THE
TARDIS
CONSOLE
SIMULATOR
PROGRAM
ONLINE
MANUAL

[LAST UPDATED 08/30/2001]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Installation
Main Screen
Controls
Panel One
Panel Two
Panel Three
Panel Four
Panel Five
Panel Six

1. Installation.

There is not much to installing the TARDIS Console Simulator Program. Simply unzip the single file "console.exe", and place it anywhere you choose on your hard drive. You could also place it on a removable media like a floppy drive or zip drive. The program does not care where you run it from. Take care when copying the program to actually COPY it and not create a "short-cut".

2. Main Screen.

Once the program is ran, a small screen appears. (see or download figure 1.1) with the standard Windows buttons on the title bar. There is a menu under the title bar. There are also six buttons which represent the six panels of the TARDIS Console.

The "File" menu contains "Print Setup..." and "Exit". "Print Setup..." allows you to setup your printer to print the six panels later in the program. "Exit" simply exits this program. The "Simulation" menu contains one entry, "Random Light Simulation", which causes the "Yellow Light" controls to blink on and off. The random light simulation is active when a checkmark appears next to the menu item. The "Sound" menu allows a background sound to be selected and heard as the simulator is ran. If a check mark appears next to the "Sound On" menu item, the program will attempt to continuously repeat a "WAV" file that was previously selected with the "Get Sound" menu item. For best results, pick a non-annoying sound. Make sure the "WAV" file is in a place that will not change. The location of the file is stored on your computer, so next time the program is ran, it remembers the last sound you loaded. The last menu item is "Help". Under help you can find links to this web page and other web pages I have authored, and and "About..." item which shows the current version of this program.

The six buttons named "One", "Two", "Three", "Four", "Five", and "Six" will bring up one of the six console panels.

3. Controls.

Each panel cam contain three types of controls. The first type are inactive controls. These controls are just pictures and do nothing. An example are the dark grills at the top of each panel. They have no function whatsoever.

The second type of control are the standard controls. Deep in the programming of the simulator, the common controls share the same programming code, and therefore, work the same on the surface. Each of these controls are discussed in this section. The "Yellow Light" is a standard control.

The third control type are the custom controls. These controls are unique to the panel they appear on and are discussed in the panel section later on.

- This is the Yellow Light control. To toggle the light on and off, simply double click on the image. The bulb can also be activated to randomly switch on and off by selecting the "File|Random Light Simulation" menu item from the main screen. Sometimes a control on the panel may switch the light on and off.

- This is the big knob control. To operate it, simply drag the ball upward or downward. Some big knobs can switch on or off other controls.

- This is the small knob control. To operate it, simply drag the ball upward or downward. Some big knobs can switch on or off other controls.

- The small switch control is either on or off. Click on the upper half of the control to turn the switch on and click on the lower half to turn the switch off. Some switches can switch on or off other controls.

- The lever control simulates a lever than can turn 360 degrees in 45 degree increments. Click with the right mouse button to turn the control clockwise and click with the left mouse button to turn the control counter-clockwise. This control can be left in a "funny" position behind other controls. Also, if there are two levers close together, one lever will turn while the one under it will not. This is not a bug, but a strange feature of the lever controls.

The next four controls are actually buttons that appear when the mouse is hovering over the top of a panel. The buttons may also remain visible if the mouse moves quickly off the panel window. Here are descriptions of the buttons:

- The left button brings up the next panel to the left. It hides the current panel and moves the left panel into the current panels place and makes it visible if necessary.

- The print button will print the current window. To setup the printer, please use the "File|Print Setup..." menu item on the main screen.

- The exit button will exit the current panel. This does not end the program.

- The right button brings up the next panel to the right. It hides the current panel and moves the right panel into the current panels place and makes it visible if necessary.