Releasing fixtures, general moving light help

[Rigorr]

ola,

I'm looking for some help with the movers I am using.

I am really hoping that the desk supports some feature like undo, or release for moving lights - ie: once I have moved/changed a position - releasing fixtures doesn't seem particularly straight-forward. I used home in conjunction with palette, but that clears, rather than undoes/removes changes.

 

Briefly: if I moved a mover from dark blue/triangle gobo to pink, home-colour sends my colour data to open, rather than back to dark blue.. This may not be so much of an issue with a colour wheel, but programming in partial mode, it means I have to find the cue where I changed colour, then individually go on every cue back to the one I am editing to get that colour back.I am sure there must be a short cut, but the manual is unclear and there is no index that can help me there.

 

Also, is there a goto feature that I am missing that will let me load a specific look (with movers) it seems when I go to a specific cue with the + / - and < > keys, I get the programmed values for that cue, rather than the global output; which seems nonsensical to me - and also means that moving lights are then typically in the wrong place.

 

I'm a bit surprised there isn't a condensed moving light help section here as well; the majority of posts here requesting help are mover related, and more in-depth instructions for using movers in the manual.Is there any plan to bring out auto-generated palettes at all? stuff like: gobos/generic colours in cmy or colour wheel positions/beam shapes/simple prism positions ? Even being able to load 1 fixture type with these would save time programming!

 

Is there any way for the programmer, or whatever the un-stored unrecorded values are in the desk to take precedence over what is recorded? For instance: going through a moving light cue, and a mover is up that shouldnt be: I need to edit the cue, then fade the mover out, then re-record the edited cue, rather than just fade out the mover on the desk. I can see this being problematic if I need to reset a mover mid-show, and I won't be able to stop it fading up, and gobo/prism/colour changing into position as I cannot take control of the dimmer ( although I guess I could close the strobe/mechanical dimmer, it seems like a massive back door to a simple problem)

 

editing memories: is there a function to enable keyboard entry? I tried multiple times to use the keyboard, but the only functions that worked were the arrow keys

 

Lastly, what is the fade time that affects pan and tilt? I have tried htp fade in and out, as well as ltp, and the pan/tilt fade times on my movers (tw-1s and mac 700s) consistently move in < 3 seconds. Does it take the value when programmed as a constant value, or can I change this?

 

 

 

Thanks in advance for any help, I know there are a lot of questions here~~

 

 

 

ok, some more trolling revealed that goto is quickest via an external keyboard

you can use an external keyboard...type the number of the memory then ENTER(keyboard) and then GO(desk)

still this doesnt put my movers in their global value, just the cue one.

[Paul]

I am really hoping that the desk supports some feature like undo, or release for moving lights.

The Frog series desks don't have a "go back to what it was doing before" or Release feature I'm afraid - this is something that is found on the newer Leapfrog48/96 and Frog2 desks though.

 

when I go to a specific cue with the + / - and < > keys, I get the programmed values for that cue, rather than the global output

You need to update your desk to the latest version (10.9) and enable Tracking to do this. See the release notes for further details.

 

Is there any plan to bring out auto-generated palettes at all?

This is unlikely to happen now on the Frog series, but is available on the Leapfrog48/96 and Frog2.

 

Is there any way for the programmer, or whatever the un-stored unrecorded values are in the desk to take precedence over what is recorded?

Again this can be done on the Leapfrog48/96 and Frog2, but not on the Frog I'm afraid.

 

editing memories: is there a function to enable keyboard entry? I tried multiple times to use the keyboard, but the only functions that worked were the arrow keys

If by this you mean does the desk have a syntactical command line, then the answer is no, but guess what, the Leapfrog48/96 and Frog2 do...

 

Lastly, what is the fade time that affects pan and tilt?

Pan/Tilt use the LTP Fade time, but you also need to make sure that Position is set to Fade(F) rather than Snap(S).

[Rigorr]

thanks for the info, I shall check the S / F paramaters, I have a feeling that overlooking this will probably be the cause of a few issues.

 

on a side note:

It seems like zero88 are just pushing for the frog 2 to be purchased rather than satisfy current customers :/

[Kirkup_xp]

Hi Riggor

 

I can assure you that we're not just pushing for the Frog 2 to be sold vs supporting existing customers - the original Frog range has had no less than 15 software releases through its lifetime, including a service release made after the product was discontinued and another in the pipeline at the moment. We reached the point under the original hardware platform where we could not expand the feature set without compromising the operation of the desk, both in terms of performance and usability. The features you are requesting have been included in the other products as a result of the feedback generated by both the original Frog range and ongoing feedback from these products.

 

I thank you for your suggestions and feedback and would seriously suggest you look at the new products, which feature all of the things you have asked for and many more.

 

Kind Regards,

[Rigorr]

fair enough; I honestly didn't realise that the series has been discontinued.