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This tutorial will lead you through
the creation, configuration, compilation and download of a simple show to an
Alcorn McBride Show Controller. You
will learn how to:
-
Create,
Save, Open, and Configure a Script.
-
Rename
Show Controller I/O, Flags,
Ports, etc.
-
Insert
and organize sequences.
-
Edit
sequences.
-
Use
branching instructions.
-
Use
the LCD Display.
-
Configure
sequence triggers.
-
Play
video.
-
Create
Day and Night Modes for prolonging equipment life.
-
Compile
and Download your script.
- Run
your show!
A Little About Our Show
The show we are going to create will
control the basic functions of a video player. We will start it up
and shut it down,
s earch,
and play, as well as add
some front-panel pushbutton and LCD Display
capabilities.
Note If you don’t feel like typing all of this, a copy of the completed
script, TUTORIAL.AMW,
was installed in your \WinScript\Scripts\Examples\ directory.
The idea behind this tutorial is to
get you oriented with your Show Controller and WinScript. After you’ve mastered the basics, check out Advanced WinScript Programming and the Application Notes chapters, later in this book. Then, when you’re ready to start scripting your show, refer to the WinScript
User’s Guide for a screen-by-screen reference of WinScript features.
I
Have a [fill in the blank] Video Player. Is It Right For This Tutorial?
Sure! The player used throughout this tutorial is unimportant. In fact, this tutorial was originally written for a LaserDisc player), but since WinScript transparently
supports almost any serial protocol, your sequences
will look very similar to these, no matter
what player you use. Of course we'd rather you used one of our Digital
Video Machines, but that's another story...
Whoa Nellie! I
Don’t Have a Video Player…
That’s OK. With slight modifications, the
tutorial script may be used for a wide variety of applications.
What
About My Show Controller?
We’ll be using an Alcorn McBride
V16+ Show Controller for this tutorial, but all Alcorn McBride Show Controllers
are programmed exactly the same, so you’ll be able to follow along with your Show Controller. In
fact, you don’t need a show controller at all to learn WinScript. You can still
enter and compile your script, and then skip the downloading
step.
Note If your Show Controller does not include an LCD Display, you may skip
any steps that deal with displaying information on the LCD.
Opening WinScript and Creating a Blank Script
The first thing you should do when
scripting any show is to create a new script and save it to a file.
1. Run WinScript from the Program Manager (or the Start Menu if you’re
running Windows 95).
2. Close any blank scripts that may have been created when WinScript
started. The default script may not
contain the same settings that our tutorial will use. Now choose File
| New from the main menu.
3. Choose your Show Controller from the list in the File
New dialog box and click OK.
4. Choose File
| Save As… from the main menu and save your newly created blank
script as tutorial.amw
Customizing
the Script
Now, let’s enter some basic
information about our script.
5. Choose Configuration
| Script… from the main menu and enter title, author, and revision
information into your script. Then,
enter your name in the first Author field. Click OK.
6. If you’ve got a show controller, connect a COM Port of your PC to the
Programmer Port of your Show Controller via a straight-thru RS-232
serial cable (the cable that came with your Show Controller).
7. Choose Tools
| Options | Communications… from the main menu and only select the
COM Port number that you just connected the cable to. If you just want to
practice scripting without downloading, deselect all ports.
Naming
Resources
One of the most powerful tools you can
utilize in a script is the ability to assign English-like names to your Show
Controller’s resources (Inputs,
Outputs,
Serial Ports,
Flags,
Variables, and Strings). Before we begin creating sequences
for TUTORIAL, let’s assign some names to the Inputs, Flags,
and Serial Ports we’ll be using. While
we’re in the configuration menu, we will also create and name all of our LCD
Display
messages.
Inputs
Our show will use the first three
front panel buttons of your Show Controller to perform various functions. Button 1 (we will call it RunShowButton) will start a two
minute video presentation. Button 2
(we will call it DayNightModeButton) will toggle between…guess what…That’s
right, Day Mode and Night Mode! Finally, Button 3 (we will call it CreditsButton)
will display your name on the LCD when it is pressed and return the LCD to its
previous state when you let it go.
1. Choose Configuration
| Inputs… from the main menu.
2. When the Inputs
of TUTORIAL window appears, double-click on the cell labeled input1
and change its name to RunShowButton. Repeat the process for input2 (naming it DayNightModeButton) and input3 (naming it CreditsButton). You can
also enter some descriptive comments if you wish.
3. Close the Inputs
of TUTORIAL window.
Flags
We will use one of the 32 available
flags to tell when we are in Night Mode so DayNightModeButton can accurately
toggle between the two.
4. Choose Configuration
| Flags… from the main menu.
5. When the Flags
of TUTORIAL window appears, double-click on flag1 and change its name
to NightModeFlag.
6. Close the Flags
of
TUTORIAL window.
Serial Port
Next, we’ll configure one of the
Serial Ports
of your Show Controller for a Pioneer LDV-8000 player.
7. Choose Configuration
| Ports… from the main menu.
8. When the Ports
of TUTORIAL window appears, double-click on port1 and change its name
to ldp1.
9. Right-click on the “Protocol” field of ldp1 and choose Protocol
Wizard.
10. When the Edit
Serial Port Configuration
window appears, click on the down
arrow and choose Pioneer_LD-V8000 from the protocol list (or if you are using a different player, choose it from
the list). Click OK.
11. We will create an “Error Sequence” later that will automatically run
if the video player stops sending acknowledgement messages to the Show
Controller. Enter the name LDPError in the Error
Seq field.
12. Close the Ports
of TUTORIAL window.
LCD Messages
Our show will make good use of the LCD
by displaying the show’s name and current mode in the first line of the LCD
and progress information in the second line. First, though, we need to create our messages using LCD Wizard.
13. Choose Configuration
| LCD Strings… from the main menu.
14. Enter the name BootUpMsg in the
first String
Name field.
15. Right-click on the String
Data field of BootUpMsg and choose LCD
Wizard.
16. In the first line of the LCD Wizard, put: My
First Show: Booting Up…. Click
OK.
17. Repeat steps 14-16 for the next eight messages:
DayModeMsg
NightModeMsg
GoingToNightModeMsg
GoingToDayModeMsg
ClearLine2Msg
CreditMsg (Enter your name after
“Programmed by”)
PlayingPresentationMsg
LDPErrorMsg
Whew…now, your LCD
Strings of TUTORIAL window should look like this:
18. Close the LCD
Strings of TUTORIAL window.
19. Save your progress by choosing File
| Save from the main menu or by clicking the  toolbar
button.
Inserting
and Organizing Sequences
We’ll continue setting up our script
by creating sequences that will perform the various show functions that we’ve
designed. Let’s see…what is
required of this script?:
-
One
sequence that starts on power up and places the system in Night Mode.
-
One
sequence that toggles Day or Night Mode when DayNightModeButton is pressed.
-
One
sequence that plays the video presentation when RunShowButton is pressed.
-
One
sequence that displays your name when CreditsButton is pressed.
-
One
sequence that recovers the LCD when CreditsButton is let go.
From this list of requirements,
let’s insert our sequences:
1. Highlight the Sequences
of TUTORIAL window, click on the Default sequence’s name cell and
rename it by typing Autostart. We want this sequence to run on powerup and automatically
place the system in Night Mode. We’ll
be configuring it to do that in a few moments, but first…
2. Insert the other five sequences as shown in the picture below by simply
typing the information in each consecutive cell and pressing Enter.
Now, let’s configure the trigger
properties of these sequences:
3. We know that we want Autostart to start on power up, so right-click on
Autostart and choose Autostart Disabled. This
will toggle the sequence to be Autostart Enabled.
4. DayNightMode should be started every time the operator presses DayNightModeButton, so right-click on DayNightMode and choose Start:
5. Select DayNightModeButton and Active On from the Edit
Start Trigger
dialog box and click OK.
6. MainShow should be started when the operator presses RunShowButton, so
right-click on MainShow and choose Start:
7. Select RunShowButton and Active On from the Edit
Start Trigger
dialog box and click OK.
8. It would probably be nice if we could restart the presentation after a
short delay, so right-click on MainShow and choose Restart Disabled…
9. Check the Restart Enabled checkbox and enter 150 into the Restart Lockout
box. This will
give us a 5-second delay (since our frame rate is 30 fps) before anyone can
press RunShowButton to restart the show. Click
OK.
10. Now, let’s setup our Credits sequences.
CreditsOn should be started when the operator presses
CreditsButton, so right-click on CreditsOn and choose Start:
11. Select CreditsButton and Active On from the Edit
Start Trigger dialog box and click OK.
12. Right-click on CreditsOff and choose Start:
13. Select CreditsButton and Active Off from the Edit Start Trigger dialog box and click OK.
Adding
Events
Let’s digress for a moment and talk
about how Sequences
and Events really work inside a Show Controller. Alcorn McBride Show Controllers scan their Sequences once every frame. Any Sequences that are considered “running” are checked for events
that should be executed.
Events are executed when the amount of
time that has elapsed since the Sequence was started is equal to or greater than
the time entered in the Time field of the Event. When a sequence
is started, its timer is set to frame 1, and it immediately executes any events
with a time of 00:00.00 or 00:00.01. On
each successive frame, all running sequences are checked to see if they have any
events scheduled to run. For
example, an event with a 00:02.15 execution time will occur two seconds and
fifteen frames after its Sequence was started.
Now, back to our sequences…
Autostart
Autostart will display our “Boot
Up” message, as well as clear the second line of the. Then, it will turn off NightModeFlag so that our DayNightMode sequence
will place the system in Night Mode when it is started.
1. Select Autostart in Sequences
of TUTORIAL then press Enter.
2. Select the Event field of the first event and type “D”. This will bring up the Available
Events List and select the first event starting with a D.
3. Choose Display and press Enter.
4. Enter “BootUpMsg” (without the quotation marks) in the Data1 field.
Congratulations, you’ve just entered
your first Event! This event will
display the text in BootUpMsg when Autostart runs.
5. Enter the rest of the events as follows:
6. Close the [Autostart]
of TUTORIAL window.
DayNightMode
DayNightMode will check the status of
NightModeFlag and then either put the system in Day Mode or Night Mode. You’ve probably been wondering “just what are Day Mode
and Night Mode?” It is necessary
to place “mechanical” equipment such as LaserDisc players in a settled state
when the show is not going to be run for a while (like at night). We will “Spin Down” our video player in Night Mode and “Spin
Up” our video player in Day Mode. We
will also search the video player to the start of our presentation (frame
1000) so we will have almost instantaneous access to video playback when the
operator pushes RunShowButton.
1. Select DayNightMode in Sequences
of
TUTORIAL then press Enter.
2. Enter the Events as follows:
3. Close the [DayNightMode]
of TUTORIAL window.
MainShow
MainShow will play a two-minute
presentation from our video player, starting at frame 1000 and ending at
frame 4596 (not 4600, since the video runs at 29.97 frames per second). If this were a real show, we would probably connect an
external sync cable between the video player and the Show Controller to
provide frame synchronization, but since this show is less than five minutes,
clock drift won’t cause more than a frame of inaccuracy, so we won’t use
that feature.
Note If you are using a Digital Video Machine
instead of a laser disc player, enter the clip number rather
than the frame number into the Search
command’s data field.
At the end of our presentation,
we’ll search back to the start and wait on the next press of the button.
1. Select MainShow in Sequences
of
TUTORIAL then press Enter.
2. Enter the Events as follows:
3. Close the [MainShow]
of TUTORIAL window.
LDPError
This simple sequence will display
LDPErrorMsg if the video player is not connected to the Show Controller or
is not responding to commands.
1. Select LDPError in Sequences
of TUTORIAL then press Enter.
2. Enter the following Event:
3. Close the [LDPError]
of TUTORIAL window.
CreditsOn
Our credits sequences will let you
show the world who programmed this incredible show! CreditsOn will use the StoreLCD
event to save what is currently
displayed on the LCD. Then, it will
display your name on the bottom line of the LCD.
1. Select CreditsOn in Sequences
of TUTORIAL then press Enter.
2. Enter the Events as follows:
3. Close the [CreditsOn]
of TUTORIAL window.
CreditsOff
Our final sequence, CreditsOff will
use the RecoverLCD
event to “remember” what was
displayed on the LCD when the last StoreLCD
Event was executed (remember, we stored the LCD in CreditsOn)
and put it back on the display.
1. Select CreditsOff in Sequences
of
TUTORIAL then press Enter.
2. Enter the following event:
3. Close the [CreditsOff]
of TUTORIAL window.
Compiling
and Downloading
We’re done! Now its time to compile and download our script into the Show Controller. Before we start, make sure you have connected the programming cable
between your PC and the Show Controller.
Also, connect the correct video
player cable between Port 1 of your Show Controller and the video player’s
RS-232
control port. Finally,
make sure that there is a video in the video player and that the player
is powered.
1. Save your progress by choosing File
| Save from the main menu or by clicking the  toolbar
button.
2. Choose File
| Compile and Download from the main menu or click the  toolbar
button.
3. When WinScript finishes compiling your show, you may see some errors
listed. Double-click on each of the
errors and refer back to the earlier steps in this tutorial to verify that you
have entered the events correctly.
4. When the script compiles correctly and you are prompted to download the
show data to the Show Controller, click OK.
Running
the Show
The show runs immediately after
download is complete and goes into Night Mode. After the video player has spun down and the system is in Night Mode,
try out your new show by pressing the second button (DayNightModeButton) to
bring the system into Day Mode. Then,
press the first button (RunShowButton) to start your video presentation.
Notice that you can restart the show
by pressing the first button after five seconds, you cannot start the show when
the system is in Night Mode, and you can display your credits screen at any
time.
Some events take considerable amounts of time. Searches can take as long as two seconds, and Spinup
and Spindown
events can take up to a full minute. When switching between Day and Night modes, allow the system
to reach a settled state before doing anything else.
Summary
Congratulations on writing your first
script. We hope you enjoy exploring
the many possibilities that a multi-tasking show environment can bring. If you feel adventurous, we recommend experimenting with the script
you've just created by adding events and changing display messages. You might even try assigning more buttons to play different presentations
from the disc. More advanced
scripting techniques can be found in the Advanced
Scripting and Application Notes sections of this manual.
Thanks
for taking this tutorial and good luck with your show! |
Orlando, FL 32835