Managing your show...

bluzervic

65,768 Channels, 185 Universes
Joined
Dec 31, 2011
Messages
535
Location
Fremont, Calif.
I usually just schedule the show using "Show on demand" and set the time to start and finish
This is with LOR BTW

You can also run it with the show scheduler

No need for me to turn on speakers, I just use the FM Band and my Transmitter is on until I disable it for the year.
 

firebug

Senior elf
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Messages
604
Location
Newcastle NSW
Seems the best way will be to have the wife on hand those nights I'm not home. My roster works out that I'll be working nights the 3 weekends prior to Christmas... :(
 

Habbosrus

Back again
Joined
Dec 5, 2012
Messages
758
Location
Swansea, NSW
firebug said:
Seems the best way will be to have the wife on hand those nights I'm not home. My roster works out that I'll be working nights the 3 weekends prior to Christmas... :(
Between now and Christmas 2014 you will learn so much that this question or issue may just be a distant memory. I ran my first show ever on 30 Nov 2013 via a Raspberry Pi using FPP (Falcon Pi Player) with zero issues. I didn't even know what a Pi was until the latter half of 2013. In December 2012 i had just found ACL, knew nothing about led's, pixels, volts, wire gauges, corflute, controllers, etc. I've learned a great deal since then, thanks to the great people here on ACL, but I've only scratched the surface.
 

firebug

Senior elf
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Messages
604
Location
Newcastle NSW
I will pay you a visit before then Habbosrus. I learn 10x faster with people explaining and physically looking at stuff rather than reading text... :)
 

DeeJai

Is that Magic Smoke?!?
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
1,008
Location
No longer in Radelaide
my psu's are on a simple on/off timer, my laptop remains on, and I run scheduler. to start and stop my show.

The only thing that lets people know that o,m not home when the display is going, is no middle age many jumping through the fake snow when they arrive.

Snow machine and me sitting out the front are the only real differences.
 

mborg10

Michael Borg
Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
1,446
Location
claremont meadows
I'm with Matt. I have my PSU's on timers and just set the scheduler on my laptop. I don't have the snow machine but I do have a stool and an eski.
 

Habbosrus

Back again
Joined
Dec 5, 2012
Messages
758
Location
Swansea, NSW
firebug said:
I will pay you a visit before then Habbosrus. I learn 10x faster with people explaining and physically looking at stuff rather than reading text... :)
No problem mate. Happy to help if I can, even if its just a little. I think we should visit Myrtle and his eski too!
 

David_AVD

Grandpa Elf
Community project designer
Generous elf
Joined
Jun 12, 2010
Messages
4,681
Location
Victoria Point (Brisbane)
Kane said:
caffeine said:
Kane said:
About the only thing I do manually is adjust the volume for my speakers, or at least when I remember to do so. I tend to try to turn the volume down at about 8:30, and generally off after 9 or 9:30 (show finishes at 10).
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html
Sorted.

Yeah, I did look at something similar to that (might have even been nircmd), but I'd prefer to leave the FM transmitter at full volume, and just turn down the speakers (I have a small amp hooked up to the speakers, so can easily adjust it).. So in order to do that, I'd probably need a way of externally adjusting the volume electronically .. David_AVD ?? :)

I did write up a simple circuit to do this using a relay, but it was mainly for use with a PIR. The thread is here.

You could combine that idea with one of those cheap USB relay boards on eBay.
 

talk2coxie

Full time elf
Joined
Dec 29, 2010
Messages
142
Location
Heathcote NSW
I'm with a few of you guys, I have all PSU's set with old fashioned timers like these ones below.

http://www.bunnings.com.au/hpm-24-hour-timer-2-pack_p7052868

All the timers are set to come on few minutes apart from one another to prevent any possible circuit overloads and approx 1/2 half before the scheduled show start.

I left the laptop running the whole month too untouched once we launched.

As for the outdoor speaker volume, I have a selector switch inside like this one which gives me volume control of the outdoor speakers from inside.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-Channel-Speaker-Switch-with-Volume-Control-/390550990300?pt=AU_Television_Accessories&hash=item5aeea72ddc
 

ԆцряєсϮ

Senior elf
Joined
Dec 24, 2011
Messages
503
Location
Botanic Ridge
Fully automated here as well, Dont need to be here as the power is on a timer, and show is through Scheduler.
We actually went away for about 4 days day after Boxing day and the show just ticked along nicely.
 

Christmas on Clarafield

Full time elf
Joined
Nov 9, 2011
Messages
395
Location
Melbourne
I'm in the same boat. I manage a restaurant so I'm lucky to be home one or 2 nights a week in December. I have all my PSUs set on a timer, laptop is always on with teamviewer in case I need to access it via my iPad and the show runs from LSP scheduler. I did have a couple of issues towards the end but that was due to me not upgrading to LSP version 2.8.
 

penguineer

Full time elf
Joined
Feb 18, 2011
Messages
202
Location
Mount Tamborine, Qld
Adam007 said:
Make sure to disable Windows updates or your show PC.

The only night I was out... the PC had been rebooted!

My show PC stays off networks for the month of the shows and is usually in its' isolated state prior......sequences and other show files can be transferred via USB if needed.

Staying off the network also means I can turn off a heap of the other usual housekeeping stuff that could affect the show such as virus scans.

The other side of the coin - the last "Patch Tuesday" before the PC went offline it picked up a dodgy patch to windowsupdate itself. This broken patch messed with patch dependancies for Internet Exploder on Windows XP and rapidly consumes 95-100% of the CPU.......thankfully this didn't trigger during December as windows update would fail when it starts(due to not having a network). The problem with this was trying to figure out what was wrong, and then finally realising I was dealing with a two-month old problem......

My show doesn't need me home to start it - the PC and LOR scheduler run continiously, the amp and lighting PSUs are on timer switches. It just starts when it needs to and I just look out the window to see if there are people there that might want the volume turned up a bit higher.....

Cheers!
 
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