anydm

Thanks for your prompt reply and useful advice. Our problem is that we don’t have much height above the stage so sight lines are poor to loose the projector without it being too low and thus in view. If we were able to push the throw out to 2m and construct a solid white backdrop out of suitable boarding what would your best recommendation be?

Hi could anyone please advise on the best option for a backdrop/cyclorama projector for our church drama society. The image size would need to be approx 3m x 5m. The likely throw would be approximately 1m. I admit to having no knowledge or experience in this area so any advice/recommendations would be really appreciate. Our budget is likely to be limited by what we can raise through grants but I would expect it to be no more than £2k - £3k. Thanks in anticipation.

Hi can anyone please advise whether a Chauvet 15 Degree lens plate (SPPRGIBALENS15) for a Slim Par Pro would fit a Slim Par Q12 USB?

Let me know when you do!!!!!

Many thanks for that cfmjohn. That’s just what I was looking for. All the best, Andy

Thanks niclights Ive printed off the attached.jpg but am struggling to read the content on the left page. I was hoping to get a .pdf file with the required info Thanks for your help

Hi musht Many thanks for posting this. I can’t seem to be able to open the link that you’ve attached, but am hoping that I’ll be able to download and print the images with sufficient resolution. If so it should give me all the info I need. If not would you be able to send me a pdf by email? Thanks again Andy

That’s the one!! Supplied via Maplin.

Hi Does anyone out there by any chance have a manual for the above? Thanks

Hi Yes it is a C2032. I did replace it a couple of years ago so it’s probably due another by now. Thanks again.

Thanks so much guys for all the invaluable help. I’m now fully up and running with the floppy emulator. Let’s just hope that the old Fat Frog lasts for another few years. I can’t see us affording a replacement for it any time soon ☹️ Best wishes Andy

Finally bit the bullet and ordered a replacement emulator. Took 10 days from china, 10 minutes to install and, hey presto, I've got a working system!! The only thing I can't figure out now is why, when I download a fixture type from the Zero88 on-line library, it appears on the USB 'floppy' as an IFT file, when the fat frog only seems to recognise CFT files. Any advice on what I'm doing wrong??

I do have an old pc base unit in the loft which I opened up the other day. (I don’t have any problem with doing this kind of stuff). The only issue is I don’t still have all the (plug in!!) peripherals such as mouse keyboard etc. The pc has a floppy drive which I disconnected and replaced with the emulator. This however was before I’d been able to format the pen drive and not surprisingly when I fired up the pc I got the same results as when I first tried it in the FF. I’ll have another go now I’ve sorted the pen drive but, as I say, it’s only effectively energising the emulator as I can’t really do anything else via the pc without all the peripherals. Thanks again for all your help.

Should also have mentioned that the data cable is definitely plugged in correctly as it does have the alignment pin on one side.

Thanks again Ian. Unfortunately I’ve tried booting the desk with and without the pen drive plugged in, both to no avail. I’ve also noticed that the green (power?) led comes on at power up but goes off after a few seconds. The red led, which I’m assuming is the drive busy light, doesn’t come on at all.

I seem to have made some progress on this insofar as I've now been able to format the USB pen drive into 100 x 1.44MB 'floppies'. However the FF still does not seem to be able to communicate with the emulator nor, as suggested by Ian, can I scroll through the 'floppies' on the emulator digital readout with the USB plugged into the emulator. I'm now at a bit of a loss!

Thanks so much Ian. The problem therefore seems to be with formatting the flash drive which I don’t seem to be able to partition in the required format. If I simply plug in a usb stick (with no 1.44MB partitions) it isn’t found by the fat frog. Same happens when the stick is partitioned in 8MB chunks. So until I can configure the stick in the necessary 1.4MB partitions I don’t think I’ll be able to prove the emulator’s working 😟

Thanks guys but I still need to know if I should be able to scroll through the drive numbers on the emulator without a flash drive plugged in. In other words are the buttons on the emulator independent of the desk. I’m sorry if it seems a stupid question but I need to establish first of all whether I have a faulty unit or not. Thanks

Hi Timo did you go ahead with this? If so can you have a look at my ‘other’ post on the same subject. I could do with some advice. Thanks Andy

Hi there Now I realise that this is a (very) old thread but am hoping that someone out there has got the time and patience to read this and maybe help. A couple of years ago (pre-lockdown) I acquired a second hand fat frog for our local group. The desk appeared to be working fine so, following the advice in earlier posts, I also purchased an emulator to replace the FDD. Everything then went into Covid melt-down, the venue was closed and I never got as far as doing the conversion. Needless to say I've now picked this up again but have a couple of questions. Firstly, I physically swapped out the two drives without any problem. I also attempted to partition a spare USB stick as previously advised. This didn't go entirely to plan as I couldn't re-create the 1.44MB blocks (8MB seemed to be the minimum size the partitioning software would allow in Windows 10). Reading other posts I'm not sure that this in itself should be a problem but I'm open to correction. I then went on to fire up the Fat Frog. The new USB drive lit up reassuringly with a green LED above one of the buttons and the digital display showing three zeros. The red LED remained off. (I'm assuming this illuminates when the drive is being read or written to). My first question is whether I should be able to scroll through the numeric display, using the buttons on the emulator, without a USB stick plugged in. If that's the case then I think I may have a faulty unit as the display remains firmly fixed on 000. Secondly, how critical is it that the disk is partitioned into strict blocks of 1.44MB. I did try to address the USB stick from the frog (I) to format the disk and (ii) to store some simple show settings but neither action worked because the drive was not found. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated

OK... Finally I can come back on this following the postponement of the show due to COVID. I do appreciate all the advice that I received on this subject and am happy to share my solution, just not sure what the forum policy is on what I can/can't attach. The show finally went ahead last week and I followed all Tom's earlier advice on raised catch tank, quantities of water, timings, rehearsals etc. Where out thoughts did differ was on the actual deployment of the effect. As it was visible to the audience, the water reservoir was constructed using various drainage parts fabricated to look look like a replica stage lantern. Because the venue does not have flies, a dummy pull chain had to be tracked in at the appropriate time (end of Act 1) for the actress to 'pull' but the actual effect was deployed from a second pull chain/plastic-coated wire rope assembly from the wings. The wire rope was attached to a large 50+ mm rubber bung in the reservoir via a 10mm corrugated plastic conduit tie wrapped to the underside of the lighting bar. Each end of the conduit was reinforced using 10mm copper micro-bore central heating pipe with the necessary fittings and bracketry to orient the wire in the 'right direction'. The amount of water used was 1.5litres, but it looked a lot lot more when the effect was deployed. The effect lasted about 2.5 seconds from initiation. From trialllng the design in my garage using my daughter as the guinea pig (she was also a singer in the show) to actual installation and tech runs followed by dress rehearsal and a run of six shows, the effect was deployed a total of about twenty times without a failure or misfire. It was both accurate and repeatable and never missed the target! The director, cast and audiences were all blown away with it and I can honestly say it was one of my proudest achievements in over 50 years of amateur theatre. I've attached a sketch (not to scale) of the chamber and a parts list of the principal items. I've also attached a series of photos (not sure if this is allowed?) and I can also share some video of the effect (normal time and slo-mo) if you want to contact me privately. Andy Flashdance Water Drop.pdf

OK everyone I’ve just trialled my water drop device using my daughter as a guinea pig and it pretty well worked perfectly. There are still a couple of minor bugs that need ironing out but I’m confident the desired effect will be achieved (it uses about a litre of water). I’m happy to share details privately if anyone wants them. Andy

Thanks all for your replies I've had a new thought on how to create this (without a bucket!!). I'll post some info when I've developed a prototype but the idea is to build a dummy stage lantern which will be hung vertically above the stage. This will be constructed from drainage parts and will have a bung to retain the water. The effect will be created by literally "pulling the plug!". Not sure at this stage whether the actor will deploy the effect or whether it will be done from off stage. I'm confident I can develop this further but I'll keep you posted.Andy

Hi Can anyone please advise if they have had to recreate the above effect and the best way of going about it in a community theatre with limits on what the venue will accept. Short of a tilting bucket above some sort of catching tank I’m at a bit of a loss. We have the rights to the UK amateur premier in November so I need to sort this as a matter of urgency. I’ve not been able to find anything useful on YouTube. Any advice would be gratefully accepted. Andy