BACKGROUND:
I use the windows system timer to start and stop my live video camera encoders.
I also use the windows timer to send bangs that hide and show the manual Rainmeter buttons that start and stop cameras. That is so I can prevent operators from messing up scheduled shows.
Now I want to make a countdown meter that displays the remaining time until the end of the show or next scheduled commercial break.
I might be asking the wrong question here, so see the alternate question below.
The skin has a variable like EventTime=0
I already know how to have system scheduler execute the bang to change the EventTime variable to whatever I need.
The question is, how is the internal value for time stored or expressed?
How would I make EventTime equal to 17 seconds past 10:30 am
For example.
Code: Select all
[MeasureHour]
Measure=Time
Format="%H"
[MeasureMinute]
Measure=Time
Format="%M"
[MeasureSecond]
Measure=Time
Format="%S"
But, I can not display the actual value of "Time"
Nor is there any obvious way to find the difference in the Time and SetTime
In other systems I would for example use something like this:
RemainingTime=(EventTime - Time)
.
.
.
Format=%H:%M:%S
I suspect I could make measures with calcs to return the hour, min and second based on EventTime instead of Time. Then do the calculation on the hr, min second variables to display te remaining time. I found examples of such methods on DeviantArt, but the code was huge and uggly.
Let's' say a Show starts at 9:05pm and there is a 5 minute commercial break at 9:30pm
At 9:05 the systems timer would start the broadcast and send a bang to set EventTime to 9:30
The countdown meter would then display the results of a calc as the remaining hours, minutes and seconds until the break. It will also have a countdown till the end of the break, a countdown till the end of the show and a countdown till the start of the next show, which could be several days away.
ALTERNATE QUESTION
I realize that I may need to send the event time as several variables, IE: EventY ,EventM, EvenD, EventHr, EventMin, EventSec. In that case, How would I avoid sending 6 bangs? Can I send the event time info in one bang as a comma separated list and then have have code parse it into six different variables. I'm not sure how I'd code that.
Any general suggestions would be appreciated. I know I'll probably get six different answers, all of them good, and all of them educational.