Lightning Radar Real Time Movie

(Last 24 hours refreshed on the hour)

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Snaps movie maker / FTP  for Lightning Radar

Purpose of program

1.  The program collects LR pictures as they are created every ten minutes.

2.  Once an hour a Picture4.avi is produced at 53 minutes.

3.  The AVI Movie file is automatically FTP'ed to the Server page at 57 minutes.

4.  Every ten minutes the P1,P4,P5, or other pictures are FTP' ed automatically to your server.

 5.  Every night at 23.59, the final days movie is put into the archive with a day of the year and year stamp.

 6.  These archives can be called by clicking on a calendar day, and the movie will play for that complete day.

 7.  The individual Picture4.bmp's can be reviewed.  The last 24 hours are always available until replaced by the next days.

         Current MOVIE 

Requirements:

1.  At the present time LR Snaps requires that the Lightning Radar Program be installed in its default location on the disk. (C:\Program Files\LightningRadar\)

2.  At the present time the OS's are XP , Windows 2000, Windows 2003 server,  Windows 7 Ultimate Prerelease.   The program has an on board windows version function to 

     identify other operating systems versions, which can hopefully be provisioned for.  This is on going at the moment.  The Vistas family is unknown at the moment.

3.  The host computer needs to be running 24Hr format time.  This is used world wide except for the USA it seems.  This can be set in the control panel.  If you need help on this

     ,here is a site that gives step by step procedures.  http://hansengel.wordpress.com/2007/08/18/random-setting-xp-to-use-24-hour-clock/    There are others also that help with this.

DOWNLOADS

            LR Snaps beta 1.2.0  Full install.  Install this first.  Will wipe out previous settings. Use only a updated , snaps.exe for updates.

          Latest update (05/Feb/2011), replace the old with - Snaps.exe Version 1.2.3 .  If you had a previous version to 1.1.8, save your txt files with your FTP info , then run the full install. Other wise just copy the new Snaps.exe to the Snaps folder, replacing the old file.

Update Notes:

            Version 1.2.3 Added the ability to control FTP's of the AVI and PNG files.  Unchecked stops the FTP action.

            Version 1.2.2 Picture4.png,Picture1.png,Picture5.png are now converted to all lower case letters.

                                    This makes it compatible with Linux servers used by hosting companies.

           Version 1.2.1 When exiting the program your ask if you really want to incase it was by mistake.  

           Version 1.2.0 Bug squashed in playing current AVI.  After 2nd time it wouldn't update the AVI file.

           Version 1.1.9  The movie in current AVI play,  will run from midnight until the approximate current  hour.  This prevents reverting to yesterdays

              left over pictures that are in the 24 hours used for the days archive.  The archive days will play from midnight to midnight as usual.

           Version 1.1.8 Major update.  New window added for viewing archived movies, using a calendar to select the day.

              New movie player added to main program for quick review of the current AVI movie. Archive file format example: "Picture4 210- 2009.avi".  Day of year and year stamped.

            Version 1.1.7  An AVI movie reader was  imbedded in Snaps so the movie can be seen right in Snaps without having to use another media player.

            Version 1.1.6  23:59:00 Archive error, if file is missing that was to be archived, is now handled.

             Version1.1.5  Windows 7 Ultimate was added and tested.  

             Version 1.1.4 The program now comes up in the Auto mode.  This allows resuming of operation after restarts of what ever cause.

                Version 1.1.3    Daily Archiving of the AVI file at 23:59:00 has been added.  The file format is per this example:   Picture4 07-23-2009.avi       It resides in the LR Snaps folder. 

                Version 1.1.2 Cures the File not found error on Windows 2000.  It  now recognizes which OS is being used and adjust accordingly. (Except Vista for now!)

                Version 1.1.1   Time before the picture4.avi increased to 2 minutes to allow for more processing time. The AVI file is now made at minute 53.  The AVI ftp is at minute 57.  

                This change was to give as much time as possible for these functions, for slower machines , net connections and servers.

                Major update: Ver 1.1 (18/July/09)  'Picture preview mode added in a second window.  Auto preview collected pictures.   Step through one at a time in manual mode.

                Files p4.png,p1.png,p5.png are now FTP'd every ten minutes.  A separate setup file Pfiles.txt is configured with the same login password as the AVI file.  A setup button is provided.

                Picture sequence fixed.