problem controlling backlight from action

[seanriddle]

First of all, thanks! I'm using 5.3.2 final to control a Noritake 2x20 VFD and it works great.

I do have a problem I can't figure out. I'm successfully using an action to disable a screen that otherwise displays the currently recording program and what time it ends. I want to extend that by using the HTPC HD LED to indicate when a recording is active.

Since the backlight feature isn't used by a VFD, I figured I'd use it to turn on the recording LED. It works fine manually- when I hit the N key, the LED toggles. But when I try to control it from an action, it always stays on.

Here's the action I use for the screen:

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if $dll(BTVSmartie,1,recnow,title) =  then DisableScreen(4)

(that's a blank I'm comparing to). It works fine- while recording, screen 4 is enabled, but otherwise it is disabled.

I tried adding these 2 actions to turn the LED on and off:

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if $dll(BTVSmartie,1,recnow,title) =  then backlight(0)

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if $dll(BTVSmartie,1,recnow,title) <>  then backlight(1)

but the LED always stays on.

Any ideas? Do I need to use V5.4 RC2? Is there some reason I can't use the backlight feature like this?

Thanks-

Sean

[limbo]

Actions should work in any version, you don't have to use other version for it.

Please check the blank comparator to be blank (if the returned message is blank) the spaces are not equal to empty!

You can try to see to your screen the result first and after that test it again in actions.

[seanriddle]

Limbo-

Thanks for the quick reply!

You are correct- I am comparing to an empty field, not to a blank.

It turns out it is working fine. The problem was that the BTVSmartie plug-in doesn't get info from Beyond TV immediately after you boot up; for about a minute, the data is unavailable. During that time, the LED is lit. Once BTVSmartie starts getting the data from BTV, the LED goes out, and responds correctly when a recording starts and ends. I was confused because during the "data unavailable" time, screen 4 does not show, so I expected the LED to be off as well. It's no big deal, since the only issue is right after a reboot.

Sean