TC Lights Suggestion - UK USERS READ

[[TC]»Elmo«]

(2016-12-22 12:33)Quattro10V Wrote:  It's an odd mix of UK and American siren styles atm. We have the horn beep between tones like in the UK, but the ability to play dual sirens, something we can't do in the UK.

Strictly speaking, they pretty much all use Whelen* control boxes both sides of the pond and the UK ones can indeed run two sirens simultaneously.
However, it's pretty rare for the police to use simultaneous sirens and you have to use the button panel to do so (assuming it's even set up). I've seen paramedics use it a few times and fire trucks do regularly (sometimes even slow wail + yelp + two-tone air horn at the same time - they like people to get the hell out of the way of a speeding truck ).

The main difference between UK and US is that the primary siren control in the UK is the horn button, whereas the US mainly use the button box and/or extended button-on-a-stick controls to make them easier to reach.


*Typically Whelen Alpha in the UK - our official siren pack is based on the Alpha.

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The reasons for doing the sirens the way I did were partly to ease the transition to the new system and new sound files (especially as the meanings of horns 4/5 changed) and also make it less likely for people to use horns 4/5 incorrectly.

Also, a very common siren cycle is Wail -> Yelp -> Two-tone (which we don't have) -> Wail etc. The Piercer (which we do use) isn't in the main loop, but is activated by a longer press.I was trying to approximate that version, as it makes more sense with the way the piercer should be used.
It got a bit more complicated than just that, as we now have the opportunity for proper bullhorn support, however I didn't want to add more buttons than necessary in the initial simple, zero configuration version.

I'll probably have various optional modes eventually. I'm not too keen on having the Piercer in the main loop, due to the restrictions on its usage (I guarantee it will mean that many people use it when they shouldn't, accidentally or not)

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I intended from the start to make improvements over time, with various features in mind. However, time has been in pretty short supply, so I haven't got very far yet.

I've written a demo program that I used to help make a library to access controller input, but integrating it into TC Lights will be fairly complicated. I also need to add some way for people to customise keys/buttons in a user-friendly way.

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(2017-01-12 15:36)Quattro10V Wrote:  

(2017-01-10 22:23)Pete Wrote:  

(2017-01-10 22:09)J4ME510 Wrote:  Where is Chuck?!

How is this relevant to the topic?

Pretty sure he thinks it's Chuck who made TC Lights, Pete.

Does no-one read the Readme/forum thread/download link?