Jump to content
Vari-Lite Controls Support Forum

Fat frog causes dimmers to cut out!


MusicBoii05

Recommended Posts

Hi, recently when using my schools fat frog, dimmers on our rig just start flickering and sometimes cuts out completely, we have had our dimmer pack checked and tested all of our cables but the problem still happens, I have confirmed that it’s the fat frog as I have used computer software to control our lights on multiple occasions and had no problems.

i think it might be the battery as I don’t think it has ever been changed and we have had the desk since the late 90s (well I’m guessing as it have a floppy drive and vga), also the clock on the frog is always wrong and when I set it to the correct time it just goes back to 1/1/1652 

 

Am I right In thinking it’s the battery?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your lights flicker problem doesn't sound battery related (although the clock probably does). Good idea to change it though, follow these instructions:

 

Regards your light flicker, did you really test all of the cables? Did you use the exact same cables when using your PC software - i.e. take the DMX plug out of the back of the Frog and plug it into your PC DMX interface? Can you take the Frog to the dimmer room and use one *known good* DMX cable to plug into one of your dimmers and confirm the fault? If it's a Fat Frog or above have you tried both DMX outputs on the desk? Can you try in a different dimmers one-to-one?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, kgallen said:

Your lights flicker problem doesn't sound battery related (although the clock probably does). Good idea to change it though, follow these instructions:

 

Regards your light flicker, did you really test all of the cables? Did you use the exact same cables when using your PC software - i.e. take the DMX plug out of the back of the Frog and plug it into your PC DMX interface? Can you take the Frog to the dimmer room and use one *known good* DMX cable to plug into one of your dimmers and confirm the fault? If it's a Fat Frog or above have you tried both DMX outputs on the desk? Can you try in a different dimmers one-to-one?

 

I have used the same cables on both the desk and the computer and the problem only happens on the desk, I have noticed that when you go on the DMX outputs page that the DMX values do change when there are no cues or chasers going on

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello,

41 minutes ago, MusicBoii05 said:

I have noticed that when you go on the DMX outputs page that the DMX values do change when there are no cues or chasers going on

It sounds like there may be an issue with the faders. I would recommend dropping us an email to support@zero88.com, and we'll be able to advise on repair.

Edward

Edward Smith
Product Specialist

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah - Edwards right, it sounds like a fader dying - the clock issue is because of a dead battery but generally that's all it tends to affect aside from having to reload a show every time you power the desk on.

There's a self test internally that I'm sure Keith has told you about by now - that will help identify the suspects - perhaps some Servisol Super 10 sprayed minutely in to those suspects will help.

Ian Knight aka The Service Guy - www.serviceguy.co.uk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.