Frog 2

[AndyJones]

Hello All,

 

At work we are currently demoing a frog 2. At the moment I hate it, I have a couple of major issues. If you could answer any of the issues then maybe I could get some steps towards liking the dam thing!

 

1) Rem dim function does not work at specified in the manual (Shift + Full(page 90))

 

2) rem dim function + many others are over complicated to get to. for example having to push two buttons to simply home a light.

 

3) only 10 playbacks at once. If I set a state on page one, then go to page to to edit it, when I come back to page one all the lights snap to the new fader levels

 

4) the manual. (I'm sorry Peter! I really don't like the stlye of it. very hard to read.

 

5) on the UDK's you can only select one mover at a time.

 

Are there any tricks or shortcuts? to program stuff seems so clunky and slow compared to the beautiful old strand 550

 

thanks

 

Andy Jones

[Just Some Bloke]

Andy,

 

I'm afraid I have to concur. Peter gave us a wonderful demo making it seem like the best board ever invented (he's very good at his job :) ) and then left it with us for a week to play with. We used it for one show and got so angry with it we never touched it again. The 10 subs (yes I know there are pages but they're not the same) are a real problem and some of the features are slow to get to. I'm afraid we'd have to agree with you on this one. If you want lots of subs go for the Congo or Gongo Jr. with its fader wing. 40 subs each with direct access keys and flash buttons. Not straightforward to get used to but very soon a joy to work with.

 

JSB

[peternewman]

for example having to push two buttons to simply home a light.

Does the 500 series do this in less presses then, because two is no worse than the Pearl, which is ML Menu, Locate?

[AndyJones]

Does the 500 series do this in less presses then, because two is no worse than the Pearl, which is ML Menu, Locate?

But the frog has a home button. It seems like such a backwards step. I have had a second play today with the frog 2 and have crossed it out completely. Has any one used the ADB Mentor? (here)

 

Any comments on it? other than that I am looking at a Congo junior. Any comments on this? All I want is the 550i with a pearl gaffered to it!

 

we need to have the following:

1) buskability

2) riggers

3)mover control better than strand

 

many thanks

 

AndyJones

[Nick S]

Peter gave us a wonderful demo making it seem like the best board ever invented (he's very good at his job :P ) and then left it with us for a week to play with. We used it for one show and got so angry with it we never touched it again.

 

Is there some kind of club you can join for this? I certainly had a great demo, and then when it actually came round to the programming on my own just curled up in a small ball and cried. I'm sure it's a lovely desk, but just somewhat beyond me...

[gareth]

for example having to push two buttons to simply home a light.

Does the 500 series do this in less presses then, because two is no worse than the Pearl, which is ML Menu, Locate?

Unfair comparison between a 500-series and Frog2. The 500-series has been around, in one form or another, for about 13 years, moving lights weren't initially a major consideration in its development (a lot of the enhanced functionality relating to moving lights was added later on), and it's a product that's now at the end of its manufacturing life. The Frog2 is supposedly a brand-new desk designed very much with moving lights in mind. They're two different products that come from different places.

[IRW]

Is there some kind of club you can join for this? I certainly had a great demo, and then when it actually came round to the programming on my own just curled up in a small ball and cried. I'm sure it's a lovely desk, but just somewhat beyond me...

 

Agreed (as I mentioned in my research paper post!). Maybe the club name could be 'Froggered' :P

 

Things just don't seem to work logically on it. I had a brief demo at AC last year, then went on to use it in a venue I was temping in. Although I didn't have as many problems with it as some of my fellow casual crew members did, I still found the desk rather confusing! My workaround was to just turn off the tracking feaures and use the 'just record absolutely every single value every time' record option!

 

For what it's worth, we were generally using the console as a theatre desk with cue-stacks as opposed to using it for busking gigs.

[mark_s]

2) rem dim function + many others are over complicated to get to. for example having to push two buttons to simply home a light.

 

Having never used a Frog 2 before, I might be about to talk a load of rubbish, but anyways...

Can you not record a macro and assign it to a UDK or similar, to reduce it to one button-press?

[AndyJones]

2) rem dim function + many others are over complicated to get to. for example having to push two buttons to simply home a light.

 

Having never used a Frog 2 before, I might be about to talk a load of rubbish, but anyways...

Can you not record a macro and assign it to a UDK or similar, to reduce it to one button-press?

 

Yes you can, but why should I loose one the the sparse UDK's to do something that should be simply built into the desk already?

[peternewman]

Unfair comparison between a 500-series and Frog2.

That wasn't my intention Gareth, I assumed from the OP's post that it was something the 500 could do, specifically in one press, not remembering the home button on the Frog.

 

A bit OT, but what really bugs me is the number of desks, Pearl included, which don't "support" the features of the attribute. So you still just scroll through a percentage, rather than going red, green, blue on the colour wheel. I realise a lot of desks will generate palettes, but its not quite the same thing.

[zonino]

its been a while, but I'm fairly sure that the pearl does do what you just described Peter

[peter]

Hello All,

 

At work we are currently demoing a frog 2. At the moment I hate it, I have a couple of major issues. If you could answer any of the issues then maybe I could get some steps towards liking the dam thing!

I hope some of my answers below can help you towards this outcome... please feel free to contact me off forum if you want to talk through any of the issues in more depth.

 

1) Rem dim function does not work at specified in the manual (Shift + Full(page 90))

It is possible your software is out of date - the latest software version (4.0.0) definately works fine ;)

 

2) rem dim function + many others are over complicated to get to. for example having to push two buttons to simply home a light.

Homing a fixture is a rarely used function on the Frog 2, as the fixtures will already be in their home position when you have released all stacks and cleared the programmer. Pressing <Fixture> @ Full Enter will give the same effect as <Fixture> Shift+Highlight (Home). As others have said, you can always record functions such as Rem Dim or Home to macros if you want them instantly accessible. Don't forget that your UDKs are pageable as well, so you could have a page for when you are using command line syntax with Rem Dim, Home, etc all assigned to keys.

3) only 10 playbacks at once. If I set a state on page one, then go to page to to edit it, when I come back to page one all the lights snap to the new fader levels

I appreciate your comment - in the next software release the DMX Input will be able to be used as a fader wing, which should hopefully give an easy upgrade option for you ;)

4) the manual. (I'm sorry Peter! I really don't like the stlye of it. very hard to read.

Horses for courses, I guess.

5) on the UDK's you can only select one mover at a time.

This is a comment I have had a couple of times and in the next software release there will be an option to make Fixture UDKs "add" or "select", which will solve this issue.

Are there any tricks or shortcuts? to program stuff seems so clunky and slow compared to the beautiful old strand 550

Plenty - are you working with palettes? If not, try setting a mover into a position and then doing RECORD POSITION n ENTER. Next time you want to move the mover to that position, simply enter POSITION n ENTER to recall it. To crossfade into it, do POSITION n TIME 5 ENTER. Again this can be recorded as a macro and put onto a UDK for busking.

 

Please do feel free to get in touch if you have any further questions or problems, I'm always here to help :P

[dbuckley]

All I want is the 550i with a pearl gaffered to it!

 

I suspect that if someone actually achieved this it would sell rather well. There are definitely religions involved in lighting desks, and this would appear to allow everyone to pray at the same multi-denominational church, so to speak...

[niall]

A bit OT, but what really bugs me is the number of desks, Pearl included, which don't "support" the features of the attribute. So you still just scroll through a percentage, rather than going red, green, blue on the colour wheel. I realise a lot of desks will generate palettes, but its not quite the same thing.

 

I suppose this is further off topic, but...

 

When you patch the light you select the "preselected focus" or something setting (it's been a while since I've had to patch a pearl in work), and then when using the light, you go to attribute banks 11-20 then colour and the colour list should be there?

[lxdad]

Sounds like you chaps need to arrange a demo from the nice man at MA Lighting...