Loading Random Ambient Animations

The controller can randomly play animations when idle. Loading these currently requires manually modifying the animation file on the SD card, which is why this is listed as "advanced" functionality.

The animation files are simple YAML files that can be opened with any text editor (Notepad, Notepad++, Sublime Text, Visual Studio Code, etc.)

  • Record the idle animation like you would a standard triggered animation.
  • Shut off power to the controller and eject the SD card.
  • Insert the SD card into your computer and navigate to its files.
  • Rename the animation file to random_ambient_[1-9].yml. Ex: random_ambient_1.yml, random_ambient_2.yml, etc
  • Open the YAML file and you should see some lines similar to these towards the top (exact values will vary):
version: 1
duration: 4500
duration_unit: ms
cooldown: 2000
cooldown_unit: ms
  • Add these four lines in that area, before the keyframes line:
random_range_start: 2
random_range_start_unit: minutes
random_range_end: 4
random_range_start_unit: minutes
  • These lines tell the controller how often to run the animation. It will pick a random duration between the start range and the end range to trigger the animation.
    • 'ms', 'milliseconds', 's', 'sec', 'second', 'seconds', 'm', 'min', 'minute', 'minutes', 'h', 'hr', 'hour', 'hours', 'd', 'day', and 'days' are all valid values for the unit.