James Marquardt

Hopefully a moderator can merge my threads together to this one.

I am really stuck at this point, and if someone can halp me out bu getting what I have done so far straightened out I would appreciate it and this should get me moving in the right direction. BAsically I have an Arduino Uno as my outside world to inside MAx7 bridge and thats working just fine. I have been able to get a video to play when I set one of the Arduino pins to logic HI.

Getting the video to constantly loop as long as the input is held HI.

Removing the toggle and having the arduino polled immediately and non-stop

Compiling the project into an executable that I can simply run on a PC in presentation mode. The Arduino is constantly polled and there is no end user interaction.

As my simple project seems to be too big to post here I have loaded it on to my Dropbox and here is the link to the folder where I stored the project:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lk76l15rwep5w0k/AABw3Xst0grOJ_y0Y3UC9z7Fa?dl=0

I am hoping to get this going as it will be the stepping stone to much bigger things for me.

P.S. My apologies to teh community and the Moderators if I appear to be carpet posting. Not the intent.

I am really stuck at this point, and if someone can halp me out bu getting what I have done so far straightened out I would appreciate it and this should get me moving in the right direction.  BAsically I have an Arduino Uno as my outside world to inside MAx7 bridge and thats working just fine.  I have been able to get a video to play when I set one of the Arduino pins to logic HI.

My issues are the following.....
Getting the video to constantly loop as long as the input is held HI.
Removing the toggle and having the arduino polled immediately and non-stop
Getting full screen video
Compiling the project into an executable that I can simply run on a PC in presentation mode.  The Arduino is constantly polled and there is no end user interaction.

As my simple project seems to be too big to post here I have loaded it on to my Dropbox and here is the link to the folder where I stored the project:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lk76l15rwep5w0k/AABw3Xst0grOJ_y0Y3UC9z7Fa?dl=0

P.S.  My apologies to teh community and the Moderators if I appear to be carpet posting.  Not the intent.


still-suffering-new-user-block

I'm sorry you're having such a rough time, but the community here is usually pretty responsive to any skill level and question. Unless what you're asking is covered in the help files, which is most of the time with "carpet posts." (I don't even know what 'carpet posting' means)

I downloaded your project... I really don't think you needed to zip all those files for help on your Max patch. I think all you needed to do was include the .maxpat, the max project file, and the media file you were trying to loop. You could cut about 90mb off of that download.

1) Getting the video to constantly loop as long as the input is held HI.

-For starters, [jit.playlist] does not support .wmv files, so you need to convert the video to an .avi or a .mov. Secondly, to loop the file you need to message (loop 1) to [jit.playlist], not message (loopend 1) like you have in the patch "jims video.maxpat." You can take the same toggle from your [r d9] to a message (loop $1) and send that to [jit.playlist] in addition to sending the toggle play from [r d9]. Thirdly, when the input is held HI, it is sending a 1, a message that most objects receive as "on," so you could easily attach that HI to a toggle, which sends a 1 or 0 when on and off.

2) Removing the toggle and having the Arduino polled immediately and non-stop

-I have no idea what you mean by this. You mean the toggle to your subpatcher [p arduinoSerialreader] ? If so, you can simply put in a [loadmess 1] or a loadbang onto the toggle for it to immediately turn on and stay on.

-I see you are using [jit.pwindow] - an object specifically used to display within a patcher. Try [jit.window @fsmenubar 0] instead, it uses its own window outside of a patcher. Send [jit.window] a message that says (fullscreen 1).

4) Compiling the project into an executable that I can simply run on a PC in presentation mode. The Arduino is constantly polled and there is no end user interaction.

-The project can be compiled quite easily into an app that runs exactly how it runs in the patcher - though I think Max-built apps have issues between mac and windows. Your patcher can be opened in presentation mode from the start, which you seemed to have figured out, but if you use [jit.window @fullscreen 1] it'll be a different process. If by "there is no end user interaction" you mean the user of the app does nothing except open the app, that shouldn't be too difficult to figure out either, but your post does not specify exactly what the app is supposed to be doing, so I guess we'll get to that after all the other issues. One other thing that I noticed while poking around is that 

some people are having trouble compiling an app using [jit.playlist] with an embedded video.

All that said, I think this patch could be a lot simpler as it seems like you copy+pasted a lot of things from other patches, when you are only really using a small portion of those patches. That is, you are only taking information from digital pin 9 on your Arduino and playing a fullscreen video on loop when it is on, so you don't need all the other information from the Arduino in the max patch. Feng Shui applies to Max patches too, you know. It really is a lot easier on the logical mind to view a patch as simply and efficiently as possible.

I revised your patch a bit, but I'm having trouble posting my entire response with the revised patch included, so I'm going to see if it will post without it first.

-The project can be compiled quite easily into an app that runs exactly how it runs in the patcher - though I think Max-built apps have issues between mac and windows. Your patcher can be opened in presentation mode from the start, which you seemed to have figured out, but if you use [jit.window @fullscreen 1] it'll be a different process. If by "there is no end user interaction" you mean the user of the app does nothing except open the app, that shouldn't be too difficult to figure out either, but your post does not specify exactly what the app is supposed to be doing, so I guess we'll get to that after all the other issues. One other thing that I noticed while poking around is that some people are having trouble compiling an app using [jit.playlist] with an embedded video.

Every time I paste the compressed code into a forum reply the browser gets stuck on a blank window... :(

Just popping in here. You can try uploading a ZIP file of the patch instead. The browser gets stuck sometimes based on the contents of some compressed patches.

"(I don’t even know what ‘carpet posting’ means)" - It means that I have made several threads on the same subject that really should be placed all in one thread. I n many forums this is considered rude.

"For starters, [jit.playlist] does not support .wmv files," - It's playing the one I have in the playlist just fine....it just wont loop

"Secondly, to loop the file you need to message (loop 1) to [jit.playlist], not message (loopend 1) like you have in the patch "jims video.maxpat." You can take the same toggle from your [r d9] to a message (loop $1) and send that to [jit.playlist] in addition to sending the toggle play from [r d9]. " - This is where I get confused, I changed the message to (loop $1) and added a seconf media file, but the project only displays the first movie clip and goes no further. I have to shut the program down and restart it to play the clip again...frustrating.

:ou mean the toggle to your subpatcher [p arduinoSerialreader] ? If so, you can simply put in a [loadmess 1] or a loadbang onto the toggle for it to immediately turn on and stay on." - again, I do not know how to do this and the reason I ask for an example on how this gets done.

"(I don’t even know what ‘carpet posting’ means)" - It means that I have made several threads on the same subject that really should be placed all in one thread.  I n many forums this is considered rude.

"Secondly, to loop the file you need to message (loop 1) to [jit.playlist], not message (loopend 1) like you have in the patch "jims video.maxpat." You can take the same toggle from your [r d9] to a message (loop $1) and send that to [jit.playlist] in addition to sending the toggle play from [r d9]. " - This is where I get confused, I changed the message to (loop $1) and added a seconf media file, but the project only displays the first movie clip and goes no further.  I have to shut the program down and restart it to play the clip again...frustrating.

:ou mean the toggle to your subpatcher [p arduinoSerialreader] ? If so, you can simply put in a [loadmess 1] or a loadbang onto the toggle for it to immediately turn on and stay on." - again, I do not know how to do this and the reason I ask for an example on how this gets done.


Ok, I got the fullscreen, but I cannot for the life of me get the loop to work. I have attached the patcher. maybe someone can tell me what I am doing wrong. it only plays the first clip and then thats it. it will not loop, nor will it play the clip again from the beginning. Do I have to reset an index somewhere?

Ok, I got the fullscreen, but I cannot for the life of me get the loop to work.  I have attached the patcher.  maybe someone can tell me what I am doing wrong.  it only plays the first clip and then thats it.  it will not loop, nor will it play the clip again from the beginning.  Do I have to reset an index somewhere? 

James, I think all you need to do is change [loop $1 $1] to [loop $1].

I tried the 'correct' loop style and it still does not work. I had that written the way you noted in the very beginning too.

Ok, well here is where I am at now. I can get the video full screen, but I cannot get it to loop, I cannot get the list to play sequentially, and I cannot get a video to play more than once. Very disappointing.

I am going to start from scratch and see if maybe the project was/is corrupted, but if anyone has any better ideas I am all ears as I am supposed to have this working before Sunday for a big presentation.

Thanks for all the assistance and patience

I tried the 'correct' loop style and it still does not work.  I had that written the way you noted in the very beginning too.

Ok, well here is where I am at now.  I can get the video full screen, but I cannot get it to loop, I cannot get the list to play sequentially, and I cannot get a video to play more than once.  Very disappointing.  

I guess the problem is that Arduino keeps sending '1' and this makes [jit.playlist] start again every few milliseconds, so the video is actually playing but you just see the first frame.

Try putting a [change] object after your [r d9].

Thanks for the help, but the result is still the same. The first file plays, then thats the end of it. The second file never plays, there is no looping, and if I change the input from 1 to 0 the video still does not replay.

Please take a look at the attached patch snippet. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for the help, but the result is still the same.  The first file plays, then thats the end of it.  The second file never plays, there is no looping, and if I change the input from 1 to 0 the video still does not replay.

EDIT:
Please take a look at the attached patch snippet.  Am I doing something wrong?


You're on a Windows machine, probably why .wmv wouldn't work for me and does for you. That's great! One less problem.

Will you repost your most current revised patch so we can take a look at it? The problems you are having sound like easy ones to fix.

There is already a [change] object coming from the arduino digital 9 pin in the original patch.

By the way Jim, I revised your patch and uploaded it to this forum thread a couple days ago... Everything I suggested is in the patch. It is on my post that says

In the "notifications" tab of jit.playlist's helpfile there's an example on how to automatically play the next clip when the current clip ends.

Still suffering new user block