Paul

Hi Tony, It looks like the following issues were causing you some problems, since Peter *kindly* upgraded your desk from 10.4 to 10.8 on a recent training day: - When replaying submasters, tag states are set to those from the submaster. This makes it difficult to build up looks from Submasters and the Presets for recording into memories. We have logged the following Frog Reference number to provide an option to configure the replay-tagging behaviour: Frog Reference 5583 - Option to disable, add-to, or replace tags when when replaying Memories, Submasters & SXs. - If memories are programmed using moving lights, the LTP channels track from Memory Zero (Home values) for earlier memories than when they are first used. The following Frog Reference number will allow this behaviour to be disabled: Frog Reference 5586 - Option to disable tracking from Memory Zero. - Lowering the Grand Master (or pressing Blackout) does not cause active brightness channels to be tagged. This problem has been given a new Frog Reference number: Frog Reference 5587 - Lowering the Grand Master or pressing Blackout should tag all brightness channels. I can't make any promises about when a new version will be available I'm afraid, however you may find version 10.4 easier to get along with until the new version is out. Version 10.4 can be downloaded HERE. Regards, Paul.

Program a submaster and press the flash button.

Frog Series Software - Version 10.8 We have released Version 10.8 of the Frog Series Software. The new operating software, offline editor (Phantom Frog) and release notes can be downloaded from the Zero 88 Support Centre: CLICK HERE This version contains a significant number of improvements, including: * Brightness tagging and Tracking. * Grab mode for brightness channels. * 48 palettes/groups for the Fat Frog and Leap Frog. * Duplicate patching for fixtures (up to 100 duplicates). Full details can be found in the release notes.

After the Save Show operation, you should get: **** SAVE SHOW **** Success <OK> If you press Enter on OK here, you should go back to... <Save Show> <Load Show> <Erase Show> <OK> If you press Enter on OK here, you go back to Super User. To get out of Super User, hold the MODE button for 1s. Which step is it stopping at?

The Preheat pots on the Beta2 do slightly more than adjust the preheat, so "all the way back" is likely to cause the problems you have noticed. To set the pots correctly: - Connect a lamp to each channel of the betapack. - Turn off the channel test on the betapack. - Set a control input of 10% on each channel from a desk (DMX or analogue). - Adjust the preheat pots so that the connected lamp just begins to glow. Note that each pot adjusts a pair of channels.

It is odd that isn't it, so you win a number... Frog Reference 5578 - Numeric entry of channel levels in Edit Live/Blind - not shown on monitor until Enter is pressed.

Works fine for me. Make sure you have the Front Panel window on Phantom Frog selected. If you have the Monitor window selected, nothing on the keyboard works (except for Enter closing the window annoyingly, which will be corrected in the next version...).

USBView shows VID as idVendor and PID as idProduct, so yes you found the right info. The PID that your cable is reporting is the default one. The PID is stored in an EEPROM chip in the XLR end of the cable (don't try and disassemble it - you have to do it in the right order or you'll break the connections off the PCB). There are 2 possible reasons that your cable is showing the default PID: - The EEPROM is faulty or not soldered correctly. - The cable somehow escaped the factory without the EEPROM being programmed correctly. If you don't want to return the cable, you could try... - Editing the .inf file to use the default PID, although this is not recommended since it could then create conflicts if you ever use another USB device with this PID. I'm also not sure if the Diablo Fixture Manager will then talk to the cable if the PID is wrong, but you never know, it might! OR... - Download the MPROG utility from the FTDI site (they make the USB chip that is used in the cable), and try to reprogram the EEPROM in the cable. This is tricky, since you first need to install the USB drivers for the default PID (installed in the MPROG directory), then use MPROG to find the cable and reprogram it's PID (use the template file USB-485.ept), then replug the cable so it is discovered with it's new PID and point it at the Diablo drivers. Either way it's not straightforward and you might be better pleading with the place you bought it from that it's never worked. Not sure why your moving lights won't dim. I don't know about the particular ones you have, but I have seen some where you have to put them into a different mode on the fixture itself to get them to dim. Try patching one to the generic channel faders on the desk - that should tell you if the problem is in the fixture or in the profile you have created for it.

If you change modes, everything gets tagged in every memory/submaster/SX/palette.

USB associates the device with the driver using a Vendor ID (VID) and a Product ID (PID) number. You can see these in the .inf file in the drivers directory: USBVID_0403&PID_EC30.DeviceDesc="USB Desk Link Cable" These numbers are the same for the Tiger and the Diablo. If Windows is reporting that it can't find the drivers, and you're convinced that you're pointing the Found New Hardware Wizard at the correct directory, then it could be that your cable is faulty and is not reporting the correct VID & PID. There is a tool called usbview which you can use to look at the VID & PID of all connected USB devices to confirm this. Download it from: http://www.ftdichip.com/Resources/Utilities/usbview.zip If the VID & PID reported by the cable don't match those in the .inf file, then your cable needs to be returned to where you bought it from. If they do, then you have a problem somewhere else with your Windows setup which we aren't able to help you any further with I'm afraid.

Yes, Auto Move while Dark (Frog Reference 5351) is broadly speaking what you describe. The Dwell Time only applies when the Trigger is set to 'Auto' (default is 'Go'). It is the time that the desk waits after the fade to a cue is completed, before it automatically triggers the next cue.

The Sirius24 and Demux24 both have output diodes, so you can just wire them together for a HTP (Highest Takes Precedence) mix of the two signals. Make sure your Sirius has the standard positive voltage output (i.e. the optional negative output kit is not fitted), and set up the Demux24 for positive output voltage also. It would be wise to lock the Demux24 when leaving it, to avoid any meddling fingers going into the menus and changing the output voltage polarity.

Yes, you can have multiple switches on, and you just add up the numbers. It's a binary code. Have a look at this topic on the Blue Room Wiki for further information: http://www.blue-room.org.uk/wiki/DIP_Switch

To be honest, this is probably beyond the feature set of the Fat Frog. It's one of the reasons we created the Mambo Frog, which has a bank of 48 SX buttons, onto which you can program anything you like, and give them fade times too.

If you patch your scrollers to an Auxiliary, then you get live control only without fade times. If you patch your scrollers to a desk channel, then you can program them into memories and submasters, and use fade times to control the rate that the scroll moves.

There's a couple of things you need to check: Super User -> Desk Setup -> Desk Defaults -> Submaster -> Sub Data (make sure this is 'Gen&Fix') Also make sure that the LTP Trigger Level on each submaster is set to something sensible like 5%. If you've set this to 0% or 100%, then the LTP parameters (Colour, Beamshape, Position) might not be triggered when you raise the submaster fader.

If you allow multiple desk channels to control a single DMX channel, you have to perform some sort of mix. For brightness channels, HTP would be the obvious choice. For LTP channels, it's more difficult since you have to look further inside the desk's data structures to see what changed last, and why (i.e. because of an ongoing fade or because of a user action or because of a chase step advance or because of an auto memory trigger etc.), and then apply some sort of priority rules. For every patch duplicate of every HTP channel, you'd have to have an additional HTP mix. The theoretical limit would more than double the number of HTP mixes that the desk has to do. Tests have shown that this is one of the most computationally intensive things that the desk has to do, and we really don't want to introduce a potential performance problem for the sake of a feature which we don't see in other products and don't think can be cleanly defined and don't think would be wanted by the vast majority of users.

The software upgrade process doesn't touch the show data, so you don't actually need to save your show first. Some questions... Is the memory stick you're using write protected? Can you write files to it OK from a PC? Does it have at least 128KB free for the Jester showfile? At what point in the save process does it say save failed? Does the LED on the memory stick flash steadily when you put it in the Jester?

Firstly a big thank you to all of you for helping us make 2006 one of our best years. During the year we have seen the Jester product range become one of the best selling products ever for Zero 88. In the space of this year we have sold over a thousand of these consoles. Added to this has been the launch of the new Beta Pack 3 with sales outstripping our expectations and exceeding Beta Pack 2 sales for the same period of 2005. We have also seen a steady growth in our Architainment business. Chilli sales have grown steadily throughout the year and we have won several prestigious projects around the world. We hope that you will all be able to find some time to relax over Christmas and celebrate the New Year. 2007 will be a year of new products from Zero 88. We are expecting to have several new products in the market starting in January. We hope that these products will ensure that 2007 is even better than 2006. The Zero 88 offices will be closing over the Christmas period, from 12 noon on Friday 22nd December 2006 until 9.00am on Tuesday 2nd January 2007. During this time, the support website will continue to be monitored. On behalf of all the staff at Zero 88, we wish all our customers and users a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Hi Theo, After email discussions we've been having with you, it seems this problem only manifests itself in Preset Mode, since this mode does not have the fader-grabbing behaviour that Program Mode and Run Mode have. We have logged this issue to be addressed in the next software update. Paul.

No it's not been implemented yet, but it is now the top item on our todo list for the Frogs.

I don't recall this ever having been mentioned before, but the idea has merit so we'll log it so it doesn't get forgotten about: Frog Reference 5571 - Submaster flash buttons to activate LTP trigger regardless of submaster fader position. Implemented in version 10.9

At the moment you can only set the fade time using the pot on the front panel. To simply increase the maximum fade time on the pot would offer lower resolution, so it's not an ideal solution. It has been suggested (HERE) to allow numeric entry of fade times, so you could set both longer and more accurate fade times. This has been logged as a suggestion for a future software update: JES-515 - Numeric entry of fade times.

The USB memory stick needs to be formatted FAT16 or FAT32 to work in the Jester. As far as I know, this is the way USB memory sticks work regardless of what operating system you are running. But then I've never used a Mac, so I'm not sure what options it might offer you when formatting the memory stick.

Usually means the DRAM test failed at startup. You could try reseating the DRAM module inside the desk to see if that cures the problem, but other that that it's most likely to be a return to factory repair. Contact Keith (krogers@zero88.com) to arrange this, or to get a replacement motherboard sent out to you.