Working on an elevator Simulator...

[Ryanm0085]

hey jon...just wanted to see how things were going...  i want to make sure i got you all the information you need

[JonnyMac]

I think I do.

Sorry for the delay, Ryan.  The last couple weeks John and I have been really packed in on the last throws of the AP-16 design and as that product is long overdue we've been putting all of our time there.  I have to tech reviews to finish for John today -- tomorrow I'll devote the morning to your program.

[Ryanm0085]

hey take ur time...ive been doing alot of reading and messing around with the boards...im starting to get the hang of things...but of course i cant stop with one project so ive added a bunch more...but i think i can handle them

[GOT]

I don't know the details of your haunt, but I have done two elevators and have always fought with trying to eliminate the sounds of the kids talking outside (which ruin the effect of going underground).  But, I always thought that if you could get good isolation, you could use this to your advantage.  You might think about adding some ambient customer chatter to your music.  Then you hear the music AND the people in line behind you fade away.

[Ryanm0085]

yes that is very true, hoewever, the haunt is held at our Fire Hall which makes it easy.  Everybody waits in the hall until the elevator is clear.  Then they are escorted out to it when the previous group is far enough down the line.  Also, the elevator has a partition that opens after it runs, kinda like a hidden door that changes the way they leave(giving them the feeling there some where else).  This dumps them into a long tunnel that we made out of conduit and fire-retardent plastic.  This tunnel has a very loud sound system.  The elevator sounds are actually gonna play on it so it drowns any noise out.  then it will be set to fade into the tunnel track once the elevator has stopped.  We can do this because there will only be one group in this section at a time.  We usually send groups every five minutes to space them out.  The next scene after that runs about 5 minutes, so once that group clears, we send another one out.  I deff appreciate the suggestions though.  i usually try and look around every corner and make sure i havent missed any details or forgot about any problems.  We were going to have live bands but realized they would drown out our entire walk.  We have a good chunk of land, but the only area for a band was close by.  Once again i appreciate the suggetions.  its good to know we are all looking out for eachother and helping eachother for SUCCESS!!!!

[menehune]

Maybe a white noise generator in the hallway to help drown out the outside noises-like those "rain machine" radios used to reduce sounds while you fall asleep.

[Ryanm0085]

hey jon...was just curious how your making out?

[Ryanm0085]

just curious if you have had any time to work on that program for me :)

[Ryanm0085]

i tried running this program on my prop-2 with everything hooked up.  i am recieving "VMUSIC #1 NOT DETECTED" and "VMUSIC #2 NOT CONNECTED"  i have double checked and triple checked my connections.  I ran both VMUSIC using a different program just to make sure they we're faulty.  They work.  i reversed the rx and tx lines a couple times just to see if maybe i had them hooked up wrong, but either way i still get those messages.  All the jumpers are set UP.  Is there something im missing? 

[JonnyMac]

To you have P12-P15 SETUP jumpers set to UP?

[Ryanm0085]

yes they r set UP

[JonnyMac]

Well, I'll have to go find my [crappy] VMUSIC player and see if I can figure out why that program doesn't work for you -- I used it with the player I have and it worked fine.

Is the baud rate setting?  I know you tested with other programs; does this program use the same baud rate as your test programs?

[Ryanm0085]

I used the demo on scary-terry.com which does not show a baud rate on it.  

[JackMan]

The download below gives you the latest firmware revision for the VMusic2 (3.66 as of 1/09) and changes the it to the "extended command set" which I feel is a more user friendly command set. The demo program I'm offering uses this command set.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This file is currently called "ftrfb_9600.ftd" for identification purposes. Once you download it, you must change the name to: ftrfb.ftd in order for it to work properly.

Download ftd file

Download this file to your computer, change the name as described above then transfer it to your USB flash device. Insert the USB flash drive into the socket on the VMusic2 and power it up. Within about 30 seconds, the firmware will update automatically. You can now delete the ftrfb.ftd file from the flash drive or leave it on, it doesn't matter.

This info is from Scary Terry's site for using the VMusic with a Prop-2.  Looks like the baud rate is 9600? I was gonna get a couple of these a few months back until I read about all the glitches they have.

[JonnyMac]

If you look in Scary Terry's code the baud rate will be indicated somewhere -- even if it's just a SEROUT statement.  Tell me what that statement is and I'll tell you the baud rate.