waits while projector is warming up
Stewart
Posts: 37
I have written some code ( with help from you fine people) that produces a variety of events:
screen down/rack power on/projector on. This occurs on the main page and is designed for user simplicity. In a nut shell choosing a variety if media sources( vcr/dvdd/ld/or laptop/desktop computer) will produce the same cascade of effects. After the user pushs one of these buttons I have a page flip that sends the user to a source page . The problem I am having is that during projector warm up the projector seems immune to a command to either flip to video/s-video and an rgb input. I imagine I need to throw some waits in there but was wondering if this will slow mainline down and if anyone has a work around that is more elegant? For example when choosing "dvd" for example everything comes on but usually the input is for the computer ( input-a as it is a default) . The user must then return to the main page and rechoose "dvd' even though the code has taken care of this ....
What would be a reasonale "wait" for either a sony or panasonic projector?
screen down/rack power on/projector on. This occurs on the main page and is designed for user simplicity. In a nut shell choosing a variety if media sources( vcr/dvdd/ld/or laptop/desktop computer) will produce the same cascade of effects. After the user pushs one of these buttons I have a page flip that sends the user to a source page . The problem I am having is that during projector warm up the projector seems immune to a command to either flip to video/s-video and an rgb input. I imagine I need to throw some waits in there but was wondering if this will slow mainline down and if anyone has a work around that is more elegant? For example when choosing "dvd" for example everything comes on but usually the input is for the computer ( input-a as it is a default) . The user must then return to the main page and rechoose "dvd' even though the code has taken care of this ....
What would be a reasonale "wait" for either a sony or panasonic projector?
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Comments
This is quite common. Many projectors will not respond to any command while they are warming up. There's a variety of ways to handle it. One that makes sense to me is to create a message que that monitors the state of the projector. The queue can store commands to send while it waits for the projector to come online again.
I'd opt for this kind of thing because it's less dependent upon make and model of projector. If you change out projectors some day, then you'd have to re-write all the wait times and whatnot.
I'd also track current states of video inputs in the program as well. For example, if the Projector is already on and is viewing the DVD player, why resend the power on and video input 'whatever' commands again.
The way to build a good queue is to set up a command list and associate the correct wait time with the list. For example: *using phony baloney commands*
Then pass both variables into the cue using the Proj_Command_Wait as the timeout until the next command is sent. That way you can avoid collisions and the queue will handle other possible collisions if the projetor is hanging up for some reason.
Just an idea...
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As far as waits bogging down the mainline I really don't think that's much of an issue since I beleive they are controlled by a timeline run by the master that checks and decrements its queued contents every 100ms and then executing it's its code when the count reaches 0. So its not really different then any other code that runs in another timeline, just a timeline event firing every so often to see if anything is ready to be executed. Wait_until's might be another story but I haven't really found a use for them that aren't better handle in other ways.
Personally, I stay away from timelines for simple timeouts like this. I always just use a named wait for projector warmups. I'll spend some time with the projector figuring out an optimal value; if I'm so fortunate to have a projector that actually reports its state, I'll set it a bit above the maximum timeout, then cancel the wait when the projector says it's ready.