RFR stuff

Clayton wrote:

>When plugged in and the power switch is in the off position, the RFR boots up, . . . . It doesn’t do it every time I plug the RFR in, but it has been >occurring more often.

AMR:  This has been happening every time with my RFR units (2) since they arrived in March (v1.3.x).  I agree it's weird, but I always thought that was just the programming. 

>2^nd problem – when we first got our RFR (a god send) we started having trouble with the board booting up, as it would get stuck just before the >EOS screen  . . . . if so is anyone looking into it or should I just get use to unplugging the RFR base station for the rest of it’s life?

AMR: Never seen this on mine.  You have a solution, but I think ETC can do better. (I've had lots of issues with the hardware, but great customer service which has addressed all the issues).

>3^rd question mark – Does anyone else’s RFR flash “low battery” as soon as it is turned on, after it connects to the RFR Base Station which has >come right off the charger?

AMR: Mine do the same.  I believe if you dig really deep into the archives here (like June 08), you'll see this is addressed.  I believe Ann V said this is a known issue, but pretty low priority.

Hope this helps.

We are testing a new release of the RFR now. This release includes many improvements including support for connecting the base over an Ethernet network and using more than one base to extend your range. This release will be available soon.

The remote will alway power up when connected to USB to charge the battery. The new firmware indicates on the LCD the the battery is charging.

We have had several reports lately of boot problems when the RFR Base is connected. We are trying to track this one down.

The battery indicator is significantly improved in the soon to be released firmware.

Thanks,

Dennis Varian

Thanks Dennis,

It's good to know that ETC is working on these minor bugs.

I had a student ask me a question the other day that I really didn't have an answer for...

On the RFR, why is there no way of accessing the channel check feature, seeing as that’s about 80% of what a remote is used for? I have always just wrote a macro, then called up the chn check macro on the remote (thanks for the "next/last" wheel on the side). I couldn't really explain to the student why ETC didn't have that direct access on the RFR.

I also would prefer a different method of checking a dimmer rather than that sorta kinda park you have to do on the remote. I find that if I need to pull up the dimmer I end up just walking out to the RVI or up to the console.

Also, is ETC working on a way to access NP off the remote?

Thanks again,

-Clayton

 

Clayton,

This may not be exactly what you want, but if you RemDim a channel, you can then use the right wheel to next/last to other channels.  I found this by accident by putting the RFR in my pocket to focus a light I had RemDimmed, inadvertantly rolling the wheel through a series of other channels.

I totally agree about accessing addresses on the RFR.  It's pretty lame.  One of the recent console versions has made it easier- on the consoles.  Hopefully they will get around to it on the RFR's soon.

By the way, how do you unpark an address on the RFR?

B .

Clayton,

This may not be exactly what you want, but if you RemDim a channel, you can then use the right wheel to next/last to other channels.  I found this by accident by putting the RFR in my pocket to focus a light I had RemDimmed, inadvertantly rolling the wheel through a series of other channels.

I totally agree about accessing addresses on the RFR.  It's pretty lame.  One of the recent console versions has made it easier- on the consoles.  Hopefully they will get around to it on the RFR's soon.

By the way, how do you unpark an address on the RFR?

B .

Well, unpark on the remote is fun. I figured it out once, but when you don’t use you forget. Lately if someone else parks on the remote, I have just been going up to the console and [park][enter] (minus whatever I want to remain parked).

Another thing that could use some work, is bringing up an address on the EOS. When I bring up an address, as soon as I move on to something else, it takes the address out. No good if the crew is troubleshooting and I am patching or making palettes or continuing with the channel check or something else fun. I prefer the old strand 500 (I know, I know - you don’t want to hear about strand) series were you had to hit [dimmer][dimmer] to turn off an address. Could ETC do something similar?

Thanks, and thanks for the remdim tip, I used it the other day, worked great! Speaking of such things, will the new RFR version have the highlight/lowlight feature? Would be nice.

-Clayton

 

To unpark from the RFR you should be able to say [Ch] [At] [Ent] and that should unpark that channel.

Is that in Park mode? Or should that work in any mode?

Only works in Park mode I think.