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    Another animation question

    First of all I want to apologize in advance for so many questions.

    I am trying to figure out how to change a running animation to another one.
    • If I start another animation while one is running, I seem to get an unpredictable merge between the two animations.
    • If I stop one then start another with "Return to original settings after animation ends " selected the lights go back to where they were before the first animation started, before starting the second
    • If I deselect that box and I stop the first animation it stops where it is, then I can start the second successfully, however when I stop the second the animation stops but I have to put in additional event actions to restun the lights to where I want them.
    I would like to be able to roll through several animations over the course of the evening, preferably changing every 10 minutes or so. Ideally it would be great if the plug-in would automatically replace a running animation when a new one is started, but it probably has no way of knowing the new animation will involve the same lights as the new one.

    Perhaps I am missing something obvious. For now I an going to disable "Return to original settings after animation ends", then stop the running animation and start the next one. When my animations are over I will add actions to return the lights to their normal state.

    Also, is there a function that will return any running animations? Twice when I thought all animations were stopped and all lights were off, I was unable to edit an animation because the plug-in thought it was running. I created a manual event to stop the animation and then I could edit it.
    HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

    #2
    Randy,

    Getting used to the questions

    Running two animations at the same time might be unpredictable for sure, when the same (all or partly) lights are involved. Animations do not know if they touch the same lights nor does they check to see if they are the only one running. The only limition is that a single animation can only run one at a time.

    To roll through animations does need a 'stop animation' and a 'start animation' action from an event or script.
    There is no function yet to return all running animations. Can create such an event, or you can use the scripting function StopAnimation ("all") to stop them all at once.

    Did you think about using the "Stretch time of this animation untill set endtime" option on a large animation? it sounds a bit like this might be what you are looking for?
    Check the documentation for a explanation on this option. In short, you could combine all the steps form the other animations, create loops between (and over other loops) steps and execute the whole for a specified number of times. And in the JowiHue action to start the animation, you can set the end time.

    Maybe it is an idea (but I confess, it is complex). the image is a sample that runs my lights during daytime if it is a bit dark

    Click image for larger version

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    Attached Files
    -- Wim

    Plugins: JowiHue, RFXCOM, Sonos4, Jon00's Perfmon and Network monitor, EasyTrigger, Pushover 3P, rnbWeather, BLBackup, AK SmartDevice, Pushover, PHLocation, Zwave, GCalseer, SDJ-Health, Device History, BLGData

    1210 devices/features ---- 392 events ----- 40 scripts

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by w.vuyk View Post
      Randy,

      Getting used to the questions

      Running two animations at the same time might be unpredictable for sure, when the same (all or partly) lights are involved. Animations do not know if they touch the same lights nor does they check to see if they are the only one running. The only limition is that a single animation can only run one at a time.

      To roll through animations does need a 'stop animation' and a 'start animation' action from an event or script.
      There is no function yet to return all running animations. Can create such an event, or you can use the scripting function StopAnimation ("all") to stop them all at once.

      Did you think about using the "Stretch time of this animation untill set endtime" option on a large animation? it sounds a bit like this might be what you are looking for?
      Check the documentation for a explanation on this option. In short, you could combine all the steps form the other animations, create loops between (and over other loops) steps and execute the whole for a specified number of times. And in the JowiHue action to start the animation, you can set the end time.

      Maybe it is an idea (but I confess, it is complex). the image is a sample that runs my lights during daytime if it is a bit dark

      Click image for larger version  Name:	2018-12-11 21_01_54-192.168.1.3_82_Creativity.png Views:	2 Size:	166.2 KB ID:	1265905
      Thank you. I could do that, but I now have 8 animations, a couple are only 4 steps, the rest are between 8 and 64 steps. Is there any physical limitation to the number of steps? I may end up with 150 or more steps, if I combine them all in one animation. Then I could loop each animation 5 times, then move on to the next of the 8 then return to the first step at the end. Then I could either make it infinite or stretch it. I’ll decid on that after I build it. They are easy enough to build, so it is not a problem to build one, but I don’t know the limitations of the plug in.

      I really like the way they look and work, but I am still learning the way to do things.
      HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

      Comment


        #4
        Knowing nothing about animations, can I assume these are pre-set levels for colour, temp, brightness? I'm new to this game and this seem like a new concept to me.
        HS3PRO 3.0.0.500 as a Fire Daemon service, Windows 2016 Server Std Intel Core i5 PC HTPC Slim SFF 4GB, 120GB SSD drive, WLG800, RFXCom, TI103,NetCam, UltraNetcam3, BLBackup, CurrentCost 3P Rain8Net, MCsSprinker, HSTouch, Ademco Security plugin/AD2USB, JowiHue, various Oregon Scientific temp/humidity sensors, Z-Net, Zsmoke, Aeron Labs micro switches, Amazon Echo Dots, WS+, WD+ ... on and on.

        Comment


          #5
          Randy,

          There are no hardcoded limitations in the plugin that I am aware of. But ofcourse, never tried to reach the limits here myself. Looking at what you might reach for, that is quite a challenge! I am crossing my fingers at this point
          -- Wim

          Plugins: JowiHue, RFXCOM, Sonos4, Jon00's Perfmon and Network monitor, EasyTrigger, Pushover 3P, rnbWeather, BLBackup, AK SmartDevice, Pushover, PHLocation, Zwave, GCalseer, SDJ-Health, Device History, BLGData

          1210 devices/features ---- 392 events ----- 40 scripts

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by w.vuyk View Post
            Randy,

            There are no hardcoded limitations in the plugin that I am aware of. But ofcourse, never tried to reach the limits here myself. Looking at what you might reach for, that is quite a challenge! I am crossing my fingers at this point
            As Yoda (from Star Wars) stated: "Do or do not, there is no try"

            I'm going to do it tomorrow

            HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by langenet View Post
              Knowing nothing about animations, can I assume these are pre-set levels for colour, temp, brightness? I'm new to this game and this seem like a new concept to me.
              Robert,

              Maybe check another post, where I tried to explain the concepts behind an animation. Maybe this helps to grab the idea: https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/li...rise-animation
              -- Wim

              Plugins: JowiHue, RFXCOM, Sonos4, Jon00's Perfmon and Network monitor, EasyTrigger, Pushover 3P, rnbWeather, BLBackup, AK SmartDevice, Pushover, PHLocation, Zwave, GCalseer, SDJ-Health, Device History, BLGData

              1210 devices/features ---- 392 events ----- 40 scripts

              Comment


                #8
                Randy,

                I will try to release a new beta today that includes the update for animations stopping ONLY for updates on lights included in the animations. Otherwise your large animation might not reach the end of the loop. Hoping to release it in my afternoon, which should be morning for you
                -- Wim

                Plugins: JowiHue, RFXCOM, Sonos4, Jon00's Perfmon and Network monitor, EasyTrigger, Pushover 3P, rnbWeather, BLBackup, AK SmartDevice, Pushover, PHLocation, Zwave, GCalseer, SDJ-Health, Device History, BLGData

                1210 devices/features ---- 392 events ----- 40 scripts

                Comment


                  #9
                  Randy,

                  The update should be available now.

                  Thanks,

                  Wim
                  -- Wim

                  Plugins: JowiHue, RFXCOM, Sonos4, Jon00's Perfmon and Network monitor, EasyTrigger, Pushover 3P, rnbWeather, BLBackup, AK SmartDevice, Pushover, PHLocation, Zwave, GCalseer, SDJ-Health, Device History, BLGData

                  1210 devices/features ---- 392 events ----- 40 scripts

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by w.vuyk View Post
                    Randy,

                    There are no hardcoded limitations in the plugin that I am aware of. But ofcourse, never tried to reach the limits here myself. Looking at what you might reach for, that is quite a challenge! I am crossing my fingers at this point
                    I ended up with 135 steps. The biggest problem is in the webpage for building the animation. Apparently the entire page gets evaluated each time a new entry is made then the header for the animation is rewritten

                    Click image for larger version

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                    As the steps get added the page slows to a crawl and will freeze after a few changes are made. The solution is to reload the page more and more often as the steps increase. At 130 steps, you can only edit about 4-6 fields before the page becomes unresponsive.

                    I don’t know if anything can be done to prevent the rechecking of entries, since every edit of loops or steps added can affect other items, but it might be worth a look.

                    The good news is that the animation worked last night. I don’t think stretching is a good solution for me, because it seems to stretch the wait interval on each scene based on the end time. My end time varies on weekdays vs weekends and will be different on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. I finally ended up setting it for 100 loops of the entire animation, that way I could use Continue after other Hue command, which prevented the animation from stopping with commands to other Hue lights. Then I just stop the animation with my nightly event and reset the lights to their normal non-holiday lighting. With the new update, that will no longer be an issue and I can probably revert to my original method.
                    HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Yes, the animation gets re-evaluated with every change. I think I could ease it a bit by presenting a button once more then 10 steps or so are involved, so the page will not refresh until the button is pressed. But there might be a missed issue if the evaluation is missed. I will have to look into that to find out what is possible. The checking process is quite important here.

                      With the new beta you are running, the infinate animation should no longer stop with another hue command, not related to its own set of lights. I tested it here yesterday and it was behaving again :-)

                      But wow.... I am sure you now officially hold the plugins record in animation size!!
                      -- Wim

                      Plugins: JowiHue, RFXCOM, Sonos4, Jon00's Perfmon and Network monitor, EasyTrigger, Pushover 3P, rnbWeather, BLBackup, AK SmartDevice, Pushover, PHLocation, Zwave, GCalseer, SDJ-Health, Device History, BLGData

                      1210 devices/features ---- 392 events ----- 40 scripts

                      Comment


                        #12
                        WOW! XMAS lights? What bulbs are you controlling? I built a 50ft RGBWW led assy inside a one piece tube of PVC. This will serve for my XMAS lights and in the summer will be submerged at the dock. It can be a challenge as salt water corrodes everything instantly. I use a Qubino RGBW controller and some built in scenes.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by rprade View Post
                          As the steps get added the page slows to a crawl and will freeze after a few changes are made. The solution is to reload the page more and more often as the steps increase. At 130 steps, you can only edit about 4-6 fields before the page becomes unresponsive.
                          I think that might be more of a Homeseer issue. I noticed that the other night when I was editing a device's Status Graphics tab. I had a device I was trying to add around 20 status settings and graphics to and experienced the same exact issue. I think it's an ASP.NET postback issue. I've run into that before a few times on our website when we were building a large postback page. It's a resource issue and each browser type handles it differently, some better than others.

                          I think Wim might be on the right path by allowing several changes between postbacks. What we normally do is layout several subsection-forms on a page and then update each subsection with a single button after that subsection gets filled in by the user (if that makes sense). For example, on the status graphics tab we would only postback the top section once (where the settings go) after all settings were input and then the bottom section (where the graphics go) once all graphics have been chosen. Downside is you can lose quite a bit of submission work if there is a snafu during postback.

                          --Barry

                          Comment


                            #14
                            The long animation ran fine last night. Turning off other lights or groups had no effect. I have an idea for longer animations, without having to build such a large animation. I will let you know how it works and how I do it to see if you have a better idea.
                            HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Yessss, good news Randy! Thanks for letting me know! And qurious on your ideas of course. First starting to work to a finish for the beta now.
                              -- Wim

                              Plugins: JowiHue, RFXCOM, Sonos4, Jon00's Perfmon and Network monitor, EasyTrigger, Pushover 3P, rnbWeather, BLBackup, AK SmartDevice, Pushover, PHLocation, Zwave, GCalseer, SDJ-Health, Device History, BLGData

                              1210 devices/features ---- 392 events ----- 40 scripts

                              Comment

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