Is there a way to trigger Xlights? (OSC, midi, time code, something?)

[mishakoz]

Hi everyone,

I have a big rig that consists of dmx fixtures, audio, projection, and of course, pixel tape. Now I used Xlights last year for some basic operation and tried to sync my systems by simply having them go off the same time clock. That didn't really work and for what I have planned I often need timing down to the millisecond.

Now I love Xlights and it's perfect for my use over alternatives that I have looked at, but it's a non starter if I cant sync it with my other systems. Right now I use qlab to trigger lighting, sound and projection via OSC but I don't see that or anything similar built into Xlights. The scheduler doesn't work because if you select a start time, there is still a several second delay before it starts, and naturally even if both Xlights and everything else started at the same time, they would become unsynced because that stuff is super finicky

Anyway, long and short of it is im hoping for a way to trigger Xlights sequences using something from an external source. Like I said OSC is common but Midi, MSC and receiving an external time code are common methods. does the ability to do this exist within the software or maybe it has to be added in the future?

Thank you for the time. Love the software again, easy and simple.

[Gilrock]

I'm not sure what can be done using the xLights scheduler.  It's driven by a scripting language so I know we've had users that write custom stuff.  Most of us use the Falcon Pi Player that has GPIO inputs for triggering sequences.  I don't think anyone has midi triggers because we generally don't need dynamic triggering for our shows.

[keithsw1111]

Timecode support is on my todo list but not for this year.

[mishakoz]

Bummer. I really hope in the future youll consider OSC integration as well, its a lovely protocol that allows syncing of a great number of systems.

[Gilrock]

None of the developers even use xLights to run our shows we use the Falcon Pi Player (FPP) which has some trigger, scripting, event, etc. capabilities.  It surpasses what xLights can do so much that its really a waste of time to work on the xLights show player.  It would be better to get the features you want into the FPP if they aren't already there.

[sean]

I last used the xlights scheduler in 2012. Rock solid. Starting in 2013 and going forward i have run all shows with FPP. There is a world of difference in using Linux as the scheduler (so much more deterministic), and the raspberry pi's. There must be dozens or hundreds of ways to integrate sensors into the rasp pi.

There are over 2500 members on the falcon facebook group. In All those hundreds of show players, i dont think we have had a request for OSC. Post this request over in the falcon forum.
http://falconchristmas.com/forum/index.php/board,8.0.html
When people make these requests, the developers have to decide if they want to take the time to implement. maybe start a poll and list all the ways you think fpp might want to be interfaced.

i think the raspberry pi is pretty rich now. Check out some of these peripherals for the raspberry pi.
https://www.adafruit.com/categories/288