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Okay fair enough. About the fixture ouputs screen on the monitor: maybe the effect generator could be displayed there aswell? The fixtures I'm using don't use the bottom part of the screen, so there's room enough to display the movement effects there. Maybe fixtures with a lot of parameters do use the bottom part, I don't know?

It is now possible to program just tagged information into a memory or submaster. Lets say we want to program the colour red, but also the first gobo on the wheel. It would be nice is there is some kind of notification of what you're programming. Of course you could check all the attribute groups by pressing the wheel button in each screen, but that takes a lot of time. Using the monitor is another way, but not everyone uses that. I think it's an option to make an attribute button (like colour) flash at high speed (twice the rate it flashes when there's another wheel group present) when one of the parameters in that group is tagged. It should do that until the parameter is untagged again. When you go to the beamshape group, the colour group would flash at high rate because the colour red was tagged, and the operator has an overview of what's going on without having to switch to the monitor's fixture screen.

Downloaded the new software today and gave it a test run. I really like the new individual programming features, but I did stumble upon a bug in the new software. When programming pallets (I was working in beamshape, but I don't think that matters a lot) and recalling them, sometimes the wheel LCD didn't show the correct parameters. When I turned the wheel, the gobo started changing while the LCD was displaying "focus" above that wheel, very confusing! I pressed the beamshape button and the LCD switched to the next group as it should, but the wheels changed group too (so they didn't match again). Another press on the beamshape button didn't change the LCD info, but did change the wheels, now everything was fine again. Pressing it a few times more didn't produce the error again. I guess it is produced by recalling a partial programmed pallet... try it yourself and you'll notice it right away. Also I would like for the 1 second button presses to be altered to, lets say half a second. Re-programming pallets takes more time than it should, just because you have to press the damn button so long Also the way of accessing the wheel mode is slow (1 second also), could that maybe (also) be done by pressing the wheel group and the corresponding attribute button? Pressing wheel group+beamshape would display the wheel mode of the beamshape attributes, and scrolling the middle wheel would alter it.... something like that. And the last one: I reported the groups sticking bug in the last software version, that one hasn't been fixed in this software update while I think it should be, I recon that can't be an awfull lot of work.

Though the consoles output seems to be fine again, we still can't get the little LEDs to come off. They just keep on being lit but don't have any noticible function anymore. We're a bit afraid on using it again cause it might fail on the job and of course that's no good. Any more ideas on what we could check to make it work again?

I agree, and I'm sure we're all going to enjoy helping out other users on this forum! Good work @ Z88!

Last weekend we provided sound and light for a festival in Loon op Zand, the Netherlands. Just some pictures of this: Building the stage and fronttruss: Pictures of The Sheer & Les Truttes: Equipment: 4x mac 250 krypton 6x robe 250 XT wash 20x MultiPAR front 6x 4-bar raylight 4x 4-bar ACL 2x 4-light blinder 2x Titan 3000 strobe 2x Pro2000 + fan 1x LeapFrog console Though I didn't operate a lot (we've got a student who want's to learn and most acts brought their own operators) it was a nice weekend! Edit: sorry, URL of the pictures changed, now updated

I am running 9.8.1 but I didn't remember my actions correctly. Just press F1+Group and the group screen will lock on the monitor. The monitor will keep on displaying that screen until you press F1 again, but the flash buttons just act as they normally would.

That's strange, maybe this console still runs 9.6.1 then, didn't check. When I pressed group button the "Fixture groups" screen was displayed and locked on the external monitor. The console is at a festival at the moment so I'll check the OS version tonight and update when that's nescessary.

May not be a real bug, but I believe implementation isn't correct on this one. Things to do: - lock a pallet (colour/beamshape/position), the monitor will display pallet info - now press group button, monitor shows release info as expected - when released the monitor still shows group info, so I thought this screen was locked too - now press a group button, notice the LEDs aren't lid. You're now flashing your normal channel instead of selecting a fixture group! In my opinion, either the flash buttons should be locked to the fixture groups or the display should return to previous setting after releasing the group button again. The way it works now is kind of confusing.

Eeeh... that's called Frog 2? Or do you need more than the 4 universes/2048 channels that console brings you? $stupidQuestionCount++;

Even DOS style screens can be styled a bit using some matching colour and smart layouts. I'm curious about the "one size fits all" screen layout though, wondering how you've done that without creating a total mess.

The only correct answer: no you can't. You can download Phantom Frog and alter your showfiles via the offline console, but that's all the interactivity with a PC you're going to get. Just curious: what did you want to do exactly?

Judging by the new consoles (Frog 2, Jester) you guys should look into the design of the console a bit more. No offence, but it seems a bit 1990's to me (anyone agrees?). The metal sidepanels look great on the latest console ranges, but the frontpanel does seem a bit outdated. On the software side the same goes for the DOS-style monitor outputs, though I don't know how they look on the newer consoles. The consoles are great anyway, so why not make them look just as great Please remeber: no flame, no offence

You could try a Windows emulator for MAC. They seem to work pretty good and PhantomFrog is a rather simple application to run, so that'll probably work.

I guess when you alter brightness, colour, beamshape or position they immediately return back to their default values. There's no light or monitor feature which displays a home button press. Would be a rather irrelevant feature too, since your press usually lasts for a few miliseconds. By the way: sticky buttons usually occur on sticky desks. Clean the frontpanel with a moist cloth and see if that helps. I had the same problem with the submaster page selection buttons, when one of those is stuck the console keeps flipping pages resulting in a very slow desk.

Ehhh... most manuals can be downloaded free of charge from the manufacturers websites. I can't think of anything cheaper to spend time with 8)

Off topic: how are those new 250 washes???

Nope no drinks for this one Though we did buy it in a non-working state, convinced we could sort it out. We did, and it worked just fine for 2 years or so, but now its started bugging again

As I just read in the manual, you can set up the Pearl to have different pallets on each fixture page. That means you've got 4x30 pallets to use there. I'm curious about the training and hope I'm available that day so I can see the power in the F2.

A 1000 faders and 2000 keys... that a huge desk, I know these are mapped over different pages, so how many can I use at the same time? The CD-R is nice, but when I save my shows on USB (much faster I presume and I don't need a new disk all the time), what's the chance I'm actually going to use that? Same for the 3 USB ports onboard. Multiple cue stacks... ok, nice feature but in what situation do you actually use it? I only use the Frogs cue stack in theatres, and have no idea how to fill anotherone up. Are the "GO" buttons linked for each stack, or do I have to press multiple buttons, increasing the chance of a wrong button press? Ethernet, RDM, ACN... lots of fun but I'm not going to use it. So I guess I'll be paying a lot of money for features I'm not going to use. That might be the difference in price-tags and therefore the Pearl seems a better choice. The one thing I keep hearing over and over again is thata Pearl isn't ideal for theatre-operating. I'd like to know why, cause when I take a quick view into the theatre stack mode on the Pearl, it seems to be rather the same as on the Frogs?

Interesting thread indeed... a few things I picked up and find very interesting: And still, I choose the Pearl... for a few reasons: - we do quite a lot of theatre shows, and I like the possibility of 4x60 faders for controlling that.. i just don't know it the playback possibilities are there at all. - we never do shows with large numbers of movers (ie 20+) so we don't really need the advanced programming solutions of Frog 2 - at this point I cannot use the console for festival gigs, because most riders would state a Pearl or Hog at FOH. I think the Leap Frog we've got is perfect for the theatre jobs we're doing, and the Pearl is the one for gigs with guest-techs. Though that might change after some training days. I'm curious about the training in Holland, but I do need some training on the Pearl as well. Must say that the offline version available for download is pretty nice, and I'm learning it quite quick.

That's impressive - off topic I apologise, but which phone would this be? sp Nokia 6670: http://www.nokia.nl/uk/phones/PhoneModels/6670/index.html. Also equipped with navigation... damn thats good stuff, finding the location of your gig without any problems Stripping took me about 3 hours I think, but I took my time and cleaned almost everything. I actually lost 1 fastening ring of one of the screws in the metal side panels, but that's no problem.

Okay, an interesting dillema has reached us. The retailer of Avolites products is offering a deal on the (fairly new) Pearl 2004 console. We get a rather nice discount when we deliver them a working DMX console, the Pearl than only costs about 7000 euros. Now there's also the Frog 2. In my opinion, what I've read here a rather nice console, but the software does need a fair bit of work yet. The price of the Frog 2 is listed at 11388 euros. Of course there is a bit of discount there, but that's not going to get us to 7000 I guess. So just a quick comparison: - Pearl: cheaper - Pearl: good software, though the USB isn't usable yet I think - Both have 2048 channels at 4 universes - Frog2 has a touch screen and more screen output - Frog2 might work a little bit better in theatre situations, but I think the Pearl is much faster in live situations - Frog2 has a commandline option But very important to us: the Pearl can be operated by almost any (good) LD in Holland, the Frog2 definitely can't. Comparing these arguments I'm very much drawn towards the Pearl. Maybe you guys have some convincing arguments (other than "it's great for this and great for that") why F2 is a better option. I'm not stating we're going to buy one, since we don't have enough budget for the Pearl at the moment, and certainly not for the Frog, but we're keeping our options (and loans open for suggestions).

Okay, we replaces the mode switch with another one. Small problem: they only had a 10-step switch, so we just bought that one. Now all of the modes seem to work again, and theres is one mode added 8O Not really sure what it does, but it's there and not listed in the manual, a bit strange. Just one small problem left: in program / run mode the green LEDs of some channels go on. When we power on the console they slowely come on and stay on. As far as I can judge its not really affecting output in anyway, but of course it is a bit strange. Any idea on where this is coming from?

Believe it or not, but these pictures were taken with my mobile phone I'm very content with the camera on that thing. As for the waranty: the console if a few years old anyway so that's not really a problem. I hope I'm actually preventing problems like this so I don't need your service department! The scratch doens't affect the operation of the board, so I guess no tracks were cut (or those tracks are pointless ). What was the keypress to get into the test-mode again? As for the service manuals: send me some merchandise again and I'll even put on some neat white gloves