kgallen

@Ed75worth getting yourself registered as a beta tester. Whilst you may or may not have time to help here (it depends for us all) there may be discussion there that you can contribute to (that part of the forum is not general access) given your experience and also your ‘fresh eyes’. There was a bug a while back with 2-way playbacks that had similar attributes to what you report (although it was with a general playback rather than the master). I’m not sure what that status of that ZOS is (I’ll dig it out when not on a phone). Possibly it was fixed, but it came to mind with your report. Good to have you ‘on board’! Kevin

Didn't you know - everyone always wants "bigger and faster" (and better!). 🤣

I'd also like to give a slight tickle to an RDM monitor - not sure if this is "Reporting & monitoring of RDM Sensors etc". RDM documentation seems to be as bad if not worse than DMX maps versus firmware version. For debug, being able to see what RDM data is being returned by a fixture would be useful. I believe you have some debug code of this nature internally. Would be useful under a debug section under the Z key. Edward was very helpful last year debugging the RDM codes from a Chauvet fixture that did not seem to return the codes that I'd obtained from the manufacturer - in fact the codes we finally worked out were nothing like the codes given to me by Adam Hall Support.

@Sven76 you should ask Jon to put all of your 6 ticks on "Pixel Mapping"! 😝 Greetings to you!

Nice to ‘meet’ you Ed, welcome. Hope to see you around on the forum! Kevin

Thanks Jon. I've now ticked Dimmer Curves and MIDI Out (6 ticks, maybe I dropped one of my previous ones!). Would the MIDI Out be via macros? (and thus hopefully not a huge development impact - main task probably a UI update to put in settings). I ought to re-read up on MIDI...

I've voted for the entries that, based on 5-8 selections, would be of most interest for me. However there are other entries that are of interest, so I'll group these below so you know there is other "lower priority" interest in some of these ideas. Some of the ideas above I suspect are relatively quick/easy to implement. Others will take a lot of development validation. Maybe it is worth splitting this survey into say 3 categories of easy/medium/big development cost and getting us to vote on them? Each release it would only be reasonable to have one "big" feature, but a number of smaller features could bring good user benefits whilst not incurring a large development cost. For example the Rig plan/Stage sizing - would be great but the development cost is likely high and would come at the cost of several incremental features. Improved macros, intensity fanning, import/export are probably functions that build easily on existing features and don't break fundamental desk software architecture. 2nd choice Comprehensive Copy/Move 'Learn' functionality - depends if I understand right here. Sometimes I will create an auto-follow sequence that links in with an audio track. Possibly this could help here. Rig plan layout (I'm assuming this would be a lot of effort to implement, so whilst I've asked for this, I've relegated it to my "second choice" set) Stage sizing - for movers this would be excellent, but again, I suspect a big development cost since it needs the above first 3rd choice Intensity fanning Import/export - for backup and archive (rather than moving to another console automatically) Improved macros (I need to use these more - looks like you have some ideas) Custom desktop layouts As covered recently, RGBAW/I/L and Fixture Editor are pretty much at the top of the list for many (Sven will shout at me again for not putting Pixel Mapping here!). One other for me is dimmer curves (or "taming cheap LEDs"!) and "switch" (snap 0->255 at a given threshold) for controlling relays on stage practicals and triggering other outboard equipment from lighting cues. I don't believe the desk can output MIDI control, so I have to do via DMX. Regarding partial file load which I ticked as "first choice" - I would like to start building up a library of bits of setups and cues that I can load in. At the moment I have to either wipe the desk and start again or load an old show and delete lots of cues or settings. I can see Jon wants a new skin. I think many users might consider this a distraction to getting much awaited functional features 😛

Hi Takuya, Here are the instructions for creating a bootable USB stick. Hopefully this can help you recover your console: https://zero88.com/manuals/zeros/software-updates/zeros-usb-creator

I’ll certainly have the software (or at least a pretty recent one) downloaded (not that I could upload it here). What I don’t have or know off the top of my head, is how to make a bootable USB stick that the desk can use. That information was down the links that I now find are 404.

Jon/Edward, The resources we used to use to support the community are gone. Links posted by Edward to resources in the past 12-18 months no longer work let alone the knowledge we built up over the past 'n' years. We can't help out unless we can access these types of resources. This means you will have to answer every Forum support question yourselves, the community can no longer help others because you've taken away all of the knowledge that we used to use to provide answers. I just tried to help a user with a crashed S48. I couldn't give him instructions for a bootable USB stick because none of the links that I could find in previous Forum posts work and I've got no clue where I could hope to find the new location of such instructions. I'm sorry, this is not acceptable. I know Z88 have been through turmoil with business reorganisations but the data we need still exists, you've just restructured your web portal so we can no longer access this data. Come on chaps, this beautiful company is going to sh*t within 3 months of DavidC moving on. Honestly, I think you need to have a big sit down with your "new" management and decide what sort of company you want to be. Because I'm not liking the outlook. From a 25 year customer.

Can you make a bootable USB stick with the software on and see if the desk will read from that from a power cycle? I'd point you to some instructions on how to make a bootable stick but I can't - none of the links I can find in past articles with instructions on how to do this work anymore. 😡 Edward/Jon - seriously chaps this state of affairs with the website needs to be fixed ASAP. The community can't help anyone anymore without your support both directly to the question and getting this damn website sorted so that we can access the resources we need to help users with problems. I'm not talking about ancient stuff here, I'm talking about links posted by Edward within the past 12-18 months.

Hi Delphine, I'm looking at your two showfiles together. This is what I see: #1 AUTONOMIE GIEVRES I can see 25-28 "7P Hex IP" present and 33-34 are "LED - RGBW". No fixtures named PARA*. #2 PONT SAINT MARTIN3 Fixtures 25-28 deleted as you said, fixtures 33 and 34 are swapped from "LED- RGBW" to "PARLED 1820IR" (and named "PARA J" and "PARA COUR"). So the result going from #1 to #2 is: Any programming related to fixtures 25-28 is deleted (deleted from cues and palettes) Any palettes specific to "7P Hex IP" will disappear since there are no other "7P Hex IP" in the patch (Edward to confirm what is deleted!) Any programming for fixtures 33-34 that were "LED-RGBW" will be re-targetted to "PARLED 1820IR". The desk will try to match up functions between the old and new fixture type and map across programming the best it can. This assumes you did fixture swap-out for 33 and 34 (and did not delete 33-34 [which would result in all 33-34 programming lost] and then patch fresh fixtures). In fact I see you swapped out 29-34 "LED - RGBW" in #1 to "PARLED 1820IR" in #2 so the desk should have moved the programming from a "LED - RGBW" to a "PARLED 1820IR" the best it could match parameters. However I note that in the Fixture Schedule, the "LED - RGBW" are in white - so current library fixtures - whereas the "PARLED 1820IR" are in red - so are "legacy" fixtures. I wonder if this is compromising the swap-out? I don't have adequate experience of the new library to comment further. Edward to advise! The desk isn't "magically" going to swap programming for 29-30 in #1 to 33-34 in #2 so I'm not sure what you mean by "My PARAs are found in 33 and 34, whereas on the original file they are in 29 and 30". As I understand it, as long as you use fixture swap-out then the desk will use the ID to map previous fixture programming to new fixture programming. (The DMX address is not relevant).

Ah...! You know how to set the video link to the correct time point too! Me - failed! 👍

Hi Delphine, From 37:30 in this video, Edward describes fixture swap-out. (Maybe there is a "better" video Edward can reference, I just came across this section watching this video):

We don't. This would never be a viable business model. We pay upfront in the cost of the desk, that is the business model. It may be "free at point of use" like the NHS, but it certainly isn't "free".

Yea, I think we're over-working this a bit Jon. The essence of our point is "having the vaguest idea of", viz "functionality x is planned for ZerOS 9.4 which is expected in Q3-2022" rather than "31st October 2021" or "We don't have a Scooby-Doo[TM] when we we'll do it and we have no (internal) project plans or milestones in place which deliver on this". I (We) realise and appreciate you can't nail down features to the minute and that there will be issues that come up and take precedence, and sometimes a feature may well slip a release. It's the yardstick that we're missing. I'm not sure you should measure yourself against what say ETC do. You need to deliver for your customer base (stating the obvious there of course). (Mods move to a thread in Beta if required)

Thanks Edward - those docs are great, but seem to be missing the crucial one-page service sheet "How to replace the battery" that pulls together the access diagram, an internal picture, details and qty of the battery required and information on any variants like "if you have serial number x or earlier the battery is an xxx which is soldered to the PCB and requires yyy service work to replace" (or info to that effect). Frog/Jester/Orb etc are at that age now where such replacements are a common thing. From experience even branded cells have never lasted anywhere near as the one that was fitted at the factory - no idea why that is! (Sorry you're getting it from all sides this morning!)

Can this info not be put on the Forum or the Support site, or a... KB? I realise Orb may have an internal mains PSU, but the warnings for such maintenance activity can be highlighted in the service note... Jus' sayin' - must be a more effective way than Keith needing to be distracted for such a mundane request, I'm sure he has much more important things to be getting on with! Case in point - I needed to replace the coin cell in my Fat Frog yesterday - CR2032 and the bottom two side screws if anyone else needs to know... (unless you have an early version - no VGA connector, then you need a soldering iron...)

You're one up on me, without looking it up, I wouldn't be able to spell "dyslexic". Even typing it is "fun"! 🤣

I suspect Derek meant "flawed".

Another good one for a "Top Tips" page 🙂

Hi Derek. Worth noting what ZerOS version, and thus whether original or new library format. I wonder if this is a fixture definition issue - maybe Amber and UV aren’t declared as ‘Colour Other’. Is the fixture definition one you’ve written yourself or one from the released library? If released, worth capturing the fixture model used here so Edward could take a look. I realise you’re experienced on here so these may be questions you’ve already considered! Kevin

Ah Mandy! 👍 She's not "marketing" (as in the faceless department of such!) she's one of the gang! 😀

Cheers Edward! Ah I see ... we're a "big company" now so the web pages are controlled by some amorphous blob called "marketing" who don't know one end of a lighting desk from another... 🤣

Why has the A-Z section been removed from the main Support page? A-Z is in the small menu at the foot of the page - i.e. if you know it's there you can find it.