Real Time Two Button Control of Multiple Prop-1 Events

I want a control board that can trigger any of the events I have programmed from the Prop-1 in "real time". I don't want to sequence the events off of one triggering event. For instance, I don't want to hit a trigger, which then runs a pop-up animation, pauses, then flashes lightning, pause, then a second pop-up, etc.

As I watch the TOTs if I want to activate the pop-up, I hit this button. When I want lighting, I hit this button. It's more of a "wizard behind the curtain" approach, as opposed to the "player piano roll" method I (and I bet you) generally use. This means when a little one comes up the walk I can trigger the fog, but not the gigantic blood curdling pop-up. It's not automated, but it will let me customize the scares, and let's face it - I want to play with the stuff I built!

Here's the challenge:

• The Prop-1 has 7 input/output pins.
• If I assign a button to each event, I lose an output for each input I use.

All of a sudden I'm very limited. Through the magic of serial communications, the AP8, FC4 and RC4 can all live on the same output, so at least I have that going for me. Any animation I trigger that use either 110V devices, lighting or recorded sounds won't burn any further outputs. But I have 4 different solenoid valves that need firing, so I need at least 4 outputs.

So with that in mind, here's Prop-1's resources so far:

Crap - I only have two PINs left, but I'm going to have a bunch of animations and events based on mixing and matching the valves, lighting, and sounds. So what to do?

Well what I did is write a program that uses two buttons, one sets the event, one triggers. The Prop-1 code keeps track of how many times I hit the "event selection" button, then once I hit the "action button" it reads the counter and send the code to whatever animation you set up, then returns it for your next selection. For visual feedback, I have the RC4 sending light flashes to a mini 110V low watt bulb with each button press.

So in this fashion I make a little crib sheet for myself, bear in mind this is just an example to further illustrate the code below:

Below is the code, bear in mind that I've included an example of how you can setup an event. When it comes right down to it's a pretty simple bit of code, so go nuts and make it your own.

NOTE: Once you get a feel for the program, remove the 'debug' commands, as they slow things down a lot.

Click Here to Download the Code

'-------------------Garage of Evil------------------------
'          HOW-TO Info for the Home Haunter
'            http://www.garageofevil.com/
' Real Time Two Button Control of Multiple Prop-1 Events

' {$STAMP BS1}
' {$PBASIC 1.0}

' ------------------------------------------------------variables

SYMBOL counter_status	= B1
SYMBOL cycles		= B2
SYMBOL lid_delay		= B3

' ------------------------------ -----------------------constants

SYMBOL event_selection	= PIN6
SYMBOL action_button	= PIN4
SYMBOL Serial		= 7

Main:

IF action_button = 1 THEN action
'no action called for - return and loop

IF event_selection = 0 THEN main
'no events being selected? - return and loop

counter_status = counter_status +1
'the event selection was pressed, add one to the counter

SEROUT Serial, OT2400, ("!RC4", %10, "R", 2, 1)
'flash a light, use an output from the RC4 so I dont burn any 12V outputs

PAUSE 100

DEBUG counter_status
'show how many times the event selector has been pressed

SEROUT Serial, OT2400, ("!RC4", %10, "R", 2, 0)
'part of the light flash, in this line it turns it off

PAUSE 100
'remove this pause with the debug commands - withouth it you couldnt see the
last debug before i

DEBUG CR
' clear the debug with the CR command - carriage return -

GOTO main
'loop and keep counting

action:

counter_status = 0

DEBUG "action time"


IF counter_status = 1 THEN Lightning_Crash
IF counter_status = 2 THEN Fog_Machine
IFcounter_status = 3 THEN Monster_Lid


Lightning_Crash:
SEROUT Serial, OT2400, (!"RC4!", %10, "R", 1, 1)
PAUSE 250
SEROUT Serial, OT2400, (!"RC4!", %10, "R", 1, 0)
SEROUT Serial, OT2400, ("!AP8", %00, "P", 1)

GOTO Main

Fog_Machine:
SEROUT Serial, OT2400, (!"RC4!", %10, "R", 1, 1)
PAUSE 2000
SEROUT Serial, OT2400, (!"RC4!", %10, "R", 1, 0)

GOTO Main

Monster_Lid:
FOR cycles = 1 to 5
RANDOM lid_delay
NEXT

lid_delay= lid_delay // 200 + 100
cycles = 0

FOR cycles = 1 to 8
HIGH 1
PAUSE lid_delay
LOW 1
NEXT

GOTO Main

Click Here to Download the Code

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