gordoncj

Hi iank99 & KWR88, I have checked our keyboard and mouse current requiremants and these are 50mA and 100mA respectively. I would not expect these levels to cause any problems, but we could replace the optical mouse with a lower current demand version if you consider that necessary. Can you please give us your opinion about the max. currents permissible/advisable, as we could not see any limits listed on the Specifications in the Manual? Thanks, Keith, for the 'heads up' about the wiring change on the remote socket of the old Fat Frogs. The Fat Frog we had was sufficiently modern to have the standard connections, so our existing cabling and remote switches are working without any wiring changes. To help us make a decision about whether we have a new Solution which should be returned for investigation, or not, we would be interested to hear if others on the Forum have had Solutions which failed to load further than the initial picture on the first switch on? Did they then load properly on the second try? Finally were they being switched on at the AC mains supply switch, or by the switch on the back of the Solution? Regards, Gordon

Hi iank99, I will check if the keyboard is marked with its current consumption tonight, and let you know what it is. i have not found anything in the Specs for the lighting board which gives any details about available current from the USB's, and we have so far not had any difficulties during the shows, so the problem does appear to be just the very first stage of boot up. In view of this we will continue to switch on using the switch on the back of the board. (Which is the recommended procedure in the manual anyway). Some switch mode supplies do have NTC resistors to reduce inrush current, and I will check how the power supply woltages rise with an oscilloscope during next week if I get a free moment. The Theatre Manager has talked to the suppliers, who also talked about disconnecting the keyboard and mouse at start up. but he would prefer not to disturb anything during the present production unless absolutely necessary. The distributors will no doubt come down to sort out the flash memory seating or position. The optional board was fitted because we do use the remote switches quite frequently, and we have never had any trouble with them on the Fat Frog. My concern about fitting the option was that it comes with other facilities such as MIDI, SMPTE etc., which is putting a small? additional load on the supply, or which might affect the initial boot in some other way. Gordon

Thanks for the prompt reply Iank99, I note what you have said about reseating the flash card we will sort this out with the distributors. The display does not change from the initial picture (which says it is loading) but the MFK displays are switching continuously. On one occasion the there was no change for approximately 20 minutes and I was called up to the theatre as an emergency with about 10 minutes to spare before the audience was admitted. The memory stick was removed and switching off the power waiting a few seconds then switching on again achieved a normal start. Since then we have NOT tried to start up for a show with a memory stick installed. [i did carry out a few tests with, and without, the stick installed and it will start up properly most of the time under both conditions but seems less reliable with the stick installed.] It occasionally failed to load even if the memory stick was not present. Last night it took 4 attempts before it would start, which is obviously not acceptable. This morning I started up the board by having the switch on the board off when the power supply was turned on. This allowed the supply to stabilise before the board was switched on. My thoughts were that if the processor starts to run before the power supply is up to full voltage it may go into an unexpected state and not load. There was no problem but I have left it running ready for tonight to avoid difficulties this evening. Your comments about the keyboard and mouse loading down the USB ports could be very relevant to the problem, and we will unplug both before attempting to start up in the future. I will put in short extender leads in the 2 ports used to save wear and tear on the sockets on the board. We will also look into installing a low power mouse and keyboard. It may take some time before we know for sure if this cures the problem as the loading fault has been quite unpredictable. I would be interested to know if you have seen this problem before? Do you think that there is any possibility that the Option which is fitted is contributing to our problem? Best Regards, Gordon

We have recently purchased a new Solution board, software 7.8.2.4, fitted with the option for remote switches etc. This replaces our former Fat Frog, which had proved extremely reliable over the years. At present we are not using the remote option, but this worked when testing our remote switches (not connected at present) The Keyboard and Mouse are fitted in two of the ports at the back of the board. [The USB port on the front panel was not compatible with the Zero88 memory stick provided, but the stick worked satisfatorily on a computer. Different memory sticks worked on the board's front panel socket.] We switch the unit on at the socket that supplies its Power Supply, and wonder if the latter has a soft start up characteristic. If so using the switch on the back of the board may give it a kick start. This is only a guess and may be irrelevant. We are alarmed to discover that the board has frozen three times on the first screen visible, when starting to load just before live performances. The MFK displays are cycling but the load does not go beyong this first screen. [No USB memory stick was in the board as we read elsewhere that this sometimes caused problems.] The first 2 failures were resolved by switching off and then on again after a few seconds delay. This evening it took 4 restarts before it loaded. This is a serious failure as one gets the impression that the situation is getting worse. We need your advice urgently as we have another 5 shows this week. Regards, Gordon

About 5 minutes after switch-on, while just using the faders to set up for a simple photo-shoot, the board crashed to black-out. I have written down the fault list shown on the Monitor, and wish to send to the appropriate contact at Zero88. Can you please tell me the contact's email address, and also what other information is likely to be required. The board operated correctly again after switching off and then on again after about 15 seconds, but I need to know how to avoid this problem during a show. Regards, Gordon

Hi, Thanks for the prompt reply, and the explanation of how the circuit works. I have also looked at the other thread which you suggested. I will try clearing the board memory and then, before a visiting company comes in, preloading it with a chase test sequence at say 850 in the memory. As long as they do not clear the memory again, it will then be available for testing the music. We will see what happens! Regards, Gordon

Hi, It is a few years since the previous post on this matter, and I am wondering if there has been any progress in providing the facility for bass input triggering of chases on the Phantom Frog [Frog REF 5483] used on a PC. An example of the usefulness of such a facility arose today. We currently have a production which will be using the lighting board until Thursday. On Friday and Saturday the shows change, and will need chases triggered by new music. My only option was to re-program the board this morning to test the suitability of the music (which is supplied by the visiting Company and the quality is outside our control). I regard it as as unsafe to have to change a current program in order to test for the next show; as I could corrupt something accidentally, and not be able to reload the saved version for some reason (e.g. floppy failure). It would therefore be very useful to do the testing on the Phantom. Regards, Gordon