intensity/strobe problem technobeam

First of all, strobe in the effects engine does not work for some reason. When I try to select Sine for example it doesn't do anything and just goes back to an empty gray box. I can't automate strobe at all.

I try to do strobing with intensity instead -

When I set up the effect - pan and tilt on sine waves and intensity on a step wave with 200 cycles/minute, it looks fine.... then I hit Record, 8 to save it to a cue, then I clear the programmer. I go to play back the cues and when it gets to cue 8 it's the right color and they're panning on the sine wave but not flashing at all (intensity not working). When I "view cue" i see a picture of the sine wave and 100% in the intensity column. Dunno why this isnt working.

In order to make any Intensity effects work I have to go to the keypad and hit @ 100 ENTER. then the intensity effects work. however after i clear out the programmer and go back to try to play the cue again it doesnt work until I go do the @ 100 again. This applies to the palettes too, when I click the palette with intensity automation it only starts to flash after I do @ 100. Any ideas how to get around this?