowTimes.led #FRM #DLY5000
LTC Showtimes2.led #FRM #DLY500

rem IF EXIST "C:Program FilesLTCcurrent.txt" (GOTO CurrentSong) ELSE
rem (GOTO TuneTo)
:CurrentSong
IF EXIST "C:Program FilesLTCshowdone.txt" GOTO END
IF NOT EXIST "C:Program FilesLTCcurrent.txt" GOTO TuneTo
FOR /F "tokens=*" %%a in ('Type "C:Program FilesLTCcurrent.txt" 2^>NUL') do set currentsong=%%a
LTC NowPlaying.led #FRM #DLY5000
LTC %currentsong%.led #FRM #DLY500
GOTO TuneTO

:END
LTC #CLS
exit

One of the files which updates the current.txt files looks as follws:

IF EXIST "C:Program FilesLTCcurrent.txt" DEL "C:Program FilesLTCcurrent.txt"
ECHO MusicBox> "C:Program FilesLTCcurrent.txt"
EXIT

Additionally, for my intermission sequences, as well as some animations that play between songs, I execute a batch file which deletes the current.txt file, so that no "Now Playing" info is displayed.

Not sure if this will be useful to anyone else, but thought I would share how I did it.

Chris