Running the show

Three modes

At the top of Show:

Mode	What happens
Off	nothing plays, and every output is off
Ambient	ambient loops run (lights, fog), but sensors don’t set off scares
Armed	ambient loops run and sensors fire their sequences

Pressing a mode holds it until the schedule’s next change. Without a schedule, the boards start out armed and a mode you press holds until you press another one.

The schedule

Press Schedule… to set when the show runs on its own.

1. Under LOCATION, press Use this device’s location, or type a latitude and longitude (west is negative). This is how the console works out your sunrise and sunset.
2. Add windows with + Add window. Each window has DAYS, DATES, FROM, TO and the MODE to be in. You can have up to 12.
3. Press Save to boards.

FROM and TO take a clock time such as 21:30, or the sun: sunset, sunrise, dusk or dawn, with an offset in minutes. sunset-60 is an hour before sunset and dusk+15 is fifteen minutes after dusk. DATES limit a window to part of the year (month and day), so October can be scarier than December.

A typical Halloween schedule:

DAYS	DATES	FROM	TO	MODE
every day	Oct 1 – Oct 31	sunset-30	22:00	Ambient
Fri, Sat	Oct 1 – Oct 31	dusk	22:00	Armed
every day	Oct 31	sunset-60	23:00	Armed

Where windows overlap, the lower row wins. Outside every window the show is Off. The TODAY column shows exactly when each window runs today.

Pressing a button against the schedule

If you press a mode that is more active than what the schedule says, such as Armed during an Ambient window or anything at all after hours, it lasts for at most an hour, then the schedule takes over again. That way a late-night test doesn’t leave the yard screaming until morning. The limit is a setting in the schedule panel.

STOP ALL

The big button at the bottom left. Press and hold it for about a second and a half. Every board disarms and every output turns off: strips, servos, relays and flood lights. A banner says ALL OUTPUTS STOPPED and names any board that didn’t confirm.

RE-ARM SHOW in that banner turns the triggers back on.

Caution

STOP ALL needs the console to be connected to the bridge. For a prop that could hurt someone, such as a fast pneumatic or anything near a walkway, build in a physical stop as well.