kgallen

See this thread for the Android apps:

[NO ACTION REQURIED] Documenting here a problem I had on my Fat Frog and the repair required. This can equally apply to other consoles in the Frog range - and in time possibly other consoles with faders. Thanks to @Edward Z88 who provided support despite having moved on from Zero88 and @RJP for providing schematics. The background: I bought my Fat Frog new in 2006, so at this point it's 19 years old. It's largely in "as new" condition as I look after my kit. I've not used it regularly since 2015 when I bought my FLX, but it has had the odd outing, most recently in 2021. I've stayed on top of the CR2032 battery replacement and I'm blessed that the original floppy drive still works perfectly. All faders are still in pristine condition. The issue: This was an intermittent problem, so hard to narrow down. The usual range of channel intensity values shown on the Output Screen is 00-FF (FF in this case means "full" or 100%, not hexadecimal 0xFF). On occasion my console would only move from a low non-zero value, say 02 to 05 (percent) up to a maximum of around 94-98 (percent). I first saw this actually on the fixtures section with the thumb wheel (so not a linear fader), where the fixture intensity would only go up to 96%. Subsequent testing showed the same issue on the generics faders (including masters). Strangely this issue also showed when playing back a memory stack (where the memories had successfully been programmed with 100% intensity values). You can enter test mode by holding the F1 key whilst powering up. In this mode, I could see the 8-bit values of the faders (all of them on the console) would only travel between about 0x05 and 0xFA rather than 0x00 to 0xFF. OK, cut to the chase, what was the issue... After some testing internally, it was identified that the reference voltage rail for the fader banks was sometimes low. This VREF should be around +5V with respect to its AGND. Practically it will be around +4.8V (and I determined that it should not go below +4V for correct operation). On occasion this reference voltage was measured as low as +2.8V and this is when the issue presented. After quite some time this was tracked down to a failed 4.7uF/16V tantalum capacitor on the Submasters PCB that is used to decouple the VREF locally to this board. There is a similar capacitor on all of the boards with faders (or potentiometers) and they are all effectively in parallel across VREF/AGND, so a failure of any one of them would result in similar failure symptoms. After removing the Submasters board it only took a couple of minutes to replace the capacitor. In this case I used a 4.7uF electrolytic, which is good enough in this application - and had to lay it down as it was slightly taller and would have fouled the front panel. So far the issue seems resolved. Hope this might help others who may have a similar issue as our Froggy friends age more. Note: Essentially the same circuit is used everywhere in Zero88 (and likely other brand) consoles for reading the faders. The faders, usually 10K, have a VREF at the top, a GND (0V) at the bottom and the wiper goes via some 4051 analogue muxes and finally feed into an ADC channel on an embedded micro. Here are a couple of photos of the Submasters board and of the failed tantalum capacitor which is clearly discoloured brown when compared to similar components.

When you turn SmartTag off you are taking complete control of what parameters are tagged and thus recorded. In this case I’m selecting the fixture, modifying the colour attributes (which tags them - makes the background ‘blue’), then when I RECORD I turn off SmartTag which says ‘hey console I’m in charge I just want you to record the colour attributes I changed and nothing else, just do as I say and nothing more’. In the example of reprogramming defaults I agree it’s nothing to do with e.g. move on dark (this is just one example of where SmartTag usually helps the programmer), just by turning it off I’m in explicit control of what is recorded (and also In this case intensity was zero so SmartTag would have caused my colour parameters changes to be ignored). Note that the colour attribute is by default set as ‘not separate’ (changeable in Setup). This means that if you adjust one colour parameter e.g. red, all of the colour parameters are tagged as it’s assumed that you want to create a certain colour and this requires all colour emitters to be recorded to recreate that. If you really only wanted to record the red emitter you would need to manually untag the blue, green, amber, colour wheel etc parameters (to make their background ‘black’) so they weren’t recorded. When played back, only the red emitter would be controlled, the blue, green etc would stay as they were. This is very powerful but can also be very confusing for inexperienced/basic users. Note that beamshape parameters default to ‘separate’ as it’s assumed that if you were changing e.g. the zoom you didn’t also want to record e.g. the gobo. Some advanced programmers have SmartTag turned off permanently as they always want explicit control of what is recorded via tagging, especially if they are setting up a range of ‘partial looks’ on playbacks/submasters that they’ll use to busk with. If you’re programming a theatre stack then for many ‘normal’ users (myself included) SmartTag is usually on. Note also when looking at your showfile I did it in PhantomZerOS which I started in FLX mode (not FLX S mode as your actual hardware). This gives me access to some more features, like the Source screen. This allowed me to see (but we already ‘knew’) that your fixture was controlled by ‘Default’ as the fader was lowered. I selected the fixture so I could see the parameters details, then on the Source screen I saw the colour parameters change to ‘D’ (and also saw the flick of B=G=255 in the DMX window) as I lowered the fader. Aha! Default is white (as we expected) and causing that flick in colour as you first reported. Reprogramming the default to R=G=B=0 was easy after that. Happy programming - let us know how you get on and any other questions and we’ll try to help.

@Veit0r when adjusting values you want the background of the field above the encoder wheel to be blue not black. Blue means the parameter is tagged. This is the information the console uses to know what to record - it records tagged values. If you click the field to make it have a black background you untag it. The console will then not record the change. Also in the case of reprogramming the default I turn off SmartTag. This is because I wanted to reprogram the RGB default values whilst I had the intensity at zero (and not tagged). SmartTag will only record intensity (at zero) if intensity is zero, it won’t record other tagged parameters (this is related to allowing Move On Dark to work). Hope that clarifies things and you can now have more success with your programming! https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/controlling-fixtures/tagging

@Veit0r can you try this showfile please. I just reprogrammed the default for that fixture to R=G=B=0 (Process: Clear-Clear, select the fixture, make R=G=B=0, tap RECORD, turn off SmartTag, tap HOME, select Default). If I play on PhantomZerOS, whereas with your showfile I see the G and B flick to 255 in the DMX window when lowering the fader, this doesn't happen with the showfile attached below. raiseandlowerplayback13mk2.zos Regards, Kevin

Created for a BlueRoom member for his Fat Frog. No action required. Posted here for other users if required. Note: There are also a couple of versions of this in the GFT41 library. 11, 6, 3 channel modes (40ch mode not coded). WashFXHex.ift

Thanks @Davidmk. I’m home very late due to needing to take a 60+ mile detour to get home (don’t ask… Highways Agency, I mean you…). I’ve read the whole of that other thread again. Wow, that was a corker, I seem to have blanked that one out! In the Reddit discussion, for me it comes down to default of white maybe with a bit of release on lower config thrown in to confuse things more. @Veit0r sorry it will be tomorrow earliest before I can take a look on my FLX (at least you have an FLX S unlike on the other thread). In the meantime if you’re able to try out some of especially @Davidmk‘s suggestions hopefully you will beat me to a solution…

Thanks @Veit0r I’ll try and take a look tonight.

(For background for other experienced users/contributors on here, I’ve tried to help out with this one on Reddit and it seems the issue still exists - any other ideas/what did I forget etc, thanks!). @Veit0r if you could save your showfile and upload it here we can try and debug on our own desks and try our best to understand what’s going on and get you a solution - as you showed on Reddit this can be seen in the output screen as DMX values actually going out to the fixture. Thanks for posting on here (and in the correct sub forum!) where we’ve a chance of reproducing the problem.

View+<master Go> or View+<button under a fader> will move you around to view each playback. https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/cues-playbacks/cues-window

Press View+Master GO ?

I think your link was fine. When I tried it again it went straight to the right page. Phone browser weirdness maybe! with the manual I think you *have* to know it’s there somewhere. The Search just doesn’t work for me, it finds too much stuff and too much unrelated stuff…

When I tried David’s link it wouldn’t show the page as it thought the console was FLX S24. Posting this link just in case the above doesn’t work: https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/palettes/advanced-palettes?filter=3

Loading a full showfile on the real console or into Phantom ZerOS should load everything, especially the patch!

Visualisation software is complex, it’s not easy to offer for free (unless it comes with a console that costs £20,000-plus). I’ve got a Capture Solo license. It integrates tightly with FLX consoles (bidirectional control). But the Solo license is about £300 I think. Track forward will apply the update you make to all following cues until a cue is reached where the fixture is given another instruction. e.g. - Fixture 7 is set to 50% in cue 4. Fixture 7 does not change until cue 12 where it gets set to 80%. Fixture 7 is currently tracking from cue 4 through cue 11 (cue 5 thru cue 11 will show in purple in the output window). - In cue 5 you do an update to fixture 7 to make it 60% and you track forward. The result is fixture 7 is still 50% in cue 4 but in cue 5 through cue 11 the new update value of 60% applies. In cue 12 fixture 7 goes to 80% as before. Hope that helps.

On S24/S48 many of the buttons are ‘soft’ at the top of the touch screen. To busk and avoid snaps in general, go into the Z screen and enable Programmer Time with the 5secs or whatever value you want. This video will be useful

SmartTag will record 0% intensity. That’s the one thing it definitely does. What it won’t do is record changes to other parameters at the same time. If you want to record other parameters changes (or the classic Effect Off) at the same time as the fixture goes to 0% then turn off SmartTag for that record operation - remembering to turn it back on for the next one (you can just hit record, turn it on then hit record again to clear the options box without actually recording anything).

Hmmm not sure I know of a way. Want to upload the zfix here so we can have a play?

There is a Search panel to search manufacturers and another for models. Maybe an external USB keyboard would help? If you have a recent ZerOS, your most recent patch fixtures should be at the top of a list as "favourites". https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/patching/add-fixtures/searching-filtering

This video on multicell for FLX S might help, or as revision:

@dtyotam See this post for links to the (Google) Apps:

Thanks for documenting this @Phil Mckerracher especially as many of us who post regularly on here have little if any experience of Leap Frog 48 (ZerOS) so struggle to be specific on the controls/details on this console. Cheers!

Hi Fixture is just the generic term for a light, from a simple tungsten fresnel to a LED moving head with gobos etc. Programming a fixture to 0 intensity should just work. However zero intensity is ‘special’ in that with SmartTag enabled, only the intensity (of zero) will be recorded for that fixture, not any changes to other fixture parameters (colour etc). This is deliberate, to support (amongst other things) move on dark, but sometimes it’s a little inconvenient (for example when also wanting to do Effect Off in the same cue). Maybe you could elaborate when setting intensity to zero is not working for you? Inserting cues is possible for sure. These are called point cues and you can have 2 decimal places (so possible 99 point cues between integer cue numbers). On FLX S you don’t have a keypad to type numbers as I do on my ‘full’ FLX so the touchscreen keypad needs to be involved. I’ll have to look this up. Having an external USB keyboard plugged in would get you to most of the programming syntax available on FLX and other higher end consoles. https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/cues-playbacks/recording-cues-2 On FLX S, the cue number you require can be defined by tapping Record Z/Shift and using the on-screen number pad to type your cue number. Then, tap the playback's button to record as usual. Regarding tracking, there are a bunch of ‘terminology’ videos I’ll link shortly which will give you the idea. But some of these are ‘complex’ topics so you’ll have to learn the nitty gritty from the more specific training videos. Much of this terminology is industry standard so will benefit you on a whole range of consoles not just your FLX S. Please start working through these videos. Your FLX S has capabilities well beyond a basic fader-based lighting desk you may have been used to at this point. It’s a big step up, there is a significant learning curve.

@Davidmk I suspect you are pretty much bang on with all you say. I don't think Vari-Lite are interested in the console business, or any of Zero88's products. I think Zero88 was just a tiny operation that came along with their bigger purchase of Signify (or whatever transient companies bought the stable that included Zero88 on the way). Zero88's Cwmbran manufacturing operation is (/was, if it still exists) pretty much over to subcontract electronics build. They'll make a few Zero88 product batches as and when demand requires it. I suspect that will dwindle and drop off as demand drops and the lack of successor products means the Zero88 brand disappears. This forum will be funded until someone high up in VL realises they are spending money on it and/or the traffic drops off to a level they think there is no need for it any more. We've probably missed the boat but it would be desirable to get the schematics, Bills-of-Materials and if possible software source code out of the remaining Z88 databases and into the "public" domain before VL type "rm -rf /*" on it all and forget it ever existed. The software source code might be tricky as it might contain sub-licensed IP such that it doesn't have a GPL type license, I don't know, this is not my area. I've not heard anything about any new products with the Z88 brand and there is no evidence to date on the beta forum of ZerOS development work post 8.0 (although JonH did suggest there was an ongoing development plan on his leaving speech). But I don't think there is "anyone" left from Z88 to do this. I think Simon, the key software guy, was probably a sub-contractor [I could be wrong], so will have moved on to other ventures to keep paying his mortgage. If he is about, he's been very quiet and hasn't posted on here at all to say "don't panic guys, we're still here (just)". Time will tell. But I'm not holding my breath.

I believe the FLX S are based on Raspberry Pi and the touchscreen is essentially a generic peripheral you can buy for it. FLX is more a custom hardware and screen.