How It Works

The tune-to sign works independently of the other light controllers.  It doesn't receive commands from xLights nor Falcon Player; the tune-to sign does not play shows created by these.  Instead, the tune-to sign relies on files on the iTwinkle website.  

When the tune-to sign is powered up, it looks for a file in www.itwinkle.org named messages.txt.  This file contains a list of messages for the tune-to sign to randomly display.  There can be up to 55 messages up to 75 characters long.  To change the messages that the tune-to sign displays, simply change the contents messages.txt file on the website, then reset the tune-to sign by disconnecting power, then apply power again.  Messages can be displayed in different colors; prefix each message with a three-character color code such as "RED", "BLU", "YEL", etc.

After displaying each message, the tune-to sign checks the website to see if anyone is actively controlling the lights.  It does this by reading the location.txt file on the website.  If this file shows a different location than the previous time it checked this file, the tune-to sign knows that someone is actively controlling the lights at that moment.  It then uses the contents of this file (city, state and/or region) to display the visitor's location with a message such as "Lights being controlled from Paris, France".  After this message is displayed, the tune-to sign goes back to displaying random messages again.

 

Last modified on Tuesday, 16 May 2017 03:22

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