i have this problem on my Leap Frog 

when i turn off i lose sub master  memory  and date and time, but submaster memorized last year are yet present. Battery is new. If I try to re install OS the message is desk id is invalid. Running SETIDDSK, ID was set but trying to re install OS the message is the same. Help me please

Many thanks,

Paul

Documenting here a problem I had on my Fat Frog and the repair required. This can equally apply to other consoles in the Frog range - and in time possibly other consoles with faders.

Thanks to @Edward Z88 who provided support despite having moved on from Zero88 and @RJP for providing schematics.

The background:

I bought my Fat Frog new in 2006, so at this point it's 19 years old. It's largely in "as new" condition as I look after my kit. I've not used it regularly since 2015 when I bought my FLX, but it has had the odd outing, most recently in 2021. I've stayed on top of the CR2032 battery replacement and I'm blessed that the original floppy drive still works perfectly. All faders are still in pristine condition.

The issue:

This was an intermittent problem, so hard to narrow down. The usual range of channel intensity values shown on the Output Screen is 00-FF (FF in this case means "full" or 100%, not hexadecimal 0xFF). On occasion my console would only move from a low non-zero value, say 02 to 05 (percent) up to a maximum of around 94-98 (percent). I first saw this actually on the fixtures section with the thumb wheel (so not a linear fader), where the fixture intensity would only go up to 96%. Subsequent testing showed the same issue on the generics faders (including masters). Strangely this issue also showed when playing back a memory stack (where the memories had successfully been programmed with 100% intensity values).

You can enter test mode by holding the F1 key whilst powering up. In this mode, I could see the 8-bit values of the faders (all of them on the console) would only travel between about 0x05 and 0xFA rather than 0x00 to 0xFF.

OK, cut to the chase, what was the issue...

After some testing internally, it was identified that the reference voltage rail for the fader banks was sometimes low. This VREF should be around +5V with respect to its AGND. Practically it will be around +4.8V (and I determined that it should not go below +4V for correct operation). On occasion this reference voltage was measured as low as +2.8V and this is when the issue presented.

After quite some time this was tracked down to a failed 4.7uF/16V tantalum capacitor on the Submasters PCB that is used to decouple the VREF locally to this board. There is a similar capacitor on all of the boards with faders (or potentiometers) and they are all effectively in parallel across VREF/AGND, so a failure of any one of them would result in similar failure symptoms.

After removing the Submasters board it only took a couple of minutes to replace the capacitor. In this case I used a 4.7uF electrolytic, which is good enough in this application - and had to lay it down as it was slightly taller and would have fouled the front panel.

So far the issue seems resolved. Hope this might help others who may have a similar issue as our Froggy friends age more.

Note: Essentially the same circuit is used everywhere in Zero88 (and likely other brand) consoles for reading the faders. The faders, usually 10K, have a VREF at the top, a GND (0V) at the bottom and the wiper goes via some 4051 analogue muxes and finally feed into an ADC channel on an embedded micro.

Here are a couple of photos of the Submasters board and of the failed tantalum capacitor which is clearly discoloured brown when compared to similar components.

11, 6, 3 channel modes (40ch mode not coded).

WashFXHex.ift

I appreciate this is unsupported software/desk but as a small not-for-profit running fairly basic rigs and shows, we don't have the scope to upgrade yet for our relatively untrained users.  So any best-effort help is appreciated, and not taken for granted.

I can get desk firmware versions etc if needed.

Cheers

G-man

Museum of desks: Fat Frog, Frog, Alcora, Pearl Tiger II, Light Factory and a few more

I NEED OF MT4LSDT464AG-10EC6 PC100-222-620 32MB SYNCH 100MHZ CL2.

WHERE TO BUY?

THANK YOU

How to get a Leap Frog PSU?

Thank you

Checksum error when updating SO via USB to floppy converter. I loaded new fixture in the past via this adapter so I think it works.

Mother board broken?

Where repair in Italy?

there are 12 buttons to attribute to movers via profiles, is that all I can use or is there a banking system that I cant find/make work?

any help appreciated
thanks Dave

I recently bought a Frog desk but I can not get it to start up.

Upon turning it on, all the desk lights flash on then off, as I would expect, but then the display simplay says:

"BIOS V. 1.0

Checking for update"

And that's it.

It does nothing else.

I opened the back, have shceked for loose ribbon, pushed anything that may have shaken loose.

I checked the battery voltage which is fine.

There are 2 removable cards next to each other. (this is different to my other Frog which only has 1 card)

These are held in by clips. I took them out to check and one had some slight corrosion.

I cleaned up and reset the cards.

But still, the desk only says the same.

I have a floppy disk with the most updated software on it which worked fine on my other desk.

But this desk doesn't read it.

So, basically, nothing happens on start up and nothing has changed regardless of anything I have tried.

Is there anything else I can try or maybe there is somebody near Birmingham UK where I can take it for a once over.

Thanks in advance.

Liam

I've currently got 1 mover patched into and assigned as a fixture on the desk. I make that one do a movement effect, (ellipse) at a random speed and with the shutter open (at this point light is coming out of the lens). I program that into one of my submasters. 

Then all I want to do is to be able to program a shuttered strobe on one of my other submasters, but when the movement effect submaster is active, and I try to press the flash button to quickly strobe the fixture, the movement effect almost resets and then continues doing it's thing with the shutter strobing, but when I release the flash key it doesn't go back to the submaster that is currently up on the fader (which is running the movement effect with the shutter open) it instead latches and stays strobing and doing the movement effect.

All I want to know is how to quickly trigger the strobe via another submaster on it's flash key temporarily and then it goes back to the submaster fader that was originally on when I release the flash button, so it stops strobing and just goes to shutter open.

Is it something to do with HTP and LTP?

Thanks in advance! 

- Jake;

Any ideas where to get a spare part, board or complete wheel board cable?

Thanks Dave

how do I set the dmx address on the desk so I can set chases up on  sub masters to go above 48, need to

have several submasters with chases for up to dmx 248.

every time i change the dest settings in the super used it changes what i have already set to the submasters

I am obviously doing something wrong HEEEEEEEEELP Please pretty please

and I would like to try all 3 but just cant find them in either of the libries under adj or american dj

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks Dave

Best regards

I'm selling off our Fat Frog desk for parts. The processor died on it so we bought a new Solution desk to replace it. It's in good nick considering it's over 10 years old!

If anyone is interested please leave a comment here. The best offer gets it.

I wanted to give you guys a chance before putting it on eBay.

Regards

Leighton

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?

Many thanks for what is hopefully an easy solution! 

I recently bought a zero88 console on ebay (I think FAT frog).

The console doesn't boot up

disk drive doesn't make any sound

all led flashes once at power up

only LCD are on with displaying Frog 2005 zero88.support.com

Battery CR2032 was completely empty

I checked power supply +12v +5v and -12V are present.

Red led on mother board STMAIN 2 (EM7000) is on.

Voltages are present 2.5V and 3.3V

I removed the RAM and connectors to FDD but that doesn't change anything.

It seems that bios is defect.

The table is in perfect cosmetic shape and I would be very happy to be able to repair it to replace my old Zero88 alcora.

Any advice ? Ideas?

Is it a common failure on those consoles ?

THX

JP

Belgium

I have changed the battery and tried another power supply with no luck

connnected a monitor and the desk is outputing a black screen.

what can i do now? any ideas?

Can anyone help?

Sam

hope to hear from someone soon.

Rigo

UPDATE:  I'm pleased to say problem solved checked the DIP switch and one had been changed (found what they should be on the Forum - thanks)