kgallen

Sounds like you need a can of compressed air spray. Check it's suitable for electronics cleaning use.

I don’t believe this is possible (I have a similar application requirement too). I believe the MIDI output is ‘thru’ not ‘out’ and I’m not aware of any commands or macros that can trigger the FLX to output MIDI control messages to other equipment. This is a shame - the only output available on FLX is DMX (XLR or via ArtNet/sACN), there are no ‘aux’ type outputs.

It's rarely the case! Buy a new laptop or smart phone and the first thing it ever wants to do is update the software! ZerOS isn't updated that often ( 😉 ) but if the console has been "on the shelf" for 6 months it's almost certainly behind on the current ZerOS release.

Hi Edward, Fantastic, thank you for the quick and thorough response! Specifically thanks for the detailed response on Q3 - I'm looking forward to some detail in this respect in the upcoming Macros webinar 🙂 [if not too cheeky a request, maybe you could include this one as a worked example 😉 ] Much appreciated! Kevin

Hi Edward, I'm after a little more detail on how the console interprets the FLX Remote Switches inputs. I understand from the Manual a "falling edge" caused by connecting the Remote Switch input to the common is equivalent to pressing the configured console button/operation (internally this will be a "logic 1" caused by a pull-up resistor changing to a "logic 0" caused by the remote switch being activated which effectively connects the remote switch input to common, or what will be zero-volts - or maybe you're achieving the same with an ADC input as was the case on Frog.). So: Q1: If the "falling edge" is the trigger, is it OK to keep the Remote Switch input "low" (shorted to common) for an extended period of time (many minutes)? Both: electrically - which I suspect is fine, the external "remote switch" is just sinking a few milliamps of current from the FLX remote switch terminal to 0V; And: software wise: I don't want this "long press" to make the desk move multiple cues or go into "pause" or "go back" mode or anything else crazy. Q2: Is the point (in time) of the remote switch release (effectively the "rising edge") irrelevant (other than needing to go high again at some point Q3: Can I make FLX sensitive to the Remote Switch input for specific cue "GO"s and ignore the Remote Switch input on other cues? I will want the Remote Switch to only trigger certain cues and at other times use the GO button on the console as normal. Q4: What is the situation with the front panel buttons if the Remote Switch is held "pressed" (Q1)? (a) Will the front panel "GO" button still work normally if a Remote Switch input that is also assigned to "GO" is still held "pressed" (Remote Switch input is still shorted to common, hence "logic low"). (b) If (a) is applied, will the desk ignore a Remote Switch assigned as "GO" until it releases ("logic high") whence a subsequent Remote Switch "falling edge" will trigger GO again. I believe all of this should work fine if ZerOS is looking explicitly for a "falling edge" on the Remote Switch as the trigger point and ignores the steady-state of the Remote Switch input. In essence if I have a piece of a-n-other equipment that has an open collector output that goes low (let's say for sake of illustration, the PLAY remote control output of a Sony MDS-E12 minidisc player 😉, spec below) then this should be able to trigger the FLX Remote Switch input [OK let's say I may well put an opto-isolator between the two, but the operation is the same]. Hope that makes sense! Thanks, Kevin ps I'd prefer to trigger the minidisc from the FLX on pressing GO, but since the FLX has no outputs other than DMX (or DMX over 'X') I would need to design a DMX decoder with the required outputs and map this as a fixture on FLX and programme the required trigger into a cue. I will look into this approach too...

Hi Wosti, Also by default when you lower a fader it will "release" the fixtures - hence they will revert to whatever was controlling them prior to this playback being triggered (raised). If nothing was controlling them, then default values will be output. I'm sure Edward has answered your question more fully - but you also might want to look at disabling release on lower which might give you a revised approach. Release On Lower can be enabled/disabled under the playback settings for that playback (Setup+Playback button). Kevin

I've logged a search on the YouTube Z88 channel so I don't miss when the training video comes out. As a regular FLX user I don't want to be behind the curve on understanding and using the latest new features. In particular, I need to revise if I'll need SmartTag on or off to get the best results when using the ZerOS Wing SD. I suspect this new product will also be "multi-touch" which in this instance may be a design and product validation oversight, but I admire your consistent application of the technology between the main desk and all peripherals.

This looks like it's a wireless product, so will it work on inductive charging technology or is a powered USB hub required? If so is it USB-C compatible? If you decide on a Mk2 revision, can I request storage slots for my minidiscs please? 🤭 (The Roman Numerals feature really hit didn't it! I see as a result you've had to stress the chronological annotations! 😝)

Do you have any appropriate fixtures patched? If so on the Effects page can you press "Create Auto Palettes"?

On earlier Z88 consoles like Fat Frog and Illusion we were able to assign parameters to thumb wheels and wheel pages of our choosing within the Fixture Editor. It’s a shame this information can’t be used on FLX - although of course with the new library we’re one step further away from the application of the ‘old’ Fixture Editor to this console range.

Put on a USB stick, Setup->Load

😛😝 Cut the chatter, quote the competition - you're guaranteed to get a ZOS out of it! (Filed for future reference 🤭).

On FLX S I suspect you will need to devise a chase. On FLX we can use Effect Waveform for this. In theory for FLX S you could use Phantom ZerOS in FLX mode, use waveform to create your Effect, programme a palette, save the showfile then load into FLX S. Once in FLX S you can use this palette although you won’t be able to modify the effect once in the desk. Edward will no doubt have better ideas!

They are at the bottom of this page: https://www.zero88.com/zeros Or on this page: https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/networking/connecting-to-capture

Hi Ben. Please quote the console type and ZerOS version you have installed. Thanks!

(Thread bump/slight tickle). Just curious if the team had any further thoughts on Eric's (and my) issue and the subsequent enhancement suggestion for an in-desk pan/tilt "correction offset" for physically misaligned fixtures (due to poor hanging accuracy - Eric, or "cheap" fixtures with poor mechanical calibration - me). Simplistically, this boils down to a new column in the Fixture Schedule where a fixture can have a +/-(small DMX value) for Pan and/or Tilt that the desk adds to the programmed value prior to DMX output. The more complex aspect is the UI and some integration with maybe the Highlight feature to allow this offset to be determined by observing the fixtures on stage as they are tweaked with the encoder wheels. In ETC Eos this is similar to "Hang to Focus" offset which can be applied in X, Y and Z planes. Thanks! Kevin Unrelated I also came across another interesting feature, "Preheat", which is a bit like move on dark, and is used to preheat tungsten lamps at the cue before they transition above 0%. This would be of interest for me, as to mitigate thermal shock, particularly on a flash to @FUL I will try to program a preheat of a few % on pre-cues where the next cue will be a step-change bump to the lamp. Of course I already have my Betapacks set with appropriate preheat, but this is of course at a much lower level such that blackouts are still dark.

This is a fair point and I know the Zero88 team have been thinking about this for some time. I think the main issue is you need some detailed calibration data for the fixture to be able to translate the DMX value to degrees - and often we're not working to a "nice" 360 either because pan is often 0-540 and tilt +/-130 degrees. Worse is you would really need to express that to two decimal places to get close to the resolution afforded by the DMX channel pair and the fixture - you're pretty much back to that 16 bit number in decimal. Using percentage is really not viable for pan and tilt, it's just too coarse. Remember pan and tilt have moved to 16 bit parameters because 8 bit, which gives 256 steps, is just too coarse. Percentage with no decimal places is over twice as bad! I'll put an enhancement request in for pan and tilt to be expressed in hexadecimal instead (only kidding - although at least 0x8000 is halfway, rather than 32768 in decimal, and 0x4000 is quarter instead of 16384... maybe not such a bad idea after all!). Being serious again, I'm not sure how much during programming, you really care the exact value for pan and tilt. We work on "is the mover pointing in the right direction" and almost certainly work with palettes. If you want to "centre" a fixture, then Home would normally get you there and we can all remember that half way is "around 30000" even if the "exact" value of 32768 isn't remembered - it's all so fixture and mounting dependent anyway. Having said that, I've recently learned that one can type in a value for pan/tilt using Shift/Tap, which should certainly reduce the amount of frantic encoder twirling I do (and play to my OCD of wanting exact/neat numbers across my fixtures!!!).

The Image Manager is just part of the Fixture Editor tool. You can add gobo images that will display on the FLX by attaching the images for each gobo under the Detail tab of the appropriate Beamshape attribute for the fixture within the Fixture Editor software.

Auto palette generates the default colour and gobo palettes - what you get when you press the button in the middle of the touch screen when you’ve got a fairly fresh desk. Palette just means one you recorded yourself eg RECORD -> COLOUR

The only way I know is to copy your playback into another playback on another page. Then I guess you’d populate the first couple of pages with the playback stacks you want to use and keep the ‘deep’ pages as a library of sorts. You’ve posted in the FLX S forum where my experience is with the ‘full’ FLX so you should check out the number of playbacks on the desk you have. Edward will no doubt give us some good ideas soon.

This was part of a comment to the same question on BlueRoom: "although I'm not sure how advanced the FLX is in its ability to clone fixture or change the type while retaining data" My understanding of this would be: clone=no, fixture change=yes (desk will try to map attributes from the old to new fixture the best it can). Be interested to learn from Edward how well this works and how well pre-recorded palettes might map across if fixture swap-outs are done when at the venue.

Hi Edward. With the demise of the KB, where did the list of known compatible touch screens go? Thanks, Kevin

Edward: Get one of your software guys on it for 5 minutes. One quick "sed" script will sort the whole lot out.

Brief flow: You'll need to be in Partial Mode. If you're not already then there is fun to start with. Then ensure the programmer is clear, select the fixture(s), change to put the strobe on only - don't change anything else otherwise you'll tag stuff you don't want to record. Then when you Program to the Submaster, you should only have the Beamshape attribute tagged. In theory, you'll need the submaster to release the strobe after letting go of the button. I'm not sure if BullFrog can do this, otherwise like you say, LTP will mean the strobe doesn't go off...

Hi Dave Thanks for the update! Sounds like you're nearly there. As it looks like you've done, there is no reason the 48 faders need to map 1:1 on DMX addresses, so arranging the key DMX channels per fixture across desk channels 1-24 and mapping the secondary channels on 25-48 is a great idea! Of course if you don't need per-fixture e.g. strobe control, then these could be multi-patched DMX addresses to one (or more) desk channel fader. As I'm sure you're aware from your earlier post, you can "mix down" some useful combinations onto sub-masters. However if you want to "layer" the submasters for LTP attributes like colour you will have to start looking into Partial mode and Tagging. In addition to the manual, make sure you have the latest set of release notes which cover quite a few more advanced features - the manual updates stopped long before the software updates stopped, so there are many "new" features not in the manual and some operational details have changed. Are you running 10.12 software? Somewhere in the updates[1] the number of submaster pages[2] were increased, which sounds like something that could be important in your use-model. Good luck! Kevin FrogOS 10.12: https://www.zero88.com/storage/downloads/8a28f4e9-9100-4a34-bab9-5cd0a2c66f0e/Frog-Range-Software-10.12.zip Final Release Notes: https://www.zero88.com/storage/downloads/c970efd0-79b5-4fe0-8546-6a64ddf858a5/Frog-Range-Software-Release-Notes-10.12.pdf [1] Number of palettes and groups was updated from 24 to 48 in 10.8. Note however these only apply to the fixtures section ("non-generics") so aren't usable as colour palettes on your RGB PARs mapped to generics faders. [2] This must have been a longer ago than I recall, I can't see it mentioned from FrogOS 9.2. I'll look back in my stored RNs!