Fat Frog Help

[cutlunch]

Hi This is an after the show is over question but I thought I would like to know the answer question for future reference.

I did a school show last year and they had a Fat Frog, a board which I hadn't used before.

The question is about programming cues. We landed up plotting during a full rehearsal, as you do at schools. The problem was once a cue was saved it seemed to completely take over the board. If I wanted to change only one light I couldn't. In the end to get around it we had to save the cue then run a blackout cue then we could enter new lights.

What was I doing wrong? A teacher who had done lighting there before said they had the same thing.

I am use to the strand boards where after saving a cue you can alter any light setting you want. At this point the cue isn't live but you know it will look the same as what you had up when you recorded it.

Was I doing something wrong or is this just how Fat Frogs work.

Thanks for the help.

[Flyboy]

I am a complete nerd when it comes to board programming, and after reading your post (having never heard of this board in my life) I downloaded the offline editor and user's manual. I've only been playing with the board for a couple of hours, but I was able to get it to edit scenes both live and blind. The editing capabilities of this board are indeed limited, and accessing them takes quite a bit of jumping through hoops.
In order to access the editing mode, you must first be in the Memories viewing mode. Whatever scene you are playing back at the moment will be displayed in the Current: field. In order to edit that same scene, you must select that scene in the Next: field (whatever scene appears in that field will be the edited scene). Then press the Edit button to the right of the programmer. This activates Live Editing Mode. The LCD should show which Memory you are editing followed by two columns: Channel, and Level(%). To edit you can either select the channel's level via the (^) and (v) keys, then adjust the level setting via the (+) and (-) keys. You can only edit one channel at a time this way. Or you can hold down the flash button of the channel you wish to change while moving its respective fader. NOTE* The channel will not actually edit until you have moved the fader (while holding the flash button) through the existing programmed level. Once you have moved through the level, you can proceed to adjust upwards or downwards as needed. The desk recognizes its 48 desk channels as HTP faders, which means that if you move the fader above the existing level (without holding the flash button), it will output onstage; it will not, however, edit anything, even if you are in Editing Mode.
Editing fixtures is much easier. Simply choose your scene, go into Editing mode, then capture whichever parameters you need to change. One thing to keep in mind while doing this: in Full Mode all attributes of fixtures will be edited into the Memory, in Partial Mode only the attributes you chose will be edited in.
To enter Blind Mode, simply press the Preview button before pressing the Edit button. Editing is done the exact same way as Live Mode.
Once you have completed editing the preset, press the Edit button again. The LCD will prompt asking if you are sure you want to save the changes, select and choose "Yes." If the scene you were editing was also the Current: scene, it should change as soon as you confirm the update.
You can get a copy of the manual at http://support.zero88.com/main/en/product/9

[cutlunch]

Thanks Flyboy for tasking the trouble. I've done this in the past as well. Someone post's a question then you spend hours researching the answer.

I understand what you are saying about editing but I am not entirely sure if this answers my problem. What I want to do is be able to use the last cue I have saved as the basis of my next cue without changing the last cue. But from what you are saying it sounds like maybe I should have recorded the last cue for itself. Then while it is still live record it again as the next cue then edited this next cue.

This still seems a lot of work. As I said on the strand boards all I would do is set up the cue eg 10 record then say I want to add one special all i would need to do is add the special and record as a new cue eg 11 simple.

Thanks again for your work Flyboy. I think in the future I will avoid Fat frogs if I can. Still would like to hear from anyone else in case there is a simpler solution.

[herr_highbrau]

It depends on what version of software you're running, we've got a Fat Frogger in rental stock, and it's needed a couple of updates from zero88 to fix bugs, make things easier, add features and the like.

Just a thought

[Flyboy]

No problem, any time. Like I said before, I'm a complete nerd when it comes to lighting consoles, programming and the like, so every time I hear of something new (or old that I've never used) I'm instantly getting everything I can to learn how to use it.
If you are recording your scenes sequentially, then all of the faders/fixture attributes would still be set at the levels of the last cue you recorded until you change them. Thus, even though the previous cue is not technically playing back, it's look is still onstage. If, however, you're trying to insert a cue and use the previous cue as a pallette, things would probably get a little tricky. I'm not sure, I'm currently on a public access computer, so I don't have the offline editor. *sigh* Oh, well. Anyway, though, I think I would agree with you and probably avoid that board in the future...it's a very good concept, but not one of my favorites.
Best of luck!