Moving from Vixen to xLights questions

[DanHouston]

Currently I am using Vixen to run my show, but I am considering xLights given some of the oddities I have seen in Vixen. I have a couple of questions about how to get things done in xLights to mimic what I am doing in Vixen.

1. I run a background sequence (runs whenever another sequence is not running) that alternates a couple of channels every minute. Is there a way to do something like that in xLights or do I have to manually schedule out the whole night?
2. Currently my show is about 15 minutes long. In Vixen it starts at 6PM and repeats every 30 minutes until 7:30 PM. Can I do this in xLights (it looked like it would just repeat back-to-back), or do I have to schedule a run at 6PM, 6:30PM, and 7PM.

I've just started looking at xlights so my apologies if these have already been asked/asnwered.

[DanHouston]

I'll take anyone's examples of how they have things scheduled in xlights too (might spark a different way of getting things done).

[rrowan]

I have not personally looked at the script language in xLights but here is the link that Matt posted

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Not sure if you have looked at it

Rick R.

[DanHouston]

Thanks Rick. I was hoping I could go script free with xLights.

I'll do some reading, still would like to hear what others are doing with their show and xLights.

[mms]

Dan-

I can only speak to the scheduling part of xLights.  I haven't gotten to the point of a background sequence yet. 

In the case where you are running a 15 minute show from 6-7:30...  There is a way to have it delay after the last item in your show.  You have to figure out the number of seconds (15 minutes is 900 seconds).

One thing I have noticed and I like, is that xLights won't stop mid-song.  I run my show from 5-9.  I looked outside at 9 and it was still going.  I then checked the show computer to see that the song started at 8:59.  When the song finished, the show stopped.

My show is a total of 17:45.  I'm thinking of making another "background" sequence that is 2:16 in length.  That way the show total is technically 20:01.  So in 4 hours, the show will run a total of 12 times.  Theorettically, at 9:00:12 pm the next show would start, but because XLights is doing what I told it to, it won't start the show until the next night.

I hope my explanation makes some sense.

Good luck!

[DanHouston]

I have not tested this yet, but I generated a script from xLights and made some modifications to do what I think I want to do....

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100 REM *
101 REM * Created: 12/06/11 07:54:25
102 REM * Place default light configuration as last sequence in the show.
103 REM * Will play through the show once, and repeat the default config sequence until the show end is reached.
106 REM *
110 LET ListName$="Nightly Show"
120 SETPLAYLIST ListName$
140 ONPLAYBACKEND 300
180 LET NextItem=1
200 REM *
201 REM * Play item NextItem
202 REM *
210 LET LastItemPlayed=NextItem
215 PRINT "At:", FORMATDATETIME$(NOW,5)
220 PRINT "Playing:",ITEMNAME$(NextItem)
230 PLAYITEM NextItem
240 WAIT
300 REM *
301 REM * Jump here at end of song or sequence
302 REM *
305 LET NextItem=LastItemPlayed+1
310 IF SECONDSREMAINING <= 0 THEN 400
330 IF NextItem < PLAYLISTSIZE THEN 200
340 PRINT "At:", FORMATDATETIME$(NOW,5)
350 PRINT "Playing:",ITEMNAME$(NextItem)
360 PLAYITEM NextItem
370 WAIT
380 GOTO 310
400 REM *
401 REM Reached scheduled end time
402 REM *
410 PRINT "At:", FORMATDATETIME$(NOW,5)
420 PRINT "Reached scheduled end, but leaving lights on."

So I would schedule the above for 5:30PM - 6:30PM, then again from 6:30PM-7:00PM, and finally from 7:00PM-7:30PM. I think this will play the songs in my show once and repeat the last sequence until we reach the end time....That last sequqnce is 2 minutes long and does what I want my lights to do while the show is not running (a little confusing since I have what I want my lights to do when the show is not running as part of a show). I also took out the part that turns the lightsoff and the end time so the lights should never go out from schedule to schedule.

Assuming that works, then I would schedule my "background" sequence from 7:30-11:45 to end the night. I'll test it tonight (hopefully), but if anyone with experience can look over what I have and provide feedback I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Dan

[DanHouston]

It seemed to work well, except a few cycles into my "background" sequence (all shows had completed) half my lights turned off....I had to restart xLights to get it to correct. Has anyone seen that behavior before?