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ziglight

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  1. Hello Jon ; thanks for the response.... and no doubt about the fact that you are working hard to try to do things the right way (and this is certainly a 100% verified for FLX and FLXS consoles) just to point that out : I didn't talk about any Beta-Version (Edward told me about a new Beta but I didn't see it yet); =>> I really was talking about the two latest OFFICIAL Firmwares version 7.9.3 and 7.9.4 The last show I did with Solution was in summer last year and under 7.9.2; so I was curious to see what kind of "evolutions" are brought by newer Firmwares I published my observations here on the Forum because I am really very astonished to see that lots of features that worked fine in the past, don't work any more or don't work correctly now. I thought that newer Firmwares should run the hardware better and better but obviously this is not the case for Solution Desks with newer Firmwares. =>>>> nearly all the bugs and issues I mentioned seem have appeared since V7.9.3 (so in my personal mind these Firmwares are regressions because things that worked before don't work anymore now !) Concerning the SETUP-Menu I remember there where some discussions on the Forum last year, and for myself there would be no problem to use an external monitor if necessary (and if I am informed about this fact before installing new software !). But I did not find the mention of this necessity in the Release-Notes and I can imagine that some user who does not read the Forum regularly might be "surprised" to find a setup-menu not working anymore (for example patching and editing fixtures etc) after updating the Firmware... (shouldn't we have at least a "Cancel" or "Back" button to get out of these "trap-pages" with no issue ?) anyway, as you said : any user can go back at any moment to older Firmwares..... and that said : if you think that my message does not have its place here or that it does not bring any "new" information just feel free to erase it...no worries (I didn't even remember that I came back on the Forum in December 2017 and posted the messages you mentioned above., including some notes about 7.9.3...I did not use the console since one year or so and it was under V7.9.2 ...)
  2. Hello for some reasons I don't use the Solution desk anymore and the last Firmware I ran shows with that console was 7.9.2 (one whole year ago... and switched now to another brand) In the first time I was quite happy with the fusion of the new Firmware for Solution-Desks (7.9 coming from old 7.8) and bringing with it lots of new features from the FLX-Desk unless that there were this very annoying latency-bug for the LCD-refreshing the Solution ran very fine ! (which get worse and worse with every new Firmware (but the Support-Team told me that there seems maybe à fix for that be possible in the future) I just loaded 7.9.3 and also 7.9.4 into the console to give it a try (and to see if things now are going better) but I am quite horrified to see that things even go really worse now for the Solution Console ! => many features developed for the FLX and its hardware just don't work on the Solution and there are more and more bugs coming up.... as I said already last year; I think that the Solution is on the descending road and will be abandoned in a near future... even when the support team gives advertises (how to handle a given bug) I realized that the given hint might work on the FLX but does not work on Solution (so it seems that they even don't use the console anymore themselves) for shure the user can go back at any-time to the latest "real Solution-Firmware" which is "ZerOS 7.8.2.39"; this is a very hard step into the past either (for me also unhappy) for me personally if I would continue working with the Solution, I would stay probably on 7.9.2 which is for me the best compromise between old and new (and most of the features are still "working") here is just a little listing of things that work not good or not at all on Solution Desks with newer Firmwares: SETUP; be careful because now it it impossible to use 50% of the Setup menus without an external Monitor (FLX get its own internal touchscreen) => for the most Setup-Menus, once you're in you can't get out anymore = you're stuck !; very often there is no button for Cancel or Back and the OK command (Enter-button) does not do anything in a given case ! Patching seems impossible or very difficult because one gets stuck on the new Offset parameter Fixture-Schedule (before : Fixture Edit) just does not work without without external monitor DMX-IN now shows up page and pages and pages, one whole page for every line on the external monitor - you want to change one of your 20 or 30 DMX-INs ?? okey you have to scroll through 20 or 30 pages on the MFKs !! what kind of joke is this ???? aso aso aso.... Playbacks : now when launching a playback with a fader the little white strip goes up on the LCDs (as it did before !) but never goes down again !! so after 5 minute of the show all these little white strips are on !! and one does not know which playback is on and which is off especially when changing pages (note on the external monitor and the FLX monitor these strips go up AND down again !) finger-groups for encoder wheels don't work any-more and the hint given on the Forum that the encoder-wheels will show up in the same order they are recorded by the fixture editor does probably work well for FLX but does not work at all for Solution and now when we have a fixture with 4 or 5 parameters (say RGBW) it's always the second page (say W alone) that shows up !! quite irritating !! (very curious, when the fixture has 6 parameters, and not 4 or 5) then the first page (RGB) shows up first correctly !! to set Topset or home or default values is now not precise at all; move the fader and record -> seems easy !; but say I want 27% precisely for my fogger; it not possible unless to have the DMX-Output window on... and when I want to change a given recorded value its nearly impossible to get it done by fader movements (strange things happen) unless to erase all and restart from scratch... anyway I prefer largely as it was before : you have a case; you fill in a given value and its done !! if you have to change, you change the value and its done !! what about the supression of choice to show up percent or DMX-Values; now its DMX-Values for certains attributes and no more choice !! the support-team argues that percent is not precise enought (not enough steps) this may be right; but the user had this choice before and there is no more choice now !!!! why ??? I mean we don't ask to add a new feature !! we just ask you to leave it as it was !!! the copy-paste feature for pallets just disappeared !!! why ???? what about that messy new bug for "monitor calibration" ????? nowadays we cannot calibrate normaly the monitor.... for some mystical reasons we now have to hit the update button and hope that it works (because it does not work every time either...).... what kind of a bad joke is this ???? and so on, and so on.... I did not get really deep into these two Firmwares (and saw already too much bugs !) but its very clear for me that they are not more really adapted for the Solution hardware and there are more and more bugs and strange things happen... and the very happy fusion of one Firmware for all hardware seems to show now very clearly its limits !! in three simple words "its just disappointing" !!
  3. I think it is a bug and as I remember, appeared already in a beta before 7.9.3 .... (I noticed it also in 7.9.3 when doing a quick test ; but did not go further into it; because I don't use the console any-more...)
  4. okey, thanks for all these useful infos... I just couldn't find the "Z-button" on FLX-S in Pantom-OS (did not realize that Shift=Z....) things are clearer now ! and I found the DMX-Output-Window and can verify all these things by myself !! thanks for your help !
  5. I never had a FLX nor a FLX-S in my hands; just played with Pantom-OS there is one crucial question : it seems to me that FLX and FLX-S don't have the Effect-Edit-Window as it is present on Solution and Orbs this window allows actually a very sophisticated creation and edition of personalized "enhanced" effects; getting and setting oscillators for every single attribute independently ! while there is no functionality for "matrix-control" nor "sub-fixtures" in Zero-OS; this "effect-edit-window" on Orb and Solution allows us to create some matrix and/or subfixture effects (as one can find natively on Grand-MA or Congo...) - for example creating "internal" chases or flickers on Sunstrips or individual Rainbows on Led-Bars affecting each lamp individually etc...) I did not find such an editor on FLX nor on FLX-S, so I guess it does not exist... right ? (maybe I am wrong ?) and this raises two questions : what happens when I import an existing show (created on Orb or Solution) with sophisticated effect-editions into FLX-S ??? and what happens when I import an existing FLX-S show into the Phantom-OS (or hardware) of Solution, than edit my effects (for example on Sunstrips) and than re-import that edited Show into FLX-S again ?? will the "sophisticated effects" run correctly ?? can we import "enhanced" effect-palletts created on Solution into FLX-S; and will they work, even if there is actually no possibility to crete those pallets on an FLX-S desk ?? one more question : on FLX-S there is an Output-Window (which shows only the fixture intensity output - not the DMX or attributs-output), but I did not found the DMX-Output-Window (which would allow to verify DMX-Outputs) - does such a Window exist ? or not ? note : I perfectly understand that the FLX-S are low-budget-consoles and they seem already quite rich for ther price ! no worry about that and I would not expect more... I am just wondering what happens with shows created on more sophisticated consoles and then imported into FLX-S ... -> and as there is no DMX-Output-window (say, I couldn't find it), there seems no way to "verify" without having the actual hardware desk.....:)
  6. Hello if you have just a few cues on your stack (not dozens) the following could be helpfull : be sure to be in "Smart-Tag" mode be sure to have the needed number of empty playback-faders (one for each Cue needed) Now bring up the first Cue, hit record and then the first empty playback-flash-button; continue the same for the second Cue on the next playback-fader... and so on... you now have splitted the Cue-Stack into individual Cues (one per Playback) and you can use them as "Submasters" in a manual way you might need it....
  7. Hello Thierry avant tout : j'espère que tu es déjà en mode trackin (et non pas en mode : "NON TRACKING" ensuite, comme j'ai dit plus haut : une fois qu'une Cue-List est enregistré d'une façon ou d'une autre le comportement de tracking est enregistré avec tu peux changer ce comportement d'enregistrement, comme je l'ai décrit plus haut dans la page "Special" activer Smart-Tag (Basic Tracking) ou le desactiver (Tracking Advanced); le menu d' UPDATE intervient évidemment plus tard lors de l'édition; mais il faut éditer dans chacune des Cues si auparavent tu as enregistré sous "Smart-Tag" le menu d'UPDATE (Tracking Forward ou Backward, Cue only etc etc) sera le plus efficace si ta Cue-List (ou ton Chase) est préalablement enregistré en mode Full-Tracking (= Tracking Advanced) => tu dois donc tout d'abord désactiver Smart-Tag pour commencer ! (attention car le Full-Trackin inclus d'autres pièges car ce mode n'enregistre pas ce que tu vois mais seulement ce qui a été taggé auparavent !! => mais on parle du fonctionnement tout à fait normale et "voulue" de la console; faut juste comprendre comment ça fonctionne...! Dond ce n'est pas du tout que le menu UPDATE est inactif mais c'est que ton mode d'enregistrement (le Smart-Tag) fait que certains de tes selections sont annulé par le mode Smart-Tag (en l'occurrence tous ce qui n'est pas à zéro est automatiquement taggé et enregistré !!) va en mode Full-Tracking et fais quelques essais et tu verras peut-être plus facilement ce que je veux dire !! bonne chance bien cordialement Ziggy
  8. Hello Thierry je vais te répondre en français; ce sera plus simple ! quand tu enregistres une cue-list dans un playback (par exemple pour en faire un chase); il y a deux façons de faire et cela décide comment l'édition se fera ensuite première façon : quand tu es en Smart Tag (Basic Tracking), dans chaque Cue sont enregistré tous les paramètres d'attributs que tu vois (en somme tout ce qui n'as pas une valeur de "zéro"); exemple la couleur blanche est enregistré dans chacune de tes Cues quand tu veux changer ton chase ensuite en rouge il faut donc éditer chaque Cue indépendamment l'autre façon est par Tracking Advanced : dans ce cas tout les paramètres (et attributs) visibles sont enregistré dans la première Cue et ensuite, dans les autres Cues sont enregistré seulement les changements (exemple intensité pour les chase ou "position" pour les movers etc) => exemple tant que tu ne changes pas la couleur rien n'est enregistré pour l'attribut couleur dès la deuxième Cue en conséquence quand tu as enregistré une Cue-List en "Tracking Advanced", il suffit ensuite d'éditer seulement la première Cue (ou celle à partir de laquelle tu veux que ça change) pour que ce changement (exemple couleur en rouge) se perpétue dans toutes les autres Cues qui viennent après jusqu'àce qu'il y a un nouveau changement de valeur d'attribut enregistré (exemple couleur blanche ou bleu etc) j'espère que l'explication est assez clair ?! note aussi : si tu as enregistré tout un Stack (Cue-List ou Chase) déjà en Smart-Tag (ou Basic Tracking) tu pourras (encore) changer en éditant les diverses Cues et en enlevant les tags de tracking pour les attributes qui ne changent pas d'une Cue à l'autre (enlever le Tag de l'attribut Color dans ton cas) dans ce cas tu récupères le tracking-forward qui pourra éventuellement te faciliter la vie plus tard (pour d'éventuelles éditions) enfin il s'agit simplement d'utiliser une méthode de travail ou une autres, adaptée à tes besoins... (ça n'est pas une question bon ou pas bon)
  9. yeppp... it took me a very long time to really "isolate and identify" the problems and the reasons for.... (often thought its just my fault or bad using...till I saw that many other users are struggling with exactly the same problems !!) ...but never had those problems with other consoles (Avolite, ETC, Congo etc) for a very long time I never understood why most of the time while testing and preparing "at home" all went fine and in the show itself it often ran into a big big stress and disaster.... (especially when other operators came on the desk...) I really see much clearer now why those strange things happen and decided to simply never again get this console out for concert use (especially when there are other operators !!) nor for rental either !! there is one more potential reason that slows down the control-surface : it is very handy to use the DMX-IN, just by linking one Universe-Out to the DMX-IN and use unoccupied preset-faders to trigger playbacks or to use theme as some sort of a Submasters, triggering intensity for groups... very handy , very useful.... but very dangerous, because this also will enhance even further the "slow-down issue" and proc-power-lack.... so don't use these "kind of triggering" for Cues and Playback with effects running !!! you will regret ! the really sad thing about all this is, that the Firmware itself is getting better and better...but unfortunately the Solution seems to be "too old" hardware (or not sufficient power !?! ) to support this kind of Firmware => so sadly, the Solutions physical performance gets worse and worse at the same time ! Jon if you believe that you can fix this issue, just do-it !! many users would be grateful and happy ! as I said, external Monitor is already obligatory at this time.... so, switching all (or most of) the "Setup-Stuff" etc to the external monitor should be okey I guess; if that can resolve the "Processor-Power-Issue" (I don't know if my definition is correct....?? ... should we say : "Co-Processor-Power-Issue" ?? )
  10. Hello when you boot the console, be shure that nothing (except the eventual external monitor) is pluggued into the USB-Slots !! maybe you tried to reboot with the USB-Stick still in, which causes the booting process to stop ! and same issue with a keyboard that draws a little bit to much "juice"...
  11. my intention is not at all to criticize the Brand, the products or the team, really not at all BUT : since three years now we are discussing these "slow-down" issues on Solution consoles and it took me nearly two years to understand and identify clearly the bug and how to recreate it !!! (for a long time I never understood what was going on...but as I am/was not the only one with these same problems I knew it could not be my own personal mistake or fault).) we went through all : bad using of the console, bad show-files, too many fixtures patched, too many Cues, eventual hardware issues; BIOS updates etc etc etc we had it all !! I think its now the right time to say clearly that these Solution Consoles simply don't have enough power to manage the new Firmware and very very especially not enough power to manage the actual FX-Engine together with the Firmware and together with the LCDs ! I don't blame the brand Zero88; the only real fault is my own, having chosen the Solution Console for my needs, believing that it will do the job but it DOES NOT and : I am not the only user in this case ! I know some other users in the exact same case (which helped me to identify the reasons of whats happening here) and I think it would be just honest to talk clearly to future potential users and customers and say : we have a real big problem here; thats a fact !!! and if you are looking for a live concert console and you might use the FX-Engines, this console is not for you !!! I did the wrong choice okey; but with this kind of issue, which is going worse and worse with every single Firmware-release, you should prevent people of doing the same kind of wrong choice !! and once you paid 5000 euros for a tool, you try to believe as hard as you can that you did the right choice.... that's just human...hihi! (meanwhile, I own other gear and other consoles; so it is easier for me to let one product down and use the "right one"... the Solution is an excellent console for Theater-Productions, for a Church or for community events; for a lot of jobs that the Solution will do absolutely perfectly !! => but don't use the FX-Engine ! or use it at the absolute minimal level !! and the Solution its definitely not good for modern-live-shows and concerts, definitely NOT !!! (or say : if you do so, don't use the control-surface !!! MFKs a.s.o......) that said : even without any FX running the refreshing rate of the LCDs is already between 1 and 3 seconds depending of whats going on at a given moment !! you can create this issue (and/or even freeze the console) with only a few fixtures patched => it is definitely not a question of a huge number of patched fixtures; its just as simple as to say and to notice that CPU power is running out very quickly when using complex effects Kevin brought it already to the point.... and I agree with his point of view here are some decisions that have to be taken (before others get caught by the same error of choice) !!! arguing and justifying works fine a while but is never a solution (ouppss sorry for that bad joke....) Ps I just read the comment above so doing a Post-Script : as I said already : Solution is always outputting DMX perfectly, no worry about that; and Solution is a perfect faderwing when using only GOs and Faders for any programmed show .... !! no worry neither when the FX-Engine just has to output one effect after the other , one Cue after another; but you really go very quick in serious trouble when stacking effect => launching one Cue for Rainbow effect on the Par-Cans, together with strip chases on sun-strips and Led-Bars; then you want your mover move.. and all that kind of stuff.... so, while the FX-Engine is running with complex Effects (chases, rainbows, moving-effects and all that stuff we use in "modern" concert shows) and you want to edit something "on the fly" and in live, the control-surface most of the time just collapses ; sometimes its close to freeze, sometimes it really freezes ! (but still outputting DMX).... in fact buttons (except GOs and Faders) just don't respond anymore or take ages to respond thanks for reading me; I hope that I am not annoying you with my "complaints".... sorry for all that ! I don't want to create polemics or bad publicity; so after having said what needed to be said I am not going to bother you further.... friendly greeting from cold South France.....
  12. Hello Jon maybe you did not read or you did not understand what I said above you are asking if we (the users) would be happy to HAVE to use an external monitor... as I described above ; we (the professional users) HAVE already to use an external touch-screen (and avoid MFK-use in live-situation) because without that the Solution is actually impossible to use in Live-Concert-modus !!! the Solution-Control-Surface (stand-alone-mode) is practically not usable because faaaar tooo slooow the control-surface (except GOs and faders-only) is going sooooooo slow that we can consider it just stop working... (when any FX engine is running in the back) so the external Touchscreen is already obligatory !! even its very hard in rehearsel and preparing.... it turns just impossible in real live-situation !! I remember one show this summer ( -> my ever last live-show with Solution !!!!!!) when we had to reboot the console twice during the live-concert running... because the operator wanted to copy-paste a playback while running another playback with effects on it... this kind of exercise just freezes the whole thing... not one single button is responding any-more; even the touch-screen was frozen - because copy-paste pop-up window open !! (no Cancel no nothing worked) => no more CPU power and only playback faders still continued to output DMX (fortunately) - so we could reboot between two songs... or : when you run 2 or 3 playbacks (with FX-engine running) and want to change MFK from color to fixture and back again : LCD starts refreshing with the first one after some 3 or 4 seconds.... until refreshing comes to the end (last LCD down at right) there are maybe 3 or 4 other seconds... than to go back, its the same "long trip" again !!!! its just a real mess and a disaster.... this console is probably doing a good job in a church or in a theater with no effets running.... but for concerts : no thanks concerning this CPU and FX-Engine issue : it was not so bad with V7.7 (but stone-age firmware compared to other brands); it went worse with V7.8; it is catastrophic with 7.9 I am not a specialist but it seems obvious to me that there is not enough CPU power to do what Zero88 wants the Solution should do by the Firmware...!!! (maybe my analysing is wrong ?!!! so tell me better !! )
  13. hello I am(-was) just a professional (-Solution) user, not an R&D engineer , neither a software developer.... and to respond quickly to the question : ""How do you (usually) use your Solution?"; my answer is : I don't use it anymore...!! the very big problem with those Solution Consoles is (as I said several times before on other topics) : that the effect engine causes very serious issues on the LCDs refreshin-rate LCD refreshing latency is already very high in normal use (without using the FX-engine) it takes 1 to 3 seconds to refresh the LCDs - which is (already) the longest refreshing-rate I've ever seen on similar consoles ! but when some Effects are loaded and running (chases, rainbows and/or moving-effects) things go worse and worse and that latency can achieve up to 5, 6 or even 7 seconds.... for example when changing from groups to colors, or from position to fixtures and so on..... (even copy/paste of playbacks is seriously affected !!) and in that laps of time it is impossible to work with the MFKs because you don't know what the given MFK is really doing.... (LCD don't show up the right function !) arguments like : this is not a software issue, the software is working fine, are pure nonsense because while waiting that the LCD show up the right thing, the live-workflow stops for the operator.... he is waiting to get the right thing on the LCDs, while she show is going on and 7 seconds or even "only" 5 seconds are far too long in live-show-operating ; its like freezing for some very long seconds !!! and this issue is going worse and worse with every new firmware release arguments (as I was told by Zero88) like : -- you can always go back to V7.7 ... (users love that kind of arguments !!! ) -- don't care the LCDs, all the rest is fine... -- your show is too fulfilled (=> that said : same issue with only 12 fixtures patched and running !! is that already too full-filled for Solution ??) -- or : the Solution is not the right console for Live events with FX-engine-use (sorry I thought that a 5000 euros console should do the job !! ) a.s.o., a.s.o.... are not very helpful for a user struggling withs that kind of issues ! to come to the point and answer to the question of this topic : so for me Solution in Stand-Alone mode is possible only when using the Solution strictly as a Fader-Wing because 80% of its functionalitys (editing, manual changes on the fly, fixture-selections, even copy-paste etc etc etc...) simply don't work (or work faaaaar too slow) in live-workflow as soon as there are some effects running !! (even in a small show with a small patch) so what we can do (in stand-alone mode and live) is pressing GO or pushing faders (again : do I need a 5000 euros console for that ?) so my personal thought is that Zero88 is pushing hard the development on the new products (FLX and FLX-S) which is the most normal and comprehensive/logical thing to do for a Company !! but as the problems getting bigger and bigger with these new softwares on the older products (and specially Solution with its LCDs), these older products seem to be abandoned in some very close future... (and as FLX and FLXS dont have LCDs => : no LCDs = no LCD-issues !) or maybe you'll find one day the real issue -> which seems to be somewhere in the FX-Engine or CPU-Load (but as I said I am not an informatics-engineer, neither a software developer...)
  14. hello hold down the TIME button while changing pallets... or affect TIME to an empty playback-fader (you'll find it in "SETUP + FLASH[Playback]"
  15. Hello Edward yess I for sure know to use groups... my question is what the "group button" on the I-Pad-App is expected to do ??? I guessed that it should activate a GROUP but it doesn't for example the syntaxe you gave : "GROUP 1 @ 70" brings up channel/device 1 to 70% (and not as expected "Group1-selection") !!!!! exemple : my group1 contains channels 1 to 5 ! the command on the I-Pad Remote App: "1 THRU 5 ENTER" activates selection of channels 1 to 5 but "GROUP 1 ENTER" activates only selection on channel 1 !! note that : on the Solutiondesk : pressing GROUPS button; than [special Page2) and "1 ENTER" activate the channels 1 to 5 and a second command as "@ 70" bring up these channels at 70% intensity (just to say : the command-line ability is there; but it dont work on the Remote-App !) direct-DMX-access while focussing can be useful (for me...) -- maybe you have put a stage-service-light onto a dimmer just to get it on or off while focussing but without necessarily patching it into the show-file... the DMX direct command is ideal ! -- you bring up a channel but there is no light.... maybe the patch is wrong, maybe the lamp has broken... bring the DMX up will help to see -- you have 4 dimmers on a given channel but for focussing you might wish to light them up one after the other.... (instead all of them together) -- same scenario; you bring up a given channel where 4 dimmers are patched; but you want one of them not to output -> you just bring it down with the DMX command leaving the three other "on" -- testing : without need to remember the (crossed) patch for a given show; and knowing the "dimmer-locations" of my theatre its sometimes quicker to test by DMX-command (patches are changing all the time, depending on companies and shows; my electrical dimmer-implementation in a given theater is allways the same and "labeled" !) that said : DMX command is useful but one could live without; I am happy that it exists on the Solution Desk... so whynot put it also in the APP ? its just à little wish yesss I easily understand that... but in the sound-universe for example you have Remote-apps (I-Pad or I-Phone) for consoles which are able to show up 60 channels ! maybe only 6 or 8 ou 10 at a time; but with the finger-scroll you head to any channel you want in a second... (and without having to press NEXT 15 times...) the ZerOS-Remote app already has this feature for pallets... so why not implementing it for the playbacks too ?? (just one more little wish... )
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