General confusion, have a few questions...

[Moskus]

So I got my BB signs from Blade, and after a little wiring and configuring my old Quacom IP-to-serial interface I was up and running!

I've managed to get the time and date switching between them by setting up some Events trigging every minute. "Initialize" seems important. And I can't get the time/date to automaticly update.


I'm just a little confused in this BetaBrite world. Where I configure the signs I see "Text Labels" (where A is $time[HH:mm] (100) and B is $date[dd-mm-yyyy] at the moment), "String Labels", and "DOTs". The main plugin also have a "Messages" options. And everywhere I can select letters from A to Z.


.... so questions!

1. Are A to Z these "files" I see references to? What if I store a Text Label, String Label, a DOT and a Message on the same letter?

2. What is the difference between "Text Labels", "String Labels" and "Messages"? When do I use what?


I have two signs and two uses:
1. This sign will be mounted in the living room and just display messages like "There's somebody on the door", "Remember trash cans", etc, when needed


2. The other will be mounted in a window facing the main entrance. It will display information like the time, date, weather, etc, but I will also play a trick on the mail man (when he closes the mail box door the sign should read "Thank you for the mail!") and visitors (they are greeted when they trigger the motion sensor outside).


How do I achieve these scenarios? Is it possible somehow?




I've been watching the first sign for 10 minutes straight. This is awesome!

[spud]

I'm finally starting to play with my BetaBrite, but like Moksus I'm a little confused. Here is some questions:

1. What is the difference between "Text Labels", "String Labels" and "Messages"? When do I use what?

2. How do I turn off a sign, i.e. make it display nothing? I tried the enable/disable actions but that doesn't seem to have any effect.

Can someone put me on the right track? Thanks!

[sparkman]

Hi spud,

1. What is the difference between "Text Labels", "String Labels" and "Messages"? When do I use what?

• Text Labels contain formatting for how to display the sign and can contain text or references to String Labels. If you update a Text Label, typically the text stream will be interrupted and then it will start re-displaying with the new updated text stream. Here are a couple of examples on how I use the Text Labels:
  - This uses a combination of formatting, text and a reference to String Label 1: {callstring=1}
  {color=rainbow2}Eredivisie{newline}{color=dimred}Dordrecht at Ajax{transition=rollleft} - This is just text and formatting
• String Labels contain text or references to devices, but not formatting. Updates to String Labels don't cause an interruption to the text stream that the sign is displaying. They need to be referenced in Text Labels to be displayed. (see sample above).
• Messages are predefined strings and formatting that can be used in the SetMessage or QueueMessage scripting calls. I personally don't use these currently.

2. How do I turn off a sign, i.e. make it display nothing? I tried the enable/disable actions but that doesn't seem to have any effect.

I use an event that calls my BetaBrite script. The script disables each message (text label). I have other events that reenable them.

Disable:

	ElseIf message = "Off" Then						'disable all messages
		If Len(curSequence) > 0 Then
			For i = 1 To Len(curSequence)
				messageRef = Mid(curSequence,i,1)
				If Debug Then hs.writelog(logname, CStr(i) & " - " & messageRef)
				hs.PluginFunction("BLLED", "", "DisableMessage", new Object(){sign,messageRef})
			Next
		End If

Enable:

	ElseIf message = "Motion" Then					'enable messages if motion detected
		If Len(curSequence) > 0 Then
			For i = 1 To Len(curSequence)
				messageRef = Mid(curSequence,i,1)
				If Debug Then hs.writelog(logname, CStr(i) & " - " & messageRef)
				hs.PluginFunction("BLLED", "", "EnableMessage", new Object(){sign,messageRef}) 
			Next
		End If

Let me know if that helps. Moskus, if you still need help as well, please let me know which questions you still need answers to.

Cheers
Al

[Moskus]

Moskus, if you still need help as well, please let me know which questions you still need answers to.

I'm sure I do, but for now this will get me much further!

I was going to ask the exact same messages as Spud (Ok, his #1 is mine), but your script looks very good. I'll look into that.

[spud]

Al, thanks for your script , it helped me a lot. Here is some more questions:

1. what is the maximum size for a message?

2. Is there a way to update a message without causing any interruption on the text stream. I know I can use SetString, but I don't want to update a simple device value, I want to update a long message with formatting.

If it's not possible with the current version of the plugin, is it possible at all to implement this in a future version? or at least delaying the interruption at the end of the sequence?

[sparkman]

Al, thanks for your script , it helped me a lot. Here is some more questions:

1. what is the maximum size for a message?

2. Is there a way to update a message without causing any interruption on the text stream. I know I can use SetString, but I don't want to update a simple device value, I want to update a long message with formatting.

If it's not possible with the current version of the plugin, is it possible at all to implement this in a future version? or at least delaying the interruption at the end of the sequence?

Hi spud,

Glad it helped.

For 1, I have some as large as 750 bytes (that I use for the stock ticker). Not sure what the true max is. The BBs that Bob sold only have 8 MB of memory and not sure how it's all allocated. I think you can go larger, but then that limits the number of total messages you can use.

For 2, I don't think it's possible with the current plugin and not sure if the BB supports that. Best to request that as an enhancements on Bob's Feature Request page: http://bladeplugins.no-ip.org/ListFeatureRequests.asp

Cheers
Al