kgallen

You create a chase on a fresh playback. Then you trigger and release that chase playback from cues in your main cue stack. To be able to get at states in your chase you use SHIFT-Playback GO to get to the state you want to edit without the chase running on. Then you edit the state using UPDATE as you would any other cue. https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/cues-playbacks/chases

The AI overview on search term ‘what is a transmission line in digital signalling’ seems pretty good. It has characteristic impedance and signal termination sections. Sorry to the OP, we’ve probably gone a bit over board now! 🤓

Actually in audio the shell shouldn’t be connected to pin 1 either. Pin 1 is signal ground, shell is chassis ground and they aren’t the same thing as they deal with different types of interference (electrical, magnetic). https://www.ranecommercial.com/legacy/note165.html

For analogue audio cables, the impedance is not really an issue because the signal frequencies involved are very low. For digital signals the edge rate is very important and the capacitance of the cable has a big effect on this. Even for DMX at 250kbit/s the required frequency components can be well into the megahertz. Analogue audio cables of any appreciable length as can be found in DMX runs will severely attenuate the high frequencies required to convey a digital signal properly. For a digital signal like DMX, the cable acts like a ‘transmission line’ (Google that). That’s why we use terminators.

An ohmmeter won’t help you. The cables don’t have a different dc resistance they have a different ac impedance. The most practical way to tell is from markings on the sheath of the cable that will tell you it’s ’DMX’ or ‘digital’ cable maybe. If it says ‘microphone cable’ it’s not really for DMX use. You can use ‘DMX cable’ for microphones but ideally not ‘microphone cable’ for DMX. (My response coincided with David’s posting, I’ll read that now!).

@Davidmk unless the desk is continually rebooting due to intermittent power I doubt such a fault would only affect the LCDs. Happy to be proven wrong!

If you have no luck elsewhere, it's probably worth posting on the Blue Room too as there will be a lot of these desks (and the others I list) out in the wild. https://www.blue-room.org.uk/forum/2-lighting/

You were possibly referring to a post on here or the Blue Room by our good friend Ian Knight @iank99. Unfortunately Ian is no longer with us and I don't know what happened to what would have been an extensive stock of new and used Zero88 spare parts. If anyone reading this knows if that stock was salvaged and can be purchased, then it would be useful to make this community aware.

There's a non-gen one here. Can't vouch for it though (one user commented "don't work"): https://ultralightsound.co.uk/product/replacement-power-supplies-for-zero-88-desks/ I find this thread but the other two supplier links (10-out-of-10 and Stage Gear don't work any more). This page has the part number, which might be useful in searches as the same PSU is used by: Illusion, Jester, Juggler, Leap Frog 48/98, Solution in addition to the Frog series: https://www.vari-lite.com/global/products/frog-series#_spareparts There is this non-gen (maybe a ULS one): https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/316738459895 There's a Jester thread here: https://www.blue-room.org.uk/topic/75786-zero88-jester-power-supply/ The OEM model number seems to be SPU41-13D-1 but having a google, other output connectors can be used. I suspect the Frog only uses the +5V with +12V only for the lamp; I suspect -12V isn't used.

Ok good stuff. If I have a few spare moments some time (when it’s not sunny!) I might have a bash at building fixture definitions. I’ll post here if/when I do. Feel free to remind me if you need them!

I’ve been having a look around the manuals/forum (without much success/clarity). This post seems to essentially confirm what you observed earlier - 16-bit dimming was added for ZerOS. I assumed, but not it seems, that my Fat Frog would support 16 bit dimming as I have fixtures defined as such. Seems I must be wrong as this thread was about Frog range. I would have thought however that Jester TL would do full 8-bit dimming rather than percentage, but again this seems maybe contrary to your earlier observations. This does bemuse me, because of course the processor is working in binary (and I very much doubt they went to the pain of using BCD!).

I’m not sure if this would help but might be worth a play, if Jester supports Virtual Dimmer. Define a beamshape or position (something that will support 16 bit parameters) onto the channels that the fixture uses for MSB:LSB intensity, then a define a Virtual Dimmer then scale that 16 bit parameter with Virtual Dimmer. I wonder if that might be a method to get you better control at the bottom end. Might not work as a scale on a 16 bit value but as you seem up for a few wacky trials, might be worth a play.

I don't see the ETC Colorsource V Zoom PAR listed either here: https://vari-lite.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/software-firmware/ZerOS-Library-4.5-RigSync-Support.csv or here: https://vari-lite.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/software-firmware/ZerOS-Library-4.5-List-of-Fixtures.csv which must mean it's not in the library and one reason why RigSync has not been able to patch the fixture, and has thus made a "bad stab" at creating one. Probably the RDM data just identifies intensity and non-intensity (I don't know) so the console has put most things as a Beam parameter (we historically put arbitrary control channels under Beam(shape) when there wasn't a better attribute, i.e. not colour or position). What would I do... I'd write my own fixture profile, and I can do that for you (if you're not otherwise au-fait with the Fixture Tools) if you can point me at the pdf for the fixture and tell me which modes are your priority.

Hi Do you know the fixture will actually dim to/from zero smoothly? I have lots of different LED fixtures and only the most expensive (some Philips/Selecon fixtures) even remotely dim ‘smoothly’ to/from zero, and even then not as good as tungsten. Try patching the two intensity channels onto two faders patched as dimmers and see if the LSB fader gives you a smooth fade to/from zero. Commercial manufacturers are never going to release the source code of their products. It’s their IP and they wouldn’t want the bad press or support burden of scores of amateur hacked branches of code being out in the wild. The Fixture Software giving a warning about intensity being a WORD is normal and is a useful confirmation.

Hi @alg A fixture listed in red in the Fixture Schedule means "not a library fixture" which usually means a fixture created by the user in the Fixture Tools (so I have a lot of fixtures listed in red as I write pretty much all of my own fixture definitions). But possibly it means a fixture created by the user on the on-console fixture create utility. Possibly, and more likely in your case, is the fixture identified by RigSync is not defined in the library and the console has put together a fixture definition based on the information it has obtained from the fixture using RDM (=RigSync). This information is possibly incomplete, erroneous or RigSync has interpreted it incorrectly. For whatever reason, the fixture has become patched with a profile that does not correctly define it. Can you unpatch them and patch them manually using a fixture profile from the on-console library? Or find a fixture definition for a similar ETC fixture? This may or may not be your long-term solution, but at this point it's really to help debug what's going on. I don't know if you have physical access to the fixtures to play with DMX addresses and modes.