Davidmk

Should have updated with results. Sorry. I replaced the fader and found that the ribbon cable was missing clips. Made sure the ribbon connectors were properly in (although not clipped) before closing up. The fault seemed fixed although it did re-occur. Lent it to a local AmDram with a warning about the fault. Even with the fault the monitor shows the correct information so they were happy enough and after the show they bought the desk for what I'd spent on it (no charge for time). It did go on to have issues with faders (also intermittent). Still think it's the ribbon cable. The AmDram's tech's dad is an electronics engineer so left it with them. Not heard since.

There is an oddity with the FLX grand master (and inhibit masters) in that they do not take effect until they have been taken to full from zero. If you turn on an FLX with the master physically at full then the first time you bring it down nothing happens. Pull it down to zero, put it back to full and it will work. If the fader needs attention (doesn't go to FF in test mode) it will never work (because you can't take it to full). Not saying this is the problem here but you do need to eliminate it.

I have been doing what you describe. It does work for me but there are limitations. The first is that you cannot separate speed and size. When you use the fader to control FX it has to control both speed and size. The second is that for most of the faders travel you don't get a visible effect just a messy mixture of colours until the fader reaches about 75% and the speed/size has to be adjusted in the last 25% I don't use colour mixing faders though - my colours are set by a playback with a cue for each colour and I use OSC to trigger the cue for the colour I want.

@Phil Kiernan How did you hear about this? It passed me by. Not that I care much, I didn't upgrade to 8.0.0 and probably won't risk 8.0.1. @kgallenI'm going shopping for ChamSys once the new tax year starts.

Going back a version shouldn't give any problems with the desk however you do, obviously, lose any new features and there is, potentially, a risk that your show files do not load. In practice, if you haven't used any of the new features, these probably won't bother you, 7.14.4 was the final release for the legacy desks (Frog2, LeapFrog, Solution, Orb) - You don't want this version. You want 7.14.3 for FLX & FLX S and the main difference is that you will go back to a maximum of 48 fixtures and fewer playbacks. Make sure you backup you v8 showfile. If you have used fixture numbers or playback numbers greater than the v7 limits then edit your show file to fit v7 and back that up to load after installing v7 The beta test forum for the new version (currently known as v8.0.0 build 11) seems to have been greeted with general apathy, possibly explained by being released when pantomimes are prevalent. There are no new new features and it consists of bug fixes for live version (v8.0.0 build 8). I don't know why other testers have failed to respond - for myself, I'm a full FLX and LeapFrog user and I'm not very interested in the newer versions now that FLX S has become the focus - I prefer to stick with v7 for now but might make a move to Chamsys. There has only been one tester response. This may have been on an FLX S and was favourable but did not cover any programming functions.I suspect FLX S users are under represented among beta testers.

@drscoop If you need this then using the same address is not possible. (Well, it is if you arrange the colour rolls appropriately but that would be a faff and still might be impractical.) @kgallen, as always, makes a good point but wouldn't keeping the dummy fixtures dark just mean that they skip straight to the last state in the cue list? Surely the dummies need to follow the real fixtures. Maybe they should be added to the same desk channel as the dimmer?

Is there a problem putting the pairs of scrollers on the same address?

@Archie D @Simonkbike Very thorough response as always Archie. If I've missed this in your post I apologise but I'd suggest ch1 should have a default value somewhere between 240 and 255. This is because my reading of the chart suggests this will be needed to make the virtual dimmer work.

@kgallen The only thing I can think of is adding to the release playback (Rx) in the cue macros to allow release cue (Rx/y). Not hopeful it will happen because it would probably involve a lot to implement it.

@Sol That seems a nice idea but ye "Cannae change the laws of physics" (or LTP). If you did then everything else would break. @kgallen @Archie D Opinions on that?

@Sol That seems a nice idea but ye "Cannae change the laws of physics" (or LTP). If you did then everything else would break. @kgallen @Archie D Opinions on that?

@kgallen No worries. My post offered no more than a hint, you went further and @Archie D has gone right into the detail. I think, between us, we've covered this at every level.

@kgallen @Sol This is what I was hinting at in my response. Great minds eh? It would be good to have a solution because it would look good and, with the variable background colour, so useful for busking. The other way, using a modified sparkle (or other effect) wouldn't be the same and you couldn't use tap tempo to set the speed.

This is a tricky one. Some years ago I attempted the same thing without much success. The problem is that you are fighting the principles of Last Takes Precedence. When you set the background rainbow that state is "last", if you then set another state (without removing the old one by lowering the background fader) that becomes "last" and remains in control as long as the fader is up. When you lower the new states fader (and as long as Release On Lower is on for that playback - this is the default) it releases that state and the background state becomes the "last" (unreleased) state. This rule applies to chases as well so, as each step executes, it sets a fixture to white and it remains white until the chase fader is lowered and the all steps in it are released. This means that the fixtures turn white and stay that way until they are all white. Normally each step in a chase (e.g. a red/white one) each step sets the new fixture to white and returns the previous (or all other) fixtures to red. But you can't do this because you want the colour from the old state and you don't know what that might be. Your issue then is how to release previous steps in the chase when the next step is executed. Things you can try... You can release things from a step, see Cue Settings -> Cue Macros in the manual https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/cues-playbacks/cue-settings/cue-macros but I think this only works for playbacks not steps in them. Perhaps you could make a chase that triggers a different playback in each step? You could modify a Sparkle effect. You can only do this on an FLX so you'd have to set it up on Phantom ZerOS and then try running it on FLX S. See the manual at https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/effects/waveforms. This is probably your best bet - unless someone else has a good idea. I'll be watching this thread as it's something I'd like to achieve but no longer have the will or time to spend on it.

@kgallen @scottydog75 Well yes, but in a show situation, when you discover your hazer (or anything else) has been caught in cues, you can quickly set up an inhibit to get you through the performance.