TPD3 Elegant Coding --Any oldies but goodies?
majoranne
Posts: 6
I've been maintaing a Phast Landmark system for 11 years--I know, time to upgrade, but I cannot. So from the project's simple beginning, I've added another controllable TV and zone, DVR, Cable boxes with On Demand--the problem is that my Viewpoint Touchscreens have run out of memory. My choices include deleting pages and making the touchscreeens operate only in one room or zone, or re-program them trying for more elegant (low memory) programming.
Does anyone out there know the most efficient way to free up memory? Put another way, what are the biggest memory hogs? Pages, Pop-ups, colors, fonts, or buttons?
Does anyone out there know the most efficient way to free up memory? Put another way, what are the biggest memory hogs? Pages, Pop-ups, colors, fonts, or buttons?
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You can tell what part is your problem by going to the SYSTEM PAGE, and you'll see the 4 parts of memory (buttons, bitmaps, icons, and fonts) and how much you are using of each. Probably you have run out out BUTTON memory, too many pages and buttons.
Make your code understand that a single command means PLAY (etc) no matter what device you are using, and send the play to the device being used, and you can reduce the number of pages dramatically. No need to have multiple pages identical with individually pointed buttons.
By why can't you upgrade? Even an old NI3000 would be a radical step up with nearly no cost, today.
Open your file in tpd3, go to panel, drop down to panel memory, and you can see whats eating up most of your panel memory. You could delete any transport bitmaps and substitute with amx icon fonts. Also you can go into bitmaps, icons and fonts, and delete anything that you're not using. You may have to simplify your graphics to save memory. Good Luck!
It's always the SRAM I run out of - pages and buttons are stored there. I have never found any solution other than just deleting buttons and/or pages that are less used. Pages are loaded in the default order shown in the Panel Explorer. If you watch the load on the panel screen, you can see exactly what page it runs out of memory on, and that will give you some idea how much room you have to make. I usually start with buttons that are acting as labels. Many times they are nice to look at but not really necessary.
Thank you everyone for the helpful answers!
To Dave: What you described ended up being exactly what my problem was. My short term solution was to get rid of some text only buttons and only load the zone specific pages on each of my viewpoints.
To John, Reference your second post: Ah, yes, that showed me my exact memory shortages and where my memory ran out.
Also to John, Ref: your first post: It took me a while to get to it (6 weeks), but as of today, what you recommended is what I did and the bugs are worked out. I created a couple of new variables, so the system would know which viewpoint (audio zone) was signaling which source. Then I used only one Start page with three or four popup pages (such as for channels, control, etc), so, as you recommended, there is only one play button (etc), but it triggers different IR signals depending on the source selected. I used a lot of conditionals for each Viewpoint channel. Now I have the same programming for each viewpoint, which is nice, since we sometimes bring the two viewpoints into different rooms (zones). The other nice thing is that this freed up memory for me to add programming to call up the security camera with only one touch; and also add controls for another TV when I get around to pulling out my rack and connecting another IR OUT cable. Because the pages are literally the same no matter which source is selected, this program seems to be much more user friendly. My family only has to remember to select their room and source if we are using competing viewpoints.
New Subject, also @ John: You recommended that I upgrade to, at least, an old NI3000. Is that a Netlinx computer? The reason I have avoided that is I love the object oriented, graphic interface on the Landmark software. No new language to learn. Or am I mistaken about how Netlinx programming works? The last computer languages I learned were (shudder) Fortran and LISP. I have looked at C++. Does Netlinx have nice pictures, or would it require some actual computer language skills? What benefits does it add?
Final comment for John: Your CineTouch website impresses me. When the time comes that I really do need to change my lighting system or make some other major overhaul, CineTouch looks like a great tool for tying together disparate parts.
Thanks again to everyone for your help. Cheers!
Yes, the NetLinx is more like C+ real honest programming, no graphic drag and point. It's quite a ramp if you have never done it. It has big advantages in speed and self-contained stability (no laptop computer or that old mess). That's where our product might be a choice for you, as the concepts of what you are doing, the logic of a system design, and understanding of control connections are fundamentally similar in NetLinx, and we take the programming out of the equation. When you are ready, give us a call and we'll discuss how it can work. No one solution is for everybody, but many dealers like ours, especially when programming is the issue.
ALSO better late than never, the G3 panels and particularly the viewpoints seem to hold onto unused bits of junk in memory when you reload a panel project. If you just reload and check free memory on the system page, you'll find you have less left than if you RESET TO FACTORY on that same system page to clean it out before loading. The difference can be significant. So always empty a G3 viewpoint before loading... Same goes for an R4.
Ah, John, I ran into that problem with an ebay replacement Viewpoint just a couple of weeks ago. My DH (dear husband) dropped ours on a stone floor. The replacement had some code other than 1988 for accessing the protected setup. Dave, a frequent contributor to these forums, helped me reset so I could clear the memory and change the password back. Useful trick!