AlexRB

Hi Kevin

Thanks for your help. Yes, that's the same set of instructions that came with the smoke machine, and I have indeed tried the address 10 as shown in the manual. I've also tried it in reverse with off being on and on being off just in case, but no that still left me with the same issue of channel 32 being the only one armed.

There actually weren't anymore patches when I was initially trying to set it up. I had initially completely cleared off all settings off the desk via the super user, and I wasn't going through my DMX loop, I went directly from the smoke machine into the Frog, so there were no cross patches. I've actually just gone ahead and reset the patches though in desk setup and no change unfortunately. ?

Setting the smoke machine up as a fixture? I've had a little play around with trying to get to grips with fixtures, but the manual has such a small amount of information, and I wasn't sure any of our equipment would work with fixtures. If that's even possible, that sounds very exciting though! I thought that the fixture were just for things like Mac 250s - I didn't know you could put LED lights and smoke machines through them!?! Do you just set them up through the super user>desk setup>assign fixtures?

I will have a look at getting the latest software installed. Not sure what we're running at the moment. Thanks for all your help Kevin!

In the Manual on pages 3/4 there is an example DIP switch setting for DMX address 10. Can you confirm that you have tried those settings? http://media.elektro...de/10010857.pdf

 

Has the Fat Frog got a 1:1 DMX address patch or could for example desk channel 32 be patched to DMX address 10?

 

Can you check the patch to ensure there are no multiple patches. Desk channel 32 could be patched to DMX address 32 and also 10.

 

Do you know how to check these in Desk Setup?

 

Later, when you get the DMX addressing working, it is worth considering setting up the smoke machine as a fixture rather than it sitting in the middle of your generics space on an intensity channel.

 

Let us know how you get on with these.

 

You could also post in the Zero88 Forum (http://zero88.com/fo...frog-range-mk1/) although you might just get me answering there too!

 

Kevin

 

ETA - You also mention some "DMX Pars" that use 5 channels each. It's worth considering setting these up as fixtures so they aren't eating 5 channels each from your preset faders. With you talking about channel 32 on a fader it seems to me you're using the desk in wide mode to get 48 channels of single preset faders.

 

The Zero88 page for the software and manuals is at this link. Latest software is 10.12, so worth making sure that is installed.

 

http://zero88.com/su...dex/57/fat-frog

Hi K

Thanks for your reply. I've had a look and I can't see any. I'm happy to give it a quick swap around thought to see if it works? How would I go about swapping to test this?

Had a look at the manual and found it strange that there is no mention of DMX pinouts.

 

Are there any markings on the unit describing which pin does what on the 3 pin DMX connector?

 

It could be a matter of DMX + and - being swapped.

 

 

K

Hi Ian

Thanks for your help. Yes it does feel a little 'generic' to tell you the truth! It's certainly not an 'industry standard' smoke machine! It's more the top end of what you might get at a disco setup, but for our little studio, it does the trick...if I can get it working through our desk properly that is.

I didn't even know the desk had a battery! We've actually lost entire shows before when the desk has been switched off for a few days, and we haven't saved it to floppy disk - whereabouts is the battery compartment?

Yes, I'd already tried one. I figured it may have been our DMX loop messing with it, but no still the same thing is happening.

It looks like a generic machine that you can buy under various brand names so there are two issues you need to check through..

 

As Kevin says - check your DMX patch and it should certainly be possible to patch any fader on the Frog to any DMX desk assuming the desks battery is ok and retaining the patch table (otherwise you'll set the address now but when you power cycle the desk overnight - it will forget).

 

The second thing to try is plugging the machine directly in to the desk output (there are two DMXoutputs on the Fat Frog and both are useable) so that the machine is at the start of the DMX Chain. The reason for trying this is the DMX Transceiver chips on these machines (as with many lower priced LED's) are very susceptible to any noise or voltage induced on the 0v rail of the DMX and so can make them unpredictable. If plugging straight in to the desk makes it behave (and assuming the desk is OK) then you will need some sort of buffer on your DMX chain between the last fitting and your smoke machine.

Hi

Wasn't sure whether to post this in lights or smoke as it's to do with running a smoke machine through a lighting desk! So basically I work at a small scale venue (40 seat performance studio) where most of the staff are volunteers, and we've recently upgraded all of our equipment - with what is essentially very old equipment but is much better than our previous even older equipment! I'm in charge of our technical department, and I'm not a trained technician, however I have had a lot of experience working around people who are and I've asked lots of questions, read lots of threads and watched lots of videos to try and solve lots of problems and set up a DMX ready theatre, which I have completely done, except for one thing; correctly setting up our new smoke machine PROPERLY. Now Ive already done the basics, the smoke machine is ALREADY set up and I have control of it through our Zero 88 Fat Frog desk. It's at the end of my DMX loop and when I press the flash button on the desk, the smoke comes out. What's the problem you're probably thinking? The issue is that no matter what DMX channel Is set the smoke machine at (it's a brand new Beamz S1500 from a retailer, so its not something dodgy from China!!!) it will only come through the desk at channel 32 - as in slider and flash 32. That happens at every DMX channel programmed on the smoke machine from 1-48, by which I mean if I programme the smoke machine to DMX channel 10, the Fat Frog does nothing except on channel 32, where it will always pump out smoke. If you programme the smoke machine above DMX 48, nothing happens through the desk at all (as in desk channel 32 stop being armed for smoke). Does this make sense? I've read the smoke machine manual which is a page flyer, and that's useless, and I've searched the net for answers but nothing. I mean I could patch the smoke machine to channel 32, but that's in the middle of a set of DMX pars which can't really move anywhere else due to them needing 5 channels each. Any ideas on the smoke machine anyone?

Thanks in advance!

Alex