ChainEditor Guide

ChainEditor is an editor for Spooky2 chained presets. A chained preset is a Spooky2 preset that contains other presets. ChainEditor opens, edits, and saves chained presets. If you haven’t already, install ChainEditor as described in Installing ChainEditor. Double-click the ChainEditorTool icon on the desktop to start ChainEditor.

Here is what the ChainEditor looks like when the Terrain (R) – BY preset is loaded.

The File Menu

You open a chained preset by choosing Open… in the File menu. Open… brings up an Open Dialog for you to choose a preset to open. If the current window is empty, the newly opened preset goes into the empty window. However, if you already have a preset loaded, a new window is created with contents of the newly opened file. This application allows multiple preset in different windows to be viewed and edited.

The Close menu closed the current window. If this is the only preset opened, the application quits.

The Save menu saves the chained preset in the current window. If you are editing a new preset, you will be asked to choose a preset name and location for the preset to be saved.

The SaveAs… menu saves the chained preset to a new preset file, leaving the original preset untouched (assuming you haven’t already saved the preset).

Exit exits the application. You will have an opportunity to save any unsaved presets before the application quits.

The Child Preset Listbox

After you open a document, the Presets listbox is loaded with the child presets contained the chained preset. The child presets in the listbox are selected with the mouse. You select a range of times by first clicking on the first child preset, and then Shift-clicking on the last child preset. This causes all child presets between the first and last child preset to be selected. The listbox shown in the image to the right has a disjoint selection, that you create while holding down the Control key and clicking different child presets in the listbox. To select all the child presets, click one of the presets in the list, and then type Control-A, or the choose the “Select All” menu command in the Edit menu.

Once you’ve selected one or more child presets, you operate on those child presets with the button to the right of the listbox.

The “+” button imports preset into your preset. If you check the “Insert Before Selection” checkbox, the imported presets will go before the first selected child preset. If this checkbox is not checked, the imported presets go after the last selected child preset. If no child presets are selected, the imported presets go at the end of the list. The Paste menu and the Drag-and-Drop operations all honor the “Insert Before Selection” checkbox. When you click the “+” button, an Open Dialog is shown. You import multiple presets at once if you select more than one preset in the Open Dialog. You select multiple presets by holding down the Control key as you click on different presets in the Open Dialog.

The “-” button imports deletes the selected child presets. 

The “↑” button moves the selected child presets up in the list. 

The “↓” button moves the selected child presets down in the list.

Child Preset Properties

When one or more child presets in the presets listbox are selected, some of their properties are displayed in the tab control.

Editing Text Boxes

If multiple child presets are selected in the listbox, a particular property might appear as blank if those selected child presets don’t all have the same value. When you set a property when multiple child presets are selected in the listbox, all selected child presets get the new value. As you type a value into a property field, the value is not set until you press the Tab key or click another field to leave the edited property field. To abort your edits, press the Escape key. When you press the Tab key to leave a field, if you’ve entered an invalid value, an error message will appear in the upper right part of the window, and you will need to correct the error before leaving the property field.

Preset Tab

The Preset tab includes the Name and running Time of the child preset. Name is the name of the child preset. 

Time is the duration of the child preset. This time differs from the time shown under the Presets Listbox as that time shows the run time of the entire chain, while this time is just for the selected presets in the Listbox.

Notes Tab

The Notes text box contains the comments or notes for a preset. If you are editing a note, and want to abort your edits, press the Escape key.

Program Tab

These properties are the same as found in the Options section in the Spooky2 Programs tab. 

Repeat Frequency is the number of times to repeat each frequency. 

Repeat Program is the number of times to repeat each program. 

Repeat Sequence is the number of times the entire set of programs repeat. If this value is 0 (zero), the child preset repeats forever and this is an error condition (unless you’ve set the Run For property).

Dwell Multiplier multiplies the dwell or duration of each frequency. 

Frequency Multiplier is applied as a multiplier to each frequency.

The Out 1 and Out 2 packing/spacing frequencies run after each frequency in a program for the specified seconds, if the checkbox is ticked.

Remove Duplicate Frequencies removes duplicate frequencies in your programs. 

Apply Tissue Factor to DNA Frequencies and Apply Tissue Factor to MW Frequencies multiply the frequency by the Tissue Factor for DNA and MW programs.

Sort Frequencies sets to sort order of a program.

Signal & Gating Tab

These properties are found in Spooky2’s Signal and Gating section of the Settings tab. 

Duty Cycle is the duty when you have chosen a square wave as your waveform.

Amplitude is the voltage range of the output, a value between 0 and 20 volts.

Offset is a percentage between 0% and 100% for the offset of the Out1 and Out2 waveforms. 

Phase Angle is a measure of degrees between 0 degrees and 360 degrees.

The Lock check box, if set, prevents a program from overriding the Amplitude, Offset, and Wave values of a preset.

The Modulate Out 1 check box, if set, will modulate Out 1 with Out 2. This feature only works on Generator X.

The Hz Gate field is a frequency that either Out 1 or Out 2 can be gated.

The second gating option is the on and off times for the gate waveform. This only works with Generator X.

The Out 1 and Out 2 checkboxes select which outputs are gated.

Wobble Tab

You set the Amplitude, Frequency, and Harmonic wobble on this tab. You set the percentage and steps for Amplitude and Frequency wobble on this tab too.

ScheduleTab

The properties in this tab are found in the Schedule section of Spooky2’s Settings tab.

You can sechedule an absolute run time with Run From and Run To.

Run For sets the number of hours to run the child preset.

You can also schedule a relative time to start the preset with Start In specified in Days, Hours, and Minutes.

Contact Tab

 The properties in this tab are found in the Contact section of Spooky2’s Settings tab. In this tab you set the properties to make contact mode less painful. 

The Ramp Up and Ramp Down is a rate in Volts per Second to gently ramp up or ramp down a frequency.

The Reduce Amplitude check box reduces the amplitude under a frequency limit you provide in the text box.

Frequency Limits Tab

You specify frequency limits for Out 1 and Out 2, where “>” specifies the maximum frequency, and “<” specifies the minimum frequency. You set the Harmonic Type here too.

Output Control Tab

The Output Control tab maps to the Output Control section of Spooky2’s Settings tab.

The Output = is a generator number to shadow, modified by the Factor and Constant field.

Swap Waveform Every is the number of seconds  between swapping the waveforms of Out 1 and Out 2.

Out 2 = shadows the Out 1 frequency as modified by a Factor and Constant and an optional subtracting of the original frequency (Hz).

Out 1 Fixed sets a fixed frequency to Out 1.

Out 2 Runs Every Second Frequency allows you to half run times by run every 2nd frequency on Out 2.

Swap Out 1 and Out 2 swaps frequencies and amplitude between Out 1 and Out 2.

The Edit Menu

The Undo menu undoes the last edit you made to the child presets list. You can undo the document until the document is in its original state.

The Redo menu allows you to redo an edit after you do an undo operation. If you undo some edits, and you realize you really wanted those edits, use redo to get those edits back.

You can Cut, Copy, and Paste and Delete selected child presets in the listbox. Select All will select all the child presets in the listbox. This is useful when you want to change the properties of all the child presets at once.

Drag and Drop

An alternative way to import child presets into your chained preset is go to the Windows File Explorer, select presets you want to import to your chained preset, and drag them into the presets listbox. To select multiple presets in the Windows File Explorer, hold down the Control key as you click on multiple presets.

Errors

When the estimated time is displayed in red and says forever, this mean one of the child presets has an infinite loop. This happens when both the Repeat Sequence and Run For have the value 0 (zero). To fix this, change either or both properties to a non-zero value. If you want to abort your edits in a text box, press the Escape key and the previous value will be restored in the text box.

The text fields inside a child preset, like the Name field or the Notes field, can’t have a double quote (“) in the text. When you use the Tab key to leave a field, if a double quote is detected, you will get an error. You must remove the double quotes before continuing.

The message show below is displayed in the upper right of the window when you try to Save or Save As a chain preset, and the preset file is read only. To fix this, you need to go to the Windows File Explorer and change the permissions on the chained preset file using the Properties dialog.

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