iank99

Chris - email me iank*AT*centraltheatresupplies.co.uk - I can help with schematics away from here - Ian.

Strangely I was only doing some training on a Jester last week and spent about 5 minutes telling folk how to mind the Blackout key - it always causes much hilarity but most of our support calls are from folk who don't realise what the key does aside from flashing it's LED at them The action of the key on Strand GeniusPro desks (certainly the 430 and 500 series) used to be defineable to Blackout, stop or do nothing but I'm not sure that it doesn't make things complicated internally to offer the switching ('Stop' was supposedly to bring things like movers and scrollers to a halt as well). Personally I prefer the 'big sign' approach - when the key is pressed, a window overlay appears on the cue stack monitor and on the output LCD windows that says 'Blackout' (I think I saw this on one desk - can't remember which) - there's no mistaking then what's happening. I know accidental presses of the key are a pain but there have been times when I've been grateful the key is active - along with one occasion when I scrabbled to make it active because I'd turned it off

It sounds like it may be the IPL - I'm not sure if the IPL test in SuperUser is "reliable" apart from sensing that there's data happening on the line. I'd be looking at the molex connectors that take the IPL on to the slave card and check that the cables are pushed home so the IDC teeth are doing their job and also that they're on the right way round (if you've had the cards out you may have disconnected them and not realised they're polarity conscious). I would also snag a copy of the Sirius IPL fitting instructions from the download area (PM me if you can't find it) and check you have all the IPL cables in the right place. IPL runs through the DMX I/F if fitted as well - again I can't remember if there's a distinct order to those cables. Is the Desk outputting via DMX or analogue? For the GM to be working, it might suggest that some data is getting through but I'd be surprised if it was consistent enough to control the analogue outputs whereas the DMX card (which sits on the IPL) may just be "commanded" to bring all outputs to Zero via the GM. I suspect it's not a terminal fault from the way it gradually happened (the Sirius is built like a battleship after all!) but something that has happened as you've re-assembled the desk.

From experience - are you using the same cable to connect your Sirius as the Jester? We've come across some installations in the past where there's been a 'special' cable which was pin inverted or non-standard wiring... Some Pulsar installations use the shield of the XLR's as ground too but this might indicate a 'special' cable involved. It would also be worth checking the Chilli's to see if there's any patching going on as well - some installations use it with multiple spaces to do channel allocations 'correctly' Without being next to it, DMX problem solving is going to be long winded...

Hire prices are tricky to set - our Level 12DMX goes for £25 for a 10 day hire week. We hold on to it because it's a basic 2 preset desk and we don't have analogue input racks in hire anymore - we moved to Beta 3's a few years back. Cable pin outs for Strand desks to Beta's are standard but do bear in mind that both racks need to be set to negative desk supply if you're using fully wired cables - internal fuses will pop otherwise. For the same reason, fit the finger plate on the Beta's that covers the polarity switch - I've had several calls over the years where fingers have wandered to make the nasty red LED change colour to a "nicer green"

Sounds like it could be the battery failed - if your desk doesn't have a VGA connector then it's likely that it's an early MK1 in which case it will be a soldered in NimH rechargeable. If you feel confident enough to open the desk and put a voltmeter across the battery (it's obvious which is the battery) then you should get a reading of 3.6v or more - usually about 3.9v. You can swap the battery yourself but the mainboard has to come out of the desk and you need to be careful removing the battery as the through plate solder connections can easily be damaged - RS or CPC will sell you the battery. Otherwise your local Zero88 repair centre should be able to do the repair for you. Whilst you have the desk open also check that the RAM stick is seated firmly in it's socket - I've never known one come loose because of the retaining clips, but there's always a first time

You could buy a DMX Merge and use the Fat Frog to control the fixtures and the Frog the generics - oh wait Glad the cables helped Peter!

Peter - found the cables - eMail me a postal address to iank*at*centraltheatresupplies.co.uk and I'll stick them in a Jiffy bag and post em to you.

I've not seen inside many 'small' Frogs to be honest - we mostly sold Fat Frogs and get them in for service hence my memory playing tricks! If it's some cables you need - can you give me until tomorrow to have a look through my odds & sods? I know I stripped a Fat Frog for spares a couple of years back but I can't remember if I kept the cables - I'll need to root through my bits and pieces BUT I'm out onsite today with Keith. If I have them around - then you're welcome to them to try! Battery changes on the Mark 1's were fun - always insisted they come here to be done on the bench rather than onsite

From memory - because the same mainboard was used for all variations on a Frog - when inside a Frog one of the headers that feed the front panel was vacant (Header C I think). If the mainboard was inside a Fat Frog the last header is also used.

I might be wrong but I think I read elsewhere here that for older Frog 2's the preferred update method was to use the CD Installer Version of ZerOS - presumably because there are 'wrinkles' in the older hardware that corrupt a USB stick installation. Here we go - found the topic http://zero88.com/forum/topic/6603-77-failed-to-install/#entry25981

The firmware updates are available on this site under the consoles section http://www.zero88.com/software/zeros/index.shtml There's also an Acrobat/PDf file that describes the procedure for creating the USB image needed to perform the update.

When you say "both of them blink to off and back to original valve just once or twice then holds" - is that when you first power the racks up or when they've been powered and then a desk connected and DMX sent to them? Is it the front panel LED's that blink or lanterns/loads you have connected to channels - I'm trying to establish whether the rack is responding to DMX and controlling power or just doing nothing. I suspect that you'll end up taking the racks to a Zero88 service centre to be looked at but before you do - ensure that they're comfortable with repairing BetaPack 2's. Beta 2's were discontinued a while ago and some people aren't that happy with repairing them and would rather repair Beta 1's

Most people have access to a computer with an internet connection, so the Upgrade is downloaded on that computer and then copied to a USB memory stick to upgrade the desk with. The desk doesn't need (or shouldn't have) an internet connection per se - whilst there is an Ethernet/RJ45 connector on the rear panel it's there solely to connect to equipment that allows you to drive multiple universes of DMX.

Is that story you keep promising to tell me about Jon and the blow up sheep?

My only questions is - am I missing anything juicy happening in the Beta Forum?

This sounds more like a mains supply problem - I'd be checking the earth for the sockets supplying the demux, desk and then the power supply to the rack to ensure they're all on the same earth. It's not unknown for unpredictable behaviour like this to be caused either by excessive noise on the earth - which confuses the DMX transceivers or for the Earth at one end to actually be a few volts higher than the other because of a faulty appliance elsewhere. The faulty appliance may not even be some of your equipment either You also don't say what sort of lengths of cable your data cables are and whether you have a terminator fitted. It's possible if they're long or tortuous cable runs that a terminator may bring them back under control. It's time to start a gradual 'tear down' and re-instate of the mains for the installation and looking at that rather than the kit connected to it.

I'm not sure you can access more channels directly - otherwise there'd be no sales of Jester 24/48's There's possibly a workaround as you say but it will be fun if the school decides to buy LED PAR's and use those as well - it might get dirty very quickly. It's a shame they got rid of the Illusion so quickly - I have one here that we keep for emergencies (we sold 2 or 3 to customers) but then it's often the way in Schools.

I can understand your frustration and the problem may well be the difference between the two mainboards used in desks of that vintage. I doubt very much that there's any sort of retrofit to be done with the 2001 desk short of finding a late model mainboard from a scrap desk and transplanting it - at least then the hardware in each would be the same vintage. In the cold light of day though - it's a 12 year old desk - certainly in accountancy terms, it has no 'book' value and whilst it's still working fine doing it's job - you do find it difficult to say "Sorry old friend - time to replace you..." I suspect though that this is where the story will ultimately end, in the same way that it did for floppy drives in PC's.

Check the front panel screws... There's one on each side cheek of the rack that secures the front panel to the dimmer - the screws that do this are different lengths and the shorter one needs to be inserted at the end where the test buttons and DMX card are located. What mostly happens is someone takes the screws out (for one reason or another) and reinserts them the wrong way around - the long screw pierces and damages the 5v track on the DMX I/F so the rack can't decode the DMX. You need to disassemble the rack and pop the test PCB section out and patch the tracks on the DMX I/F - whilst you have the test PCB out, check the analogue and DMX PCB for dry joints (especially around the molex connectors that connect the two cards together). If this all sounds a bit beyond you - then your local repair centre (or me) could do this for you for about the cost of 1 hours labour at most.

Having used Strand 430 and Genius Pro quite a bit - and supporting Frogs & Illusions for a while, Auto Move While Dark is very handy when plotting a theatre show with intelligent heads and saves headaches for desks ops - and I've done my share of badgering Zero for the facility (ahem!). I hear the point about subs & chases but then if I'm programming a series of cues for a performance I won't need to access the fixtures from a submaster - if they're in a chase then I'll take pot luck and plot a 'dark' cue in to bring back to the point where I next want to use them in a cue.