Start/Stop a Show from the API or CLI?

scottmcm

scottmcm

Member
Is there a way to start and stop a show from either the API or CLI or some other way? Can a show even run outside the scheduler? I am trying to make an easy way to change the lighting/mood on my undercabinet kitchen lights so people other than myself can do it. Right now I have shows setup (scheduler runs a 23 hour, 59 minute show) that basically just loop one sequence with the lights set for the different holiday seasons but only I can change that. I would like to expand the choices for daytime, nighttime, super bright, low light, colors...whatever else I can think of. But to do that I need to be able to quickly and easily switch from one to the other. More important, my wife needs to be able to do it too. :) I was thinking if I could create a show for each holiday or mood or color I could just have some magic button on a webpage that has script behind it that stops the current show and starts the selected one. I know this is not what Vixen was meant to do.... As a side note, I have Vixen running all year on the kitchen lighting and also pixel lighting on my dock. It is definitely more than just for holiday lighting!
 
I would export to an FPP and use a much less expensive system to drive the lights. Next, FPP has the ability to react to button presses and has an extensible UI that would let you do what you are looking for.

What type of controller are you using? This actually sounds like a good application for WLED.
 
Vixen has a web API interface but I don't think it controls the scheduler. I was working on a POC Vixen Player that supported both scheduled playing of shows and manually playing of shows in loop. The latter might satisfy your use case if the POC was finished. The POC has not gotten a lot of interest or support so far partially because FPP can do similar capabilities.
 
Agree with Martin in this case, a device running Falcon Pi Player (FPP) to playback the pattern. Or even a WLED/ESPixelStick on a $4 microcontroller to run off an SD card.
 
With FPP, you could do a web page that uses Big button to have each button being a sequence/effect. But the wled interface is well established and not only can you do many effects but you color most to your liking. You could replace all your Vixen driven permanent lighting with WLED controllers.

Vixen web is here:

Web Interface

Website for Vixen Lights Software
www.vixenlights.com www.vixenlights.com

Vixen API https://www.vixenlights.com/docs/usage/programming-api/web-api/ does include these two calls that would let you build many sequences and then select one to play. You would have to build out a web page yourself but it is easy enough to do.

GET /api/play/getSequences​

Retrieves a list of sequence files in the Vixen 3\Sequence folder. If you are using profiles, the folder returned will be the Sequence folder in the profile folder.
Example Request:

http://localhost:8080/api/play/getSequences

Example Response:
[
{"Name":"Basic Patterns 1", "FileName":"Basic Patterns 1.tim"},
{"Name":"Border Pixel Test", "FileName":"Border Pixel Test.tim"}
]

POST /api/play/playSequence​

Plays the sequence passed.
Example Request:

http://localhost:8080/api/play/playSequence

Example Response:
{
"Name":"Announcement",
"FileName": "C:\\Users\\bob\\Documents\\Vixen 3 – Halloween\\Sequence\\Announcement.tim"
}
 
MartinMueller2003 said:
I would export to an FPP and use a much less expensive system to drive the lights. Next, FPP has the ability to react to button presses and has an extensible UI that would let you do what you are looking for.

What type of controller are you using? This actually sounds like a good application for WLED.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the replies. Sorry for the delay in responding, I went on vacation and forgot to check. I am using a Ren32 driving DirkCheapSSR's with the high power upgrade. The LEDs are RGBW dumb strips. I don't have any FPP or WLED hardware to play with so I was hoping to find a way to make this work with the current hardware. I have a PC in the kitchen (google, Amazon, recipes, shopping) so having it also run Vixen is not an issue.
 
JCB said:
Vixen has a web API interface but I don't think it controls the scheduler. I was working on a POC Vixen Player that supported both scheduled playing of shows and manually playing of shows in loop. The latter might satisfy your use case if the POC was finished. The POC has not gotten a lot of interest or support so far partially because FPP can do similar capabilities.
Click to expand...
That's what I found, The API interface can control sequence but not show or schedule.
 
MikeKrebs said:
With FPP, you could do a web page that uses Big button to have each button being a sequence/effect. But the wled interface is well established and not only can you do many effects but you color most to your liking. You could replace all your Vixen driven permanent lighting with WLED controllers.

Vixen web is here:

Web Interface

Website for Vixen Lights Software
www.vixenlights.com www.vixenlights.com

Vixen API https://www.vixenlights.com/docs/usage/programming-api/web-api/ does include these two calls that would let you build many sequences and then select one to play. You would have to build out a web page yourself but it is easy enough to do.

GET /api/play/getSequences​

Retrieves a list of sequence files in the Vixen 3\Sequence folder. If you are using profiles, the folder returned will be the Sequence folder in the profile folder.
Example Request:

http://localhost:8080/api/play/getSequences

Example Response:
[
{"Name":"Basic Patterns 1", "FileName":"Basic Patterns 1.tim"},
{"Name":"Border Pixel Test", "FileName":"Border Pixel Test.tim"}
]

POST /api/play/playSequence​

Plays the sequence passed.
Example Request:

http://localhost:8080/api/play/playSequence

Example Response:
{
"Name":"Announcement",
"FileName": "C:\\Users\\bob\\Documents\\Vixen 3 – Halloween\\Sequence\\Announcement.tim"
}
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. I would need to figure out how to loop the sequence but this is the route I was hoping to go.
 
JCB said:
If you choose to go the Vixen Web API approach, we could enhance the Web API to provide the ability to loop the selected sequence.
You would request that enhancement at https://vixenlights.atlassian.net/jira/projects.
Click to expand...
This would certainly be the "easy" button. If I were to go this route would I have the API run two sequences at the same time but of different lengths (looping) so as to avoid the blip when the sequence restarts? This is how I am doing it now, using the show/scheduler with the background sequence set to a slightly shorter copy of the desired sequence.
 
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