Mamba Black 1.90 now available

[buffo]

Yep - working like a charm now.

I've got Winamp 5.52 *and* Mamba Black 1.90 running together on the same machine now. Had to re-install *all* the drivers (FTD and MLD) to get it going, but it's fine now.

Thanks Andre!

Adam

[stanwax]

Good to hear Adam. Can you play insanity show now

I remember having to do a similar MLD and FTD frig when I got 1.8x sometime ago.

Rob

[buffo]

Already played it, Rob, and it was brilliant! (I watched it 3 times on Sunday.) That really is a great show.

I was also able to load up an old show that I had made with Mamba over a year ago. Unfortunately, the timing issues are still there with that show. Not sure what's going on there - can't seem to get it right. Sigh.

Working on a new show for FLEM Mark II using Pangolin. Hope to have it finished in time, but you never know. It's a beam show, but the music is fast, so there's a lot of sync work to do. (Music is "Last Train to Trancentral" by KLF.)

Adam

[smogthemog]

Can you please run through what you did Buffo?

Thanks

Jim

[buffo]

Sure thing, Jim!

First - make sure you've got the latest upgrade version of Mamba Black. (1.90) If you don't have it yet, you'll need to fill out the web form on the medialas site and wait for them to send you a download link so you can download the zip file that contains the upgrade.

Also, make sure that winamp is *not* installed. (If it is installed, uninstall it now before you start.)

Unpack the Mamba Black 1.90 update archive, and copy the executable file to your Mamba Black directory, replacing the existing version that is installed there.

Now go ahead and download all the latest drivers from the Medialas site. Then unplug your Rockey4 dongle from the computer.

Now, unzip all the files in the driver archive you just downloaded to a temp directory on your desktop somewhere. Go in to the Rockey folder inside that temp directory, and then select either the 32 bit or the 64 bit folder, depending on whether you're running a 32 bit OS (most people) or a 64 bit one. (If you're not sure, then you have a 32-bit OS. You'd know it if you were running a 64 bit OS.) Copy the 3 files from that folder and paste them into your Mamba Black directory. (Normally c:\Program Files\Mamba Black)

Now run the instdrv.exe file from your Mamba Black directory. (Of the 3 files you just copied, it will be the only one that is executable.) This will install the latest drivers for the dongle. Plug the dongle back in and verify that Windows correctly detects the dongle.

Now go back to that temp directory and copy all the files in the FTDI folder. Paste those files into the Mamba Black folder on your hard drive. Also notice that inside the FTDI folder there are two sub-folders - one is labeled I386, and the other is AMD64. If you have a 64-bit AMD processor in your computer, copy the files in the AMD64 folder and paste them into the Mamba Black directory. Otherwise, copy the files in the I386 folder and paste them into your Mamba Black directory. (Again, if you are not sure, then use the I-386 folder. You'd know it if you were running an AMD 64-bit processor.)

Almost done! Now go into the MLD directory. You should see two sub-folders. One for the Easylase controller, and one for the QM-2000 controller. Go into the Easylase folder and copy the driver file. Now paste it into your Mamba Black folder. If you want to install the QM-2000 driver, you can do that one too, but it's not required. (To install it, copy the driver file and paste it into the Mamba Black directory.)

It's important to note that ALL the files you paste into your Mamba Black folder go right into that folder - not into any sub-folders. If you simply drag the whole folder into your Mamba Black directory, the drivers will stay in the sub-folder and Mamba won't be able to find them. And you need to do *all* the files or it won't work.

Once you've finished all this, go ahead and launch Mamba Black. It should load up just fine. Now - go to the General settings menu and make sure that "Use Winamp" is *NOT* checked. (On some builds of the software, this may be identified as "Use Visualization" instead...) Either way, it has to be unchecked.

Now close Mamba Black and install Winamp 5.52 (the latest version available). When it's finished, go ahead and launch Mamba Black again. It should still work just fine.

Adam

[Apelsin]

I have 500mW RGB laser system with integrated Flashback 3 board from NEO-Laser (China). Can I use Mamba black software with FB3 via USB?

[stanwax]

Sorry at present there are no drivers for FB3 for Mamba. There is no reason it cant be done - just nobody has volunteered yet.

Rob

[buffo]

No. Mamba Black doesn't include a driver for the FB3 controller. The only Pangolin controller that will work with Mamba Black is the QM-2000 board.

Note that Mamba Black will work with a number of different controllers, including most parallel-port controllers, the Easylase USB controller, and the Medialase USB controller, among others. But they never released a driver for the Pangolin FB3. Maybe they will release one in the future, but I don't think that's even on the drawing board right now.

Edit: Just noticed Rob's reply above. You beat me by 4 minutes! Also, I wanted to add one thing about the possibility of writing a driver for the FB3... Right now Pangolin has not released a software development kit for the FB3. (There is an SDK for the QM-2000 board, however.) Bill mentioned that there probably will be an SDK for the FB3 at some point in the future, but he didn't say when. My guess is that once that SDK is released, it will be much easier to write a driver for the FB3. But right now, I think it would be quite a challenge...

Adam

[OldGrumpy]

To sum it up: No there is no FB3 support as of yet, and no, there will be none until an official SDK is available. I'm definitely not going into reverse-engineering mode for the FB3. Sorry!

[whiteg]

Hello,
I'm a new Mamba user, and I have some question.
1. In the Mamba Editor I would like to draw a line with colour mourpher from blue to yellow. How can I do it?
2. Which type of camera is the best for VST2005? And how can I use it efficiently?
3. Did you hear about, there will be a show player in Mamba Black, which can play more than one show successively?

Thx,
Whiteg