Paul

On the manual patch screen, press the 'insert' button to add additional DMX addresses for a desk channel. Frog Series Manual Issue 5 - Page 6.7.

The feedback we got from the Sirius was that the fade times associated with a memory should be for the transition TO that memory, not for the transition FROM that memory. So we changed it.

The "fade up" time of a memory is the fade time for channels which are brighter in the incoming memory than they were in the outgoing memory. The "fade down" time of a memory is the fade time for channels which are dimmer in the incoming memory than they were in the outgoing memory. The "dwell time" is only relevant when the next memory has the trigger set to Auto. It is the time for which the memory is output (after completion of the fade up and fade down into the memory) before the fade into the next memory is triggered.

To give greater flexibility. The mode of each SX button (Flash / Go / Solo) is individually set. The submaster flash function applies to all submasters.

Yes there is a big difference to the 250! We used all the leasons learned from the 250/500 when designing the Frog series. The 250/500 were based around standard PC motherboards running MSDOS. In the Frog series, we've done away with that, and we have our own custom processor board running our own operating system. The single operating mode of the Frogs suits live operation very well. And the feature set, as you'll see from this forum, is constantly evolving. If there's something you want added to the desk, and there's enough popular support for it, it goes in! The wheels on the Frog have a more vigorous acceleration curve that the 250 (the movement is cubed rather than squared I think), so with a quick flick you get a big change, yet still having fine adjustment with slow movement. Oh, and if you like green, it looks really cool...!!

You might find that your fixtures can be told to go dark automatically while moving pan/tilt, colour wheels, gobos etc., simply by sending certain values on DMX channels. Have a thumb through the manual and see what they can do!

Can you email us the shows, so we can look into this? mailto:techsupp@zero88.com Thanks, Paul.

There is currently no live adjustment of chase speed. It's something we get a lot of stick for, and is hence on the list for consideration in future feature updates. It's actually not that straightforward, as in a Mambo Frog, you can have up to 74 chases running simultaneously! Which one(s) would you be adjusting??? Would the change be temporary or permanent? Would it apply to all instances of the chase? How could we incorporate a 'tap to set beat' feature? Our smaller desks (Elara, XL etc.) do have live chase speed adjustment, but then they only have 1 chase... From the Frog Manual: Vari - the chase runs at the programmed speed, with additional step triggers being provided by the bass beat of the incoming audio signal.

Blackout affects HTP channels only. Shutter/Iris are LTP channels (although if you're feeling brave and if you're very careful how you program your show, you can edit the fixture personalities to make them HTP!). We don't want to start introducing LTP behaviour into HTP controls, it gets very messy and confusing. It's what to go back to after the blackout that would cause all the difficulty here... If you've got lights which don't have a HTP dimmer channel, then what you need to do is record something on a sub which sets the requisite LTP parameters to blackout, then trigger that sub to blackout those fixtures. If you've got the fixture personalities set up right, then their HOME positions should strike the lamp. However every fixture type is different, and what you need to send them on what channels in what order to achieve a lamp strike/destrike has no common structure that could easily be supported by the desk. Fixtures often have configuration options to auto-strike the lamp at startup, and destrike after loss of DMX etc. However you'll probably need to dig out the instructions to find the secret sequence of 100 button pushes to get into the right menu to do this!

or autopatching selected channels or recording/playing back palettes or recording/playing back fixture groups... The intention is, that when you're setting scenes, you're looking at the stage, not the desk.

Try software version 7.5 (CLICK HERE). This has the video output refresh rate lowered from 75Hz to 70Hz, which should solve your problem. Frog Reference 5370 - fixed in Version 7.0.

Ah well, if you've got early iLight dimmers, then you might be in luck. Herein lies one of the mysterious differences between architectural (iLight) and entertainment (Zero 88) dimmers. Architectural stuff generally happens nice and slowly so as not to surprise anyone. Entertainment stuff is quite the opposite. Hence in an architectural dimmer, preheat would serve no useful purpose, as you don't often warm the bulbs up in a hurry. Architectural dimmers are generally switched on 24/7, and people expect them to give savings on their electricity bills. Preheat does exactly the opposite. iLight dimmers have no concept of preheat. Instead they have 'minimum level'. In early versions of the iLight dimmer firmware, if the control input was below the minimum level, then the output held at the minimum level, effectively a preheat. However, in more recent versions of the firmware, if the control input is below the minimum level, then the output is turned off. The 'minimum level' is only configurable from the iCAN network. There is no user interface adjustment like on most Zero 88 dimmers. To change this you will have to ask iLight to send out one of their nice friendly engineers to reconfigure your dimmers. See their smiling faces, along with the latest dimmer manuals, on http://www.ilight.co.uk On a related point, there's some discussion somewhere in another topic on this forum regarding topset. We've traditionally regarded preheat, topset, and laws as being dimmer functions rather than desk functions. Do you folks agree? Or is opinion shifting to regard these now as desk functions? Let us know what you all think! Cheers, Paul.

You're right - using another button to un-tag attribute channels from being recorded would sort out the problem of outputting 0 beforehand. Can't use the CLEAR button on it's own though, as you might be in the middle of doing something else where CLEAR should have another effect. Using F3 - aren't you all struggling enough already to remember what the function keys do? How about, whilst holding down COLOUR, BEAMSHAPE or POSITION, pressing CLEAR would un-tag all channels within that attribute? Would then be fairly consistent with partial homing, the current partial recording, fixture data copying, palettes and other similar functions. Channels would be automatically re-tagged by any of the following: - outputting a palette - moving a wheel - pressing the FROG button Where C - B - P are displayed on the monitor and LCD screens - should we do something like display the letter in lowercase c - b - p if not all channels within that attribute are recorded?

This would be a good way of telling the desk that you didn't want something recorded. However it might cause you problems when recording a look. The last thing that the desk output before the wheel was moved to '--' (signalling not recorded) would have been 0. Which depending on your fixture, could be lamp off, shutter closed, reset fixture or something else undesirable. When playing back the memory/submaster/sx/palette, agreed the channel would be ignored. However in the following situations, would you want channels flagged as '--' to assume their HOME positions instead: - When editing a memory/submaster/sx - When moving a wheel from any value to the '--' position ? Any comments anyone ?

"everythig should be as before pressing the button" This is not easy, because whilst the submaster flash button is pressed: - chases can be running from other sources - timed fades can be progressing from other sources - your other hand can be moving faders and pressing buttons You are talking about a new type of mixing which is neither conventional HTP nor LTP. It is priority based mixing, which would be extremely difficult to define to every users satisfaction.

We have seen reliability problems with some Panasonic disk drives that were used in early desks. All new desks now ship with Teac/TDK disk drives, the changeover occurred around the middle of 2001. The serial number of your desk indicates it was manufactured before this time. Release 7.5 includes a change in the low level disk access routines, to speed up disk access. It might be that this speed up has aggrevated a problem with your drive. Try opening up your desk, and swapping the disk drive for anything that wasn't made by Panasonic. This should fix your problem!

Can you let us know the serial number of your desk please. Cheers, Paul.

Release 7 (out soon, honest) has direct numeric entry from the external keyboard, which is even better!

To get the 16-bit value, you have to multiply the 8-bit 'course' value by 256, then add the 8-bit 'fine' value. e.g. for 128-07, the value to enter is (128*256)+7 = 32775. You can import fixtures from the library. First create a new fixture using the fixture type editor (File-->New). Magically another option then appears in the File menu (File-->Import Fixture Type). This allows you to see everything about everything in the library! Hope this helps!

It's a good idea, how did we miss this? You're right, it would make the desk a lot nicer to use live. If this had come up a few weeks ago it could have been sneaked into release 7. As it is, it will have to wait for the next round of functional updates - keep telling our Sales chaps & chapesses how many more desks you'll buy when we do it! Release 7 might go some way to helping you, as it has partial partial memories, so you can put just colours on submasters for example.

We're only going to play that game if you show us your off-line editors first! What would be interesting is if someone who's already done one of those 3rd party off-line editors wanted to add import/export filters for Frog shows. So you had one tool for multiple desks, and could (within limits) swap your shows between them.. Now would that sell more desks or less desks? Ummm....

It is a bit of a long way out sometimes isn't it... Super User --> Desk Setup --> Patch Functions --> Auto Patch --> All/Selected If there were a quick escape function, which button would it be on? How many levels would it take you back up in the menu system? What would happen to the "Are you sure? Yes/No" warnings along the way that give you a chance to bail out if you've done something terrible?

Partial partial recording and improvements to the movement effects will be in release 7, currently undergoing beta testing. Watch the release notes section for further news. If you hunt around this forum, you'll see mention of your other suggestions too. Features get added according to the results of a clapometer style popularity contest, so get everyone you know with a Frog onto this forum supporting your cause! We like suggestions which contain phrases like "I'd buy 10 times as many, including dimmers to go with them, if it did..." !!

Sounds like you have the colour/beamshape/position actions set to FADE rather than SNAP in your memory. Change to SNAP for an instant transition when you raise the submaster. Because the fixtures do not have physical faders assigned to their brightness channels, they have 'virtual presets' instead. This is what you adjust with the brightness wheel. You need to remember to dim out these 'virtual presets' on the fixtures after programming a memory or submaster, otherwise they'll override (Highest Takes Precedence mixed) effects you're trying to play back from the submasters and memory stack.

Kresten, Looks like the name strings from the fixture data have become corrupted. Please can you save your show to disk and email it to us, so that we can try and work out what's happened. (The fixture data will be saved as part of the show file). mailto:techsupp@zero88.com. Thanks! Paul.