TIMER/DOC2 TIMER V6.03A and 6.04 11/15/1993 3/15/2009 DOCS PART 2 Programmable Darkroom & Utility Timer Requires: TI99/4A console, Speech, 32k, Disk, Super Extended BASIC preferred, TI's EXB also supported- see docs by: Ed Gerken P.O. Box 747 Hill City, SD 57745 wriverprep@aol.com www.whiteriverprep.com/ti99/index.html NOTE: See the Part One Docs for a complete description of the Timer program. RUNNING THE TIMER: Once a sequence is properly input, loaded or saved, and the timer started with the "R" key, the screen clears. Speech announces the step now in progress, and the screen shows that and the next step in line. Several beeps and boops signal the start as well. The enlarged sprite clock face sets to zero and the SXB clock resets as well, if Sequence or Reset was chosen as an option earlier. New to v6.03a is the XB detector, which displays the XB version in the upper right hand corner. To give indications that all is well, and to assist in counting enlarger burn-in or dodge time, a small "beep" is made every five seconds, and a "boop" is made every ten. A louder "ba-bong" sound signals the passing minutes. The sprite clock's colon blinks, and the time is updated each second. SXB's clock ticks merrily onwards in the upper right of the screen. It has no effect on the main timer, it is just a secondary time display. The sprite clock will not properly display times longer than 9.99 minutes, although they are timed correctly. XB places a limit of 4 sprites in a row. I could have display the colon differently, but I so seldom timed things beyond 10 minutes that I never bothered. This only affects the on-screen display, not the actual timing. Also note that times are input in decimal, such as 1.5 minutes to time for one minute and thirty seconds. The clocks display in minutes and seconds. With 15 seconds remaining, Timer announces the current step and the next step. Since TI XB speech is very limited, it only says the step's number. It also announces if the upcoming step is the last step in the sequence. Like the clock's display, speech is limited to 10 steps. Beyond that, all steps are announced as "step one." This is due to the fact that the CALL SPGET statement, as I used it, only checks the first digit of the step number. It's just a small bug I never got around to fixing, for the same reason of my darkroom print work not requiring steps longer than 10 minutes. At time's end, the speech repeats, but this time says "Done with... Next is..." It then allows drain time, and counts down from 5 before starting the next step. It again announces the new step number and starts timing it. I had it repeat this info frequently, because I often wasn't paying full attention to the speech, and needed reminding which step I was on. This is also partly due to how much the Timer program freed me to do things other than "watch the clock." The TI's speech signals me before I need to get back to business and then makes sure I know what it has been up to. The speech is readily modified in the program, and the only tricky part is using the SPGET feature to encode it automatically with the timer sequence's loop counter, which is the same as the current step. If timing has gone without a hitch, the program returns to Option 4's screen, the Timer Start. It redisplays the sequence with all options as described in part 1 of these docs. But, if things have gotten out of hand, you will need to refer to the bottom of the timer screen. There you will see: }Reset }Skip }Fast }Halt }Menu }Talk }Jump }Quit }Kill }Lite }Clock Cont. Pressing the first letter of any choice will enable that option. Additionally, many of the Main Menu options 1-8 are also active, but must be used with some discretion, as noted briefly below and also in part 1 of the docs. 1> Create does not work properly from within a running timer sequence in this version. 2> Load asks for a filename and after loading, returns you to the sequence list display/edit mode as is shown prior to a normal start. Any sequence in progress is suspended and a new process is loaded. This option behaves here just like it does at the Main Menu. 3> Save behaves as option 2, but, of course, keeps the existing sequence in memory. 4> Start Timer takes you to the sequence display/edit menu, as it would when called from the Main Menu. 5> Main Menu needs no explanation. You may also Press "M" to return here. 6> Disk Catalog returns to main menu when complete, suspending any sequence in progress when the disk catalog was invoked. 7> Cost Estimator will return to the Main Menu, the same as step 6 above behaves. 8> Defaults will return to the running timer, with the clock continuing from where it left off. Now the so-called "active keys": R-eset will reset the step in progress back to zero. S-kip will end the current step and go to the drain routine, followed by the next step or the immediate end of the sequence if the final step is Skipped. F-ast speeds up the timer as long as the "F" key is held down. Use this to get back in sync or to end a step faster than normal, but not terminate it as Skip does. This works by incrementing the timer by 2 seconds per loop cycle. H-alt stops the timer and emits a soft, repeating beep-beep noise. Press "X" to restart the timer from where it left off. Use this to "stretch" a step out to a longer time. M-enu is self-explanatory. Timing is immediately suspended. T-alk will, when held down, skip the drain time delay default periods, thus speeding the drain period up considerably. It will also skip some, but not all of the speech. It must be held down continuously to work, and resets to normal after releasing the "T" key. This is handy when you are in just a bit of a hurry to get the timer caught up to where the process is actually at. J-ump is perhaps more useful than Talk at moving from step to step within the sequence in progress. Jump allows moving from any step to any other step. It will start timing at the beginning of that step. Jumping to step zero acts as though a Jump to Step 1 was input. Jumping beyond the current total number of steps acts like the sequence was completed. An on-screen reminder of the current step and the range (i.e. 1-11) will be shown. Q-uit is a hold-back from earlier versions. It acts the same as the "M" key or Option 5 key. I just never removed it! K-ill will set the screen and characters to black on black. This may help those who wish to do tray processing or other light-sensistive processes and just listen to Timer's audio without the display screen being lit up. Set your TV or monitor's brightness and contrast to give minimum screen illumination. Now-a-days, I use a separate audio feed from the TI's modulator to my darkroom stereo for sound, and turn the TV off as my TV does not darken enough for this option to be useful. Setting the screen with the option 8 Default menu to black will do the same thing as this one key entry will. Incidentally, I have also covered the screen with red plastic to make it into a darkroom safelight, useful when procesing black & white prints. L-ite is the opposite of Kill. It sets the background color to a lighter hue, and will cycle through the foreground colors if held down. Another throw-back from earlier versions, it is still just hangin' around. It does make a necessary complement to Kill, however. C-lock Cont. In v6.03, if Triton's SXB is installed in the cartridge slot, pressing "C" will cycle the SXB clock through its 4 four choices, displaying each choice in the menu. The new choice may not become evident in the timing until the next step or sequence is begun. The Clock Off option stops the clock immediately, however. Not all the options may cycle on and off properly in this version. More bugs! V6.04 supports this option with either XB or SXB, but is probably still buggy in the same ways as 6.03. C-lock Reset. This will work properly if "R" is also pressed afterwards, resetting the step to zero. It otherwise sets itself properly with the next new step. It is unlikely that the user would need to change the SXB clock options during processing, anyway, but I was using the various modes during testing of the program, and having a way to change it without re-RUNning was handy. It would likely be better to include this option as part of the Default menu, instead of as part of the timer itself. Final Notes: While I have obviously concentrated on photographic processes in describing Timer, its programmability would lend itself to many different timing-related functions. Cooking, for instance. Or an exercise routine. Or timed laps for the kids' RC or slot car racers. Set the drain time to zero in the defaults menu, and maybe delete some unwanted speech from the code, and you have an entirely different program. I use Timer only for my darkroom work and the program has proven itself well-suited for that purpose. Besides color printing, the timer is useful for many other tasks, such as B&W film developing, or any task that needs sound, speech or a display to help keep track of it. I always wanted more flexible speech to allow the program to also say the name of each step. Did you know that TI left out any word that relates to water, rinsing, draining, or moisture of any kind? Maybe they didn't want to give any youngsters ideas! ("Please wash me!" Grin!) I at one time used the phrase "H-2-O," but it took too long to say. At any rate, I'm drooling (pardon the moisture!) over the new XB-III with its combined TEII and XB speech capabilities. That way, I wouldn't have to complete my old, imperfect console BASIC/TEII version! That pretty much completes our tour of Timer v6.03a and v6.04. I've got to admit that even after nearly 10 years of writing, rewriting and modifying the code for Timer, I've never tired of making it work smoother and faster. I hope you'll enjoy using TI Timer as much as I have over the years, and maybe you'll get some good pictures to prove it! P.S. While this program is offered as "freeware", I'd appreciate some comments from some users (and I'd never refuse a buck or two). Earlier versions offered on Delphi saw moderate downloading, so someone must be making some use of it. Or ought to be. A dedicated timer with far fewer capabilities costs about $150. I know this program has saved (and earned!) far more than that! Enjoy! Ed Gerken P.O. Box 337 Hill City, SD 57745 wriverprep@aol.com 11/15/1993, 3/15/2009