kgallen

BlueRoom recently had a topic on Channels 5 and 6 flickering. http://www.blue-room.org.uk/index.php?showtopic=66529 Turned out to be a missing jumper on one of the 120V/240V selection headers, so worth checking these are still in place (there are two on a Betapack1) if you have this issue.

Cameo Studio PAR 64 RGBW (the one in the library is incorrect apparently). All 5 mode options (2ch, 3 modes 1 and 2, 4ch, 7ch). Regards, Kevin cameo_par_rgbw.ift

If this is the manual for your Cameo Studio PAR 64 RGBW: http://adamhall.invaliddomain.de/out/media/downloads/MARKEN/CAMEO/CLPST64Q8W/CLPST64Q8W_Cameo_Bedienungsanleitung_EN_DE_FR_ES_IT_PL.pdf Then here is a fixture file [see bottom of this post] for all 5 modes (2ch, 3ch x2, 4ch, 7ch)... (you'll need to shorten the IFT file filename for a floppy, sorry!). Copy it onto a floppy. On the desk: 1. Go into Super User (hold + and - and press Enter) 2. Desk Setup 3. Assign Fixtures 4. Use + and - to pick a fixture number -> lets use 1... 5. Down arrow (V) 6. Minus (-) -> "Select Fixture from Floppy Disk" 7. Enter 8. + and - to list "Cameo" 9. Down arrow (V) 10. + and - to select the fixture variant you want - let's say the 7 channel one 11. Enter. Should now see the yellow LED lit in Fixture button 1. 12. Up arrow (^) (now on "Exit"), Enter Now need to patch the fixture to the required DMX address. 13. Down, Down (on "Patch Functions"), Enter 14. I tend to use Manual Patch... 15. Click the Fixture 1 button (red LED will light), this should jump the patch list down to Fixture 1. 16. You now need to set the DMX address for your Cameo PAR. Let's say "49". You can press "+" and the desk will give you "049" which is the next available address after the 48 generic channels. If you've got an external keyboard attached, you can type the DMX start address. Whatever method, this number needs to match the one you've set on the back of the Cameo PAR unit. 17. Down arrow (on "Exit"), Enter 18. Up arrow (on "Exit"), Enter 19. Down x5 (on "Exit Desk Setup"), Enter 20. "Desk Setup Modified. Save Changes?" [OK] Enter 21. Up arrow (on "Exit Super User"), Enter OK assignment and patch done. Click "Outputs" button (I'm hoping you've got an external monitor attached). Click Fixture 1 button - red LED comes on and Monitor should now show "Fixture 1: Cameo StPAR RGBW : 7 ch" If you press the "Home" button then the PAR should come on at full brightness RGB "white". You will see under "Fixture Brightness Outputs" that 01 has "FF" under it (FF=full) and under the "Fixture 1" banner, Dimmer 100%, Red 255, Gree 255 Blue 255 White 0 Color1 0 Strobe 0. The Wheel LCD middle wheel has "Dimmer 100%" above it. Play with the wheel. Click "Colour" button. Wheel LCD now has Red, Green, Blue. Click the Colour button again, now you get White and Color1 (i.e. a second "page" of colour attributes). Click "Beamshape", middle wheel has Strobe. Play with the colours and strobe. When you're happy, set up your generics on the faders, click Program and you've saved your first cue of generics and fixtures! Here endeth the first lesson. Sorry if you already knew most of this........! Kevin cameo_studio_par64_rgbw.ift

Hi Andy, Glad you got the desk up and running! Also glad you got the floppy working on the PC as it sounds like we need to build a new fixture definition for your PAR! I'd recommend patching your LED PAR as a fixture - otherwise you'll eat up 6 (or 7 or whatever it needs) of your faders for each unit which means you'll struggle to keep 2-preset operation for your generics. Also accessing strobes and other functions of your LEDs is much easier as a fixture and you can use colour palettes! Don't panic it will all become second nature soon! Regards, Kevin Tried to PM you, but seems you need a few more posts first before your messenger is enabled. If you like, do you want a phone chat on this?

Hi Andy, I've had my FatFrog since 2006 (from new) and I've changed the battery twice. The original battery fitted in the desk lasted easily 5 years maybe more. The replacement one I installed, even though it was a known brand (maybe Duracell) lasted less than 3 years before I lost my show cues as mentioned above - which was why it was a surprise as I knew the cell hadn't been in "that long". The desk battery monitor doesn't work well with the coin cells presumably because of their voltage discharge profile (I think the circuit was designed for the Varta supercaps used in earlier designs). My desk always said "battery ok" even when the cell was exhausted and I'd lost memory contents. The indicator for me is always that the time/date has gone bonkers, then I know I'm going to lose data the next time the desk is switched off. I'm now working on a 3 year maximum, but should probably replace after 2 years. As you say, they are dirt cheap and relatively easy to replace. I've now moved on to an FLX, and since this is a new product, and new for me, we still have to work out how its battery performs... yikes! Good luck! Kevin If you really wanted to swap the floppy for USB, then I believe this "i889900" version works in the Frogs. At your own risk though, I have no experience of them. If you search the Z88 Forum (or Blueroom Forum) you will find a fair few people who've done the conversion. The floppy drive in my FF has been faultless so I've not been tempted to change it. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231653390847?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT Also whilst I'm here, download and have a read of the Release Notes. Lots of features have been added since the Manual. The RN's are very readable but you will have to mentally "splice" them into your brain and be aware of features that evolved over the 10.9 thru 10.12 releases and make sure you understand the latest "version" of each piece of functionality as you go through the releases. All good stuff though. http://zero88.com/support/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/GetAttachment/56/554 Even if you don't want to get into tracking, I'd get familiar with things like "Grab Mode" though - that can be very useful during a show! Blueroom topic on USB emulators. As Jon says in that thread, not supported by Z88! http://www.blue-room.org.uk/index.php?showtopic=50532

From the manual p42 so long as you selected universe 2 when you patched the fixtures then you should be good. A universe is just another independent set of 512 DMX channels so it's just a patching action on the desk, your LED lights will just have an address in the 1-512 range on their setting. In the Edit Fixtures screen under the DMX column you should see entries like 2/xxx where xxx is your fixture DMX address, manual p45. Can you plug your LED PAR straight into the universe 2 socket on the desk just to get it going? Kevin

Hi Andy, You can buy a USB floppy drive for 8 quid and plug into your computer. Much less hassle and risk than trying to find a paged USB drive that fits and works in your Frog. http://www.amazon.co.uk/External-USB-Floppy-Drive-Black/dp/B00095KY7U (this was just the first I found on a quick Google). If you want, PM me your address and I'll post you a couple of floppy's, one with 10.12 on. Kevin With a flat battery you might find some of your show is there but later cues have disappeared. I've had this... at a Dress Rehearsal! Get that battery changed pronto!

Here you go Jonny. 4, 6, 8 channel modes. Regards, Kevin Stairville_QPAR5x8RGBW.ift

I don't see the point cues in the (draft) manual, but Jon says it here: http://zero88.com/forum/topic/7148-missing-features/#entry27904

Hi Rob, Sounds good. Think you've done what you can. Looks like a new 'use case' for the software to consider. You're too good at this - you should be answering Forum posts now! Sorry, over to Jon! Regards, Kevin Sure you know, but you can have 99 'point' cues, i.e. 9.01 to 9.99 between cue 9 and 10.

Hi Rob, Just a thought as you're online now... Is cue 9 configured to jump to cue 200 next or are you at cue 9 and then go-load 200 (as in hold go and type 200)? Not saying there should be a difference, but since the desk 'looks ahead' for MOD maybe the issue? Kevin Just looked in the manual: In cue 9 go to the right column Cue Setup and set Next to 200, then see if you still have the problem. I'd interpret that as a bug if you do as the desk now has the information to look ahead to cue 200 for MOD.

Hi Andy, Welcome to the world of Frog, you'll love it! You will need a CR2032 battery (very common, get on the High Street). Place the desk on a table with the rear (the connector panel) facing you. Remove only 1 screw per side, it's the lowest screw in the curved rear metal silver side. The bottom panel will want to drop down, so support it. It's best to get some help as you will want to support the front panel whilst you access the PCB battery holder. You need to try to flick out the old coin cell - might need gentle help with a knife or small flat screw driver. Click in the new cell. Reassemble the desk, ensuring the bottom plate metal fingers are correctly located in the front of the desk, lifting the back into place and replacing the screws. Power up the desk and set the time/date. Make sure you're running software 10.12 (http://zero88.com/support/index.php?/de/Knowledgebase/List/Index/256/software). If you want to test all of the buttons, holding F1 down as you power the desk will get you into a test mode. Flash buttons 1-14 select faders to test and Step button tests the LEDs. Common fixtures are stored in flash, not battery-backed RAM, that's why they're still there. Anything else - just ask on the Forum! Good luck. Kevin I believe this indicates your desk was the 13th LeapFrog built in week 46 of 2002. I'd PM Keith with the serial number and ask him for the master lock code for that desk.

I should have asked about the hire. Are they providing the package, in which case the hiring company should sort this for you and provide a working setup. If you're adding the keyboard and or monitor then as above!

Yes, sorry Rob that was a bit of a distraction. Can only suggest the obvious for the monitor problem: to try different USB ports for both keyboard and monitor USB, keyboard brands and to recalibrate the monitor touch via Setup on the desk. Also to check for software 7.8.5. I have my monitor USB in a rear socket next to the DVI port. It's a Logitech keyboard and the recommended touchscreen (ProLight T1731). The keyboard is via a 4-port Belkin hub with the mouse into the second rear socket. After that, I'm as stuck as you.... Kevin

Proves you have the code to unlock it! It's a bit like the Yale/mortice door lock situation - whoops I've left my keys in the house and just shut the (Yale) front door! I think on balance, personally I'd keep the code-to-lock situation, particularly if I was hiring the desk.

Jonny, Can you link the manual here? Please always do this so we can be sure to build the correct profile. Please also indicate which modes you want prioritised - some fixtures are extremely complicated and building all modes can be very time consuming. It's a bit hectic for me this week, but I'll try and get around to building the profile in the next couple of days unless someone else beats me to it. Thanks, Kevin

For Blueroom user Biskit (http://www.blue-room.org.uk/index.php?showuser=6082) from this thread: http://www.blue-room.org.uk/index.php?showtopic=66445 Note: Contains 16-bit colour channels on one variant. Manual: http://www.spotlight.it/file.asp?file=/files/prodotto/manuale/Manuali/FOGL-UE-FNLED150-RGBW_IE_low.pdf spotlight_fresneled150rgbw.ift

We had our Tech/LX plot over the weekend, using the FLX, and first Dress last night. 7.8.5 software. Most was good with the FLX regards programming - worked very well. Much less stressful than with the Fat Frog now I've a fair few LED fixtures and needed to be using Tracking. Some usability comments (Tracking-Advanced with SmartTag): - Overall very good! - Groups from the touchscreen were a God-send. - Shift-Record great for blocking cues. - Record <num> Name <type> great for a one-pass record/name. - Update <num> worked a treat. - UDK4 with some strobes on, nice! However, I'm not sure it always released all channels as I expected when the button was released - but couldn't reproduce what I thought I saw, will keep an eye on this. - Auto-palettes on LEDs, great! Some more display niggles however: - The green and yellow bars do get in a muddle when you're programming i.e when there are no cues after the one currently being worked on and both bars are at the bottom of the cue list screen. - There's a "half line" problem where there is a vertical line misalignment and this causes the previous two cue lines to get obscured - needs some up/down arrows to get that sorted and the list redrawn. - When doing a Shift-Record, the just-programmed cue become current - fine. However, when just doing Record, the previous cue stays current and it needs a Go to get to the same place as Shift-Record would. This might be as intended but it's inconsistent. Also the yellow next bar jumps back up to the first cue (because there are no more following, so the first cue is "next"). This is a pain during programming when you want to update fade times in the just-recorded cue - need to do an up-up operation (because cue 0 appears) to get back to the last one just programmed so you can spreadsheet edit the timing parameters. Playing back the cue stack at Dress, the current/next cue are centred on the cue list and this works fine as does on-the-hoof spreadsheet edit of fade times. Button feel is nice. Double-click seems a bit variable on the master Go. When programming, needed to do a very positive/separated Go-Go to move forward. But during the Dress I did a bit of a half-baked press on one cue and skipped a cue and had to go back in the cue list. I had some AND issues, where I'd type 56 AND 57 but the following action only applied to 57 for some reason. This was when I'd got a number of selects in the programmer - selected a couple of groups via the touchscreen, then needed to add 56 AND 57. Often 56 didn't get the @ or the touchscreen palette selection. This happened a few times. As commented in another thread, one USB on the front is awkward when you want a desk light and want to save to USB stick. I have a small Belkin 4-port USB hub for keyboard and mouse in a rear port, and plugging the USB stick in there wasn't always detected. Also have touchscreen USB in the other rear desk port. Mouse pickup on the screen is a bit slow - have to wiggle the mouse a bit to get the desk to respond to it. Not too much of an issue as didn't need the mouse during programming. External keyboard no issues and worked well for cue naming. Only got bit by the ENTER-starts-to-edit-the-cue-number once! Nice to be able to record a part cue (73.5 in my case) before subsequent cues (e.g. 74) has been programmed. (Couldn't do this on FatFrog and it was a bit of a pain [needed to program a junk following cue first before being able to insert the part cue], as I come prepared with a lighting cue synopsis with numbered cue list and draft marked-up script but sometimes the director wants to add an extra cue or two during Tech).

Hi Jon, Excellent thanks for the detail and quick reply (and the function!)! Slightly confused (yes it's a common state!), if the programmer is non-empty then wouldn't it be selecting fixtures, so "Clear Fixture" would "clear everything within the programmer" too? ETA: Just tried this on PhantomOS 7.8.5; "Clear Fixture" on a UDK just clears fixtures selected in the programmer (I had "2 AND 9" in the programmer). It didn't affect the channel I'd grabbed with a channel fader. SHIFT+Clear on the other hand does release the grab and leaves the programmer selection alone :-)

(Sorry for the dumb question - missed it in the manual maybe, and thought it was asked in another forum issue but cant find it! ..and also prepared to be told I've misunderstood FLX channel release philosophy even now!) I'm looking for a function a bit like the channel grab on Fat Frog (http://zero88.com/support/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/GetAttachment/56/554 Section 9. Grab Mode for Brightness Channels (Frog Ref No 5574) ) If I'm playing back a stack and want to get hold of the intensity of a fixture (say it got knocked), how would I do this on FLX 7.8.5? Thanks, Kevin (Yes, pre-show panicking!)

Whilst we're here, also in Setup on the Defaults pane, with an external keyboard you can set a split fade time (say 3.0/5.0) for "Intensity Delay" "Cue". This can't be done without an external keyboard as there is no physical or soft-key for "/". Maybe e.g. THRU could act as a "/" key?

Thanks Jon, Ah, of course, makes sense! With the fixtures I had patched, the grey-boxes make sense in the sixes! 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 60 61 62 63 \_____________/ \___/ \______/ I like the attention to detail, nice one! Kevin

On 7.8.5 When I did a Reset All, I just get a full blue screen on the external monitor until I flick to palettes then back to programming, only then the split channels/playback window is drawn (black background). Then when I allocate some dimmers or fixtures, I get grey boxes around random channel numbers (different each time I do Reset All) - just the odd channel number here or there! If I page up then page down (ch/pb page up/down desk button), this gets sorted out, and the grey box draws around the 24 channels for that page (in sixes for the generics). Also with a variety of fixtures patched, the grey boxes draw in groups that I don't understand. They aren't in sixes and they aren't in fixture type groups. I get some grey boxes around pairs and threes and I'm not sure what the significance is! This is before I've set much up, other than a Reset All and patch some dimmers/fixtures. Also in Fixture Edit setup, if you select a fixture name but don't have an external keyboard attached you can get in a mess with the names disappearing if you aren't careful with Clear. You can only get any sort of name in with the numeric keys. There is no way to "Escape" out and leave the name unchanged that I can find. So no on-screen keyboard to help out here. With an external keyboard, no issues, can type a name. (Covered in part here too: http://zero88.com/forum/topic/7240-show-keyboard-when-naming-fixtures/#entry28291) Tech this week, show next - hoping I know enough about the desk! Panic! Kevin

Hi Rejean, The one main thing you didn't do was allocate wheels for each parameter. Under the "3 Wheel Group" tab, you need to allocate each parameter to a wheel. So e.g for Colour, right click and "Add Wheel Group", then allocate each of your colour parameters to a wheel. For this fixture you need more than one colour group for example, as there are 5 colour parameters over 3 wheels. On the desk, multiple presses of Colour give successive pages of colour parameters. Same for beamshape. Also you separated the fine/coarse pan and tilt to two separate channels. Might be preferable to you. In my fixture, I made pan one 16 bit channel. Same for tilt. You'll have to see how you go with these. Other than that, other than setting the defaults (I'm used to how Zero88 usually want them), you're about there. Good luck! Kevin

Jan 2016 CPC now do the SIBA HRC 10A fuses: FF02367 49p ea but MOQ=10.