Keyboard Cursor Navigation

[cliverh]

As a newbie to Fat Frogs, I too was confused by the how the arrows keys on an external keyboard navigated around the monitor screen and looked around the Frog Support forum to see this series of postings on this subject.

 

Has anything been done to have an option (say) to re-map the keys so that the up and down keys go up and down the screen and the left and right keys to left and right?

 

Forgive me if this has been discussed / solved elsewhere - just point me in that direction please.

 

There was a Frog Reference 5419 mentioned. Is this a job reference to upgrade the software?

 

Thanks :?

[Halo_djk]

While typing names for items we found that the left, right cursor keys (EG left right arrow keys) change the character insted of moving the cursor like it should. the Up Down keeys move the cursor instead.

 

An easy fix for this is just to swap the up/down functions with the left/right functions so left right moves the cursor, and up/down changes the character.

 

I also found the Backspace key does not work, and pretty sure the DEL key does not to but cannot confirm that. I just remeber that I had an aweful time trying to fix my rotton typing errors!

 

(Mambo Frog)

[Paul]

Frog Reference 5400 - Allow additional characters when naming items; Backspace and Delete keys should also work in text editing via external keyboard.

[Halo_djk]

Thakyou, I love the support here! 8)

[pscandrett]

Hi

 

Me again :-) I'll be going on a frog training day some time soon, honest - but in the meantime I'm struggling by :-)

 

I've been using my mambo frog for quite a while now for rock/pop style gigs where I've been mostly busking the show - which I know isn't terribly exciting but I've learned a lot.

 

However, the show I'm programming at the moment has a fair few theatrical moments (if you see what I mean) and so I'm using the memory stack for the first time beyond a few chases.

 

I've got a VGA monitor and keyboard out for this because I was particularly getting confused about the fade up/down times and which cue they related to! Similarly, the 'current' and 'next' memories are confusing me a bit (specifically if I want to overwrite or edit a memory which one am I overwriting?!) but I can work through it. I'm not quite there but I'll get there.

 

So... here's my 'how do I' questions. I can't find much in the manual for these, but I may well be being thick!

 

Firstly, I thought the external keyboard would make life easier but it itself is taking a lot of getting used to - notably, the up/down keys and left/right keys seeminly being backwards on the memories screen. Is there any reason why it behaves like this? Could the external keyboard/VGA monitor's navigation be more like, say, traversing a spreadsheet?

 

Anyway, here's the how do I... how do I page up/page down/jump to a particular memory in my memory stack? I'm finding it very irritating (not to say fairly slow) scrolling through all my memory cues using the up/down (or is that left/right?!). Is there any reason why pageup/down doesn't jump, say, 10 cues up/down? What about a direct link to something (eg type alt-25 to jump to cue 25?).

 

Anyway, the other thing is... deleting a memory. How do I delete a memory? Not the whole lot (which you can do from superuser) and not a step of a chase, but an individual memory that one is perhaps not using any more? I can clear it I think but I'm not sure that that deletes it (if you see what I mean).

 

Finally... is there a more efficient way of doing states with movers than encoding a cue-before-the-actual-cue to move the fixture to where it's about to be used with the right gobos etc before actually bringing up the light with the brightness control/shutter in the actual cue? (Does that even make sense?) I've had a couple of cases already where I've had to work around because the movers (mac 250s in this case) have got a bit enthusiastic when moving to another position - the shutter doesn't come in fast enough before the gobos/colour wheel changes/the light moves ready for its next cue... the only way round this I've had so far is to have another cue where there is an explicit shutter-in, then doing the move etc in another cue. Am I missing something very obvious here?

 

Many thanks

 

Peter

 

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[Paul]

I'm finding it very irritating (not to say fairly slow) scrolling through all my memory cues using the up/down (or is that left/right?!). Is there any reason why pageup/down doesn't jump, say, 10 cues up/down? What about a direct link to something (eg type alt-25 to jump to cue 25?).

If the cursor is on the 'Next' memory field, then you can type the next memory number in from the external keyboard (press Enter to complete). In the next software release, pressing Enter a second time from the external keyboard will Go to that cue. Unless Scroll Lock is on, in which case the additional keyboard Go function will be inhibited. Watch this space...

 

Anyway, the other thing is... deleting a memory. How do I delete a memory?

Hold the clear button for about 1s. This is to prevent accidental hits from wiping memories.

 

Finally... is there a more efficient way of doing states with movers than encoding a cue-before-the-actual-cue to move the fixture to where it's about to be used with the right gobos etc before actually bringing up the light with the brightness control/shutter in the actual cue?

This function is called Auto-Move-While-Dark, and is not something currently supported by the Frog series desks.

[pscandrett]

I'm finding it very irritating (not to say fairly slow) scrolling through all my memory cues using the up/down (or is that left/right?!). Is there any reason why pageup/down doesn't jump, say, 10 cues up/down? What about a direct link to something (eg type alt-25 to jump to cue 25?).

If the cursor is on the 'Next' memory field, then you can type the next memory number in from the external keyboard (press Enter to complete).

Ah, OK - I thought I'd tried that but ended up renumbering a memory at one point (but this was whilst I was still playing around). Incidentally - is there an easier way of naming a memory than pressing F2, memory, then the number etc on the main frog desk? Could the 'name' of the memory be navigable-to on the VGA screen along with all the other parameters?

 

[Deleting a memory...] Hold the clear button for about 1s. This is to prevent accidental hits from wiping memories.

 

Ok, thanks, will play tomorrow.

 

This function is called Auto-Move-While-Dark, and is not something currently supported by the Frog series desks.

 

Righty ho, thanks (particularly for your prompt reply!)

[cherowbrier]

Alot of movers have a blackout whilst moving option.

 

In the Macs I think putting the position effects speed to 100% will do so, check the Martin manual.

[Paul]

Could the 'name' of the memory be navigable-to on the VGA screen along with all the other parameters?

Only fields which are directly editable on the LCD display are navigable to using the cursor keys. The idea is that the desk can be used without the external monitor. Names were meant to be an optional feature only to be used with the monitor. However you can see the Submaster / SX names on the relevant LCD displays. I think there used to be a spare line there once, so the name went in it. Not so on the Memories screen though. And as for the palette screens, which only exist on the external monitor... Anyhow I digress...

 

If you press F2 to name, and then hit Memories, the default memory number shown is what you had previously selected as your 'Next' memory. So you just need to do the navigation before the naming. Simple

[pscandrett]

Ok, thanks all.

 

One other thing... is is possible to record a chase onto a memory? I know you can /create/ a memory as a chase and that's what I've been doing, but if I've got a state where, for example, a chase is running on one submaster and a few other submasters are up too, and I want to record that into a memory, it only appears to record the instantaneous state of the chase at the time I hit 'record'. I think I read something about this somewhere - that this is the 'right' behaviour - but I can't see a way of effectively combining memories together.

 

Failing that (and the answer's probably no), can one run two memories in the stack simultaneously (from the go button?) without resorting to submasters? If so, I could have a chase memory and a scene memory playing back at the same time...

 

Thanks!

[sp]

This has been mentioned many a time, and basically, the answer is no. If you had a scene and you wanted a chase as well, you could create the chase, whilst having the scene on every step. This is, of course, just one chase, no more.

 

The only thing I've ever thought of is putting in the memory's name field a little note to say, "Stick subs 2-4 up." - clearly not ideal as you want the desk to start and stop the chases itself with the scene.

 

It's not possible to run two memories in the stack simultaneously.

 

sp

[pscandrett]

This has been mentioned many a time, and basically, the answer is no.

 

Ok, thanks for that.

 

Sorry for not reading the forums closely enough and going over well-trodden ground.

 

Peter

 

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[sp]

Sorry for not reading the forums closely enough and going over well-trodden ground.

 

No problem at all. I for one find searching the forums really time consuming, and very often fruitless - people use different terms for the same thing, spelling mistakes, confusing topic titles etc.

 

sp