countdown A countdown to use on Dataton Watchout.

[Alex Ramos]

Disclaimer:

This project is in no way affiliated with Dataton. Is of my own creation, use at your own risk, and is delivered as is.

Hello all,

Here is my gift for the community for this holiday.

This is something I'm waiting to see implemented in WO for a long time.

I bodged a countdown for the media playback. Sometimes we need to give a countdown on a media to the rest of the team, especially if the media is long and everybody else is waiting for the next cue.

The file is attached, clean no virus. 😊

Also a VIDEO showing it.

THIS FILE IS OUTDATED SEE THE LAST POST FOR LATEST VERSION

WO Countdown.rar

[wiesemann]

Very cool. Please Dataton, buy this technology!

Is it possivle to send this to another computer on the same network which has the tool installed? So that colleagues of the team can see it in the same moment. 

Up to now they keep asking like kids on vacation trips..

[Alex Ramos]

Sure, just create a new output with the remote IP port 1234 TCP,  and run the app.

Here is an improved version.

Blennds better with WO and always keeps the time in 00:00 format. Always a 0 on the left.

Countdown Alpha.rar

[RBeddig]

Muito obrigado!

Looks nice. Couldn't the app work with UDP broadcast as well? Then the team colleagues could install the app and just listen to the broadcast instead of having multiple cues to the different team members in the timeline.

[Alex Ramos]

Great idea, will work on it when I have some spare time.

[Alex Ramos]

On 1/4/2023 at 9:49 AM, RBeddig said:

Muito obrigado!

Looks nice. Couldn't the app work with UDP broadcast as well? Then the team colleagues could install the app and just listen to the broadcast instead of having multiple cues to the different team members in the timeline.

While waiting for a building video mapping do run, I had some spare time so here it goes.

Well I have version working on UDP. But...

I'm not a professional coder so I have some limitations. Always learning.

The downtown UDP can receive messages from any IP on the network on port 1234.

Is my understanding that.

To use only one cue, WO needs to multicast, to all of the network, so the 224.0.0.1 should be used on the UDP string output!? Is this how it works?

I'm missing something here. I can make it work over the network but I need to specify the address on the out string UDP cue, much like TCP.

All comes down to, how do I broadcast to all clients at the same time using une cue only on WO?

Attached is the UDP version, it can now be resized by dragging the corner.

Help appreciated.

Alex

THIS IS THE LATEST VERSION AT THE MOMENT

Countdown Alpha.rar

[RBeddig]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the efforts. Unfortunately I'm at the gate waiting for a flight and won't be able to test before the end of the month. An alternative would maybe be a broadcast address but I've not used this myself yet. The broadcast address would be 192.168.0.255 in a 192.168.0.xxx network. This would surely stay inside the local network which adds security.

Kind regards,

Rainer

[Alex Ramos]

Thats it working fine.

Thanks

[Eddy Yanto]

I would concur with what RBeddig has suggested and I think the broadcast address will also depend on how your network was/is setup.

In a private local network, some will use class A IP addresses eg: 10.0.0.x while others will use class C IP addresses eg: 192.168.1.x. So I think it's not ideal if you were to hardcode a fixed broadcast address into your utility. Even in the same class, some may use different segment eg: 192.168.0.x vs 192.168.1.x. And to be able to broadcast from one machine in one segment to another machine in another segment, you'll also need to do the routing which is the function of router anyway.

In one of my software where I broadcast a small UDP payload to discover available nodes/machines, what I did was the following:

1. Loop through available network interfaces (as some machines may have multiple network interface eg: Ethernet, Wifi)
2. Discard loopback addresses like localhost or 127.0.0.1
3. Get the broadcast addresses from those detected or active interfaces
4.  Add the broadcast addresses to the combo box so that user can select

Below the UI and the implementation in Python (you'll need to find similar function in your language):

        # broadcast discovery
        for iface in netifaces.interfaces():
            iface_details = netifaces.ifaddresses(iface)
            if netifaces.AF_INET in iface_details:
                det = iface_details[netifaces.AF_INET]
                if(det[0].get('addr') != "127.0.0.1"): #do not include loopback address
                    self.broadcastCombo.addItem(det[0].get('broadcast'))

Hope this suggestion helps.

[Alex Ramos]

@Eddy Yanto thanks for the input, for now I will leave it as is.

This is a very simple codeto serve my needs. I share it as it may help other, not as a "produt". Also as a teaser for Dataton to incorporate something similar.

Its not realy hardcoded a fixed broadcast adress  

Dim endPoint As IPEndPoint = New IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 1234)

The way I have my network setup is mask 255.255.0.0 and use IP 192.168.x.x

This shuld work with any Class, A or C as long as the router passes the packets.

Again Im not an expert on this mater, just a hobbyist.

Always learning 

Alex

[Alex Ramos]

Latest version with bugs revision now with hh:mm:ss

Resizable window and no 24 minutes limit.

Github

 

 

Countdown Alpha UDP.exe