richard Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 The USB dongle will work with both OSX and XP, however it currently only works on a network - as in to monitor or perform a remote log-in to a console. Strand do keep saying that they hope it will soon also work as an OLE, but this hasn't happened yet as far as I am aware, It is a very very useful piece of kit though! Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henny Posted February 12, 2005 Share Posted February 12, 2005 if I rember rightley there is a free dos emulator for xp that willl allow you to run the offline editor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grahame Posted February 12, 2005 Share Posted February 12, 2005 if I rember rightley there is a free dos emulator for xp that willl allow you to run the offline editor.Really? That would be a godsend indeed! I just did a Google and came up with DOSbox - perhaps that's the beast? I'll d/l it and give it a shot... (some time later) Well, I don't think it's that! I got as far as DOSbox starting up geuniusp.bat and the command prompt saying "Strand OS v2.8.5", but then after a long pause I got a cascading screen saying "the syntax of the command is incorrect" followed by "illegal command: mode", and then it terminated. Shame, it was looking very promising for a moment there! :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcT Posted March 2, 2005 Share Posted March 2, 2005 if I rember rightley there is a free dos emulator for xp that willl allow you to run the offline editor.Really? That would be a godsend indeed! I've had some success with running the Strand GeniusPlus OLE in FreeDOS. Technically it should be possible to combine FreeDOS & the GP OLE onto a bootable CD-ROM. However a consequence of this approach is that you would be limited to saving shows to floppy disk only. If there is sufficient interest given the above limitation, I'll have a go at putting a CD together. Since both FreeDOS & the GP OLE are both "freely" downloadable, it should be possible to re-distribute them together. If I can get it working, and assuming there are no licensing issues, I'll make an ISO available. Another option is VMWare, which allows you to run a guest OS in a window. I can confirm that the GP OLE works under VMWare (in a Win98 guest). Regards,Marc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinT Posted March 2, 2005 Share Posted March 2, 2005 Marc Put me a copy together please - I'll pick it up with my tools :) Back to the OLE I had a long discussion with Strand at PLASA (over many beers) about this - there line was that they had intended to have an OLE for XP at PLASA but delays and problems had delayed it to nearer Christmas. Obviously it hasn't arrived - but it appears that it might... They also wouldn't be drawn too much ("neither confirm or deny" were the exact words) that the 500 series is to be replaced in the very near future. I took that to be a cagey yes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smeggie Posted March 2, 2005 Share Posted March 2, 2005 [puts hand up] interest shout if succesfull and will gladly go for it. - have to transfer the ssf from pc to disc anyway. a way around it is to then copy it from A to C when done cheersandrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben99 Posted March 3, 2005 Share Posted March 3, 2005 try this link to a pdf file on the strand website: http://www.strandlight.com/PDF/Designer%20...0Drive%20NA.pdf or follow this: www.strandlight.com > Controls > Designers Remote haven't used one yet, but they do look useful... Quick Question: What does the X-Connect USB thingy do? I can't seem to find it on Strand's site.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcT Posted March 4, 2005 Share Posted March 4, 2005 Well, I hacked together a bootable CD-ROM for the Strand GeniusPlus offline editor. It does indeed boot, and the OLE does work although currently you have to "install" it (manually) each time to a ramdisk. Unfortunately to make a CD bootable, you have to have a file on the CD which the PC loads to provide an "emulated" floppy disk. DOS sees this emulated disk as its "A:" drive and can boot from it. The problem is that you cannot now access the real floppy disk (A:) - so there's nowhere to save your show. I'm looking to see if its possible to switch off the boot disk emulation once DOS has loaded, but I may find that it cannot be done. I'll keep you posted. Marc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smeggie Posted March 14, 2005 Share Posted March 14, 2005 hi, on a similar topic, I have the emulator installed on an ancient brick that has w98 I found in the loft. anyways, does anyone have a list of the keyboard commands I could use because the .pdf that strand provide is incomprehensible for some reason. cheersandrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallPaul Posted March 14, 2005 Share Posted March 14, 2005 Try this Keyboard Shortcuts for offline editor Is that the one you're using? Try turning the page upside down in Acrobat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smeggie Posted March 14, 2005 Share Posted March 14, 2005 now, why when I accesed that file at home, it came out with a black bit of paper with some little white squiggles on it? cheers - exactly the thing I'm after Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcT Posted March 14, 2005 Share Posted March 14, 2005 Well, I hacked together a bootable CD-ROM for the Strand GeniusPlus offline editor. It does indeed boot, and the OLE does work although currently you have to "install" it (manually) each time to a ramdisk. Unfortunately to make a CD bootable, you have to have a file on the CD which the PC loads to provide an "emulated" floppy disk. DOS sees this emulated disk as its "A:" drive and can boot from it. The problem is that you cannot now access the real floppy disk (A:) - so there's nowhere to save your show.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> I found a workaround to the above problem, and have written an installation script for the CD. I therefore announce rev 0.1 of the "Bootable Offline Editor CD for Strand 500 series". This should allow all you Win2K, Win2K3 & XP users to run the OLE. The CD boots & installs the OLE to a ramdisk. It then offers to copy saved shows from floppy to the ramdisk, and runs the OLE. On exit it offers to copy the show back to floppy. Its still a "beta" at this stage, but if anyone would like to try it out PM me for details. It would be useful to get feedback from anyone who regularly uses the Strand OLE. Its an 8MB ZIP file containing an ISO image, which you'll have to burn to CD.64MB of RAM is the minimum tested configuration. Regards,Marc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grahame Posted March 15, 2005 Share Posted March 15, 2005 Hi Marc; Seems to work a treat on my system - good work! I haven't had a good play with it yet, but it boots OK and looks good. Having to do the whole install thing each time is a bit of a pain, but its bearable. Worth mentioning that you don't have to type in the path for the OLE and show directories if you're using the default c:\shows - just press return.Display was also slightly too large for my LCD screen - I couldn't see the top title bar in the window, and the bottom left command line was getting slightly chopped. But that is probably more do so with monitor settings than anything else I would imagine.But what a joy to finally see the OLE running on an XP machine!!!! :huh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcT Posted March 15, 2005 Share Posted March 15, 2005 Hi Grahame, Thanks for the reply! I'm pleased to hear it works for you. The installation is done each time so that you have to read & accept the Strand license agreement. It will also make it easier to update the CD if/when Strand bring out new software. I suspect the screen cropping you noticed is just the monitor settings. There may be an "Auto" button or menu option on your LCD to size & center the image for you. Finally, "known issues" are: * Format floppy disk from inside the OLE doesn't work* CD boots, but install fails on Sony Vaio laptop with "CD-ROM drive not detected!" error. I'm working on this... Marc EDIT: Thanks to everyone who've expressed an interest in this. You should have received an email or PM with a download link. Let me know if you haven't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted March 15, 2005 Share Posted March 15, 2005 Hi Marc, Just to let you know, I have it running here on a Dell Dimension 2800 and a Sony Vaio K115B laptop, both working fine. I note from the net that some Vaio laptops don't like booting from the CD drive, perhaps thats the case with the one you decribe. My only little niggles are.... Is there any way to automate those install processes?Can we get the bloody thing to stop beeping? (non-critical )Is there a slight chance I might be able to get my trackpad on the laptop to work as the trackball? (Not holding out a lot of hope for that one) Overall though, it's the missing piece in my offline editor setup, and the best part is that you don't even need to take a PC, it'll run on any PC without affecting it. So, the real question is: Why didn't Strand do this a while ago? PS: I'm moving this to Lighting (should have done it ages ago) and giving it a more useful name. PPS: When I can face it, (tomorrow, probably,) I'll see if I can make it work in Virtual PC. (Yes I know I don't need to, just to see if it works) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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