Old Activotes with ActivInspire

[mhartman]

I have installed the new ActivInspire. I have the original Activotes that do not utilize the hub (not the 2.4 GHz). ActivInspire allows me to register them - at least it shows them as registered, but when I try to launch a question it says there are no activotes registered - and would I like to register them - even though they are all there. I know those activotes actually register with the board.

I have the ActivExpressions as well. They register fine - but then they use the hub. What do I need to do to be able to utiilize my old activotes with the new ActivInspire software?

[kevhogg]

Inspire always looks for expression devices by default. You need to click on the use activotes icon in the voting browser to tell inspire that you want to use your votes first - then assign names if you want to.

[mkonstandakis]

I am having the exact same issue. I have selected the votes to register and it still doesn't work :( My district spent a lot of the Activotes and now they are functionless. Help!????

[kevhogg]

mkonstandakis

This is what I did with my old activotes to get them working in Inspire.

I used the old usb hub - I couldn't get the votes to 'talk' to the board like I can using V3. But I did have to change the channel on the device registration page before it would work further than a couple of cms away.

Firstly I have to click on the activote icon in the Voting Browser every time I want to vote.

With my devices already registered and names entered in the student database I clicked on automatically assign names and all the names turned green in the database window. After clicking on Finish, the names appeared in the Voting Browser panel.

I was told that the board and the votes do communicate and that I should not have to use the USB hub but I had already got it working and didn't want to mess about again.

Best of luck...

[mkonstandakis]

hmmm, I actually have the very old votes without the hub! Guess I was on the cutting edge back in the day! I'm afraid my votes are a lost cause :(

[DBarnwell]

Hello, all. I have had little difficulty in using 915 MHz Activotes (Model PRM-AV2-01) here on-site. There are two important things that are not necessarily obvious and which I believe may be causing these issues. Hopefully this is what we're missing but if not perhaps we can assist over the phone or e-mail.

1. The 915 MHz votes will not work with the 2.4 GHz hub connected. If you have expressions or a new slate, you'll need to disconnect the hub prior to opening.

2. The software defaults to the Activexpression devices. This should be changeable in the browser as per Kevin's suggestion however I find it even easier to do from the express poll- just hover over the options at the bottom of the wheel and click on the Activote icon. At this point you should see several question types go away to reflect the different functionality, and should be able to use the devices without issue.

Again, I think this should get it but feel free to contact support (http://www.prometheanplanet.com/server.php?show=nav.1157) if not and hopefully we can assist further from there.

[kevhogg]

mkonstandakis/Daniel
I'm not sure that if my votes are talking via the usb hub or the board hub to be honest.
I just have the hub connected in case - a bit like having the reassurance of a baby blanket to cuddle up to.

This week was the week I was going to field test Inspire with activote in the classroom.
It's been a nightmare to be honest.
I used a Promethean own downloaded flipchart (place value Y2) but that has crashed with every second vote attempt.
I brought the hub home with me tonight and the same thing happened.
Then I tried one of my own created in V3 - that faired better but crashed inspire after about 10 voting pages.
Finally I tried creating one using plain text rather than with the templates in Inspire - which didn't crash - but the font size was extremely large and I couldn't find a setting to alter it.

Feeling rather like a dog with a bone. I don't want to give it up but I sure am ready to growl at somebody.

Meanwhile...
back at school.
After changing the voting channel the votes now appear to work without the hub i.e. directly with the board.
This might be a solution for you mkonstandakis!
However the flipchart I created in V3 will not work at all with the votes, whereas the downloaded flipchart seems to be working happily.
Growl and double growl!!
Now shall I risk it again and try with my class tomorrow?

[Louise Chew]

hi

can you attach 2 of the flipcharts you mention that are giving you crashes.
Do they crash when you click on the green vote button? or at some other point

I'll take a look & see if I can recreate

thanks

[kevhogg]

Hi Louise,

Now this is getting loopy - after 2 attempts the third attempt has begun to work as it should have done!

The flipcharts are attached for you to try...
The place value one is the one that is working today - one of Promethean's own, downloaded from Planet.
That one was throwing up an error message when clicking on the green button.
The one that was not working today is one of mine created in V3. It wouldn't open up the voting page from p30 (the assessment section).

While you're there - can you tell me anything about the size of the text using plain text questions rather than a template from the Insert Questions in Inspire. My text is way too big and I cannot find a setting to alter the size anywhere. I have to edit the text in situ - which isn't marvellous!

[mhartman]

Thank you for your replies. Daniel is exactly right - at least that's what worked for me with the older legacy activotes (no hub). By default ActivInspire is setup to use the ActivExpressions. I went to the ExpressPoll -> Settings (the little gear icon) and chose the Activotes. Once I did that - and setup the activotes everything worked fine.

Those of you that may have both a legacy set of Activotes and the new ActivExpressions - and wish to use both - need to realize that if you have been using the software with the hub attached, you need to restart the software without the hub attached and then chose the Activotes as indicated above through the ExpressPoll icon.

[Louise Chew]

Hi Louise,


While you're there - can you tell me anything about the size of the text using plain text questions rather than a template from the Insert Questions in Inspire. My text is way too big and I cannot find a setting to alter the size anywhere. I have to edit the text in situ - which isn't marvellous!

It should be adding in arial 20. Is it doing this for you? Is this too large?

[kevhogg]

Hi Louise,
I'm getting 72 point Comic Sans - wonder what its getting this from?

BTW

Tried the place value vote in class again today - failed on the second page again as soon as I clicked on the green voting button. My class of Y2 are really up for this now - 'send them the report, Mr Hogg!' - they know the drill off by heart.

[Louise Chew]

good news??
I can recreate the crash you're seeing when you vote. This is still a problem in our latest test build so I've got it raised for the guys upstairs to look at.

As for your extra large text - this has us bit baffled. The size & font of the text used is an internal setting that you shouldn't be able to change. Resetting may sort it - however, that will reset your toolbox etc. Do you use the same profile all the time? If you change profile does it still have the same problem?

Thanks for all your in-classroom testing!!

[st johns]

Hi Louise,
Changed profiles to authoring profile and got Ariel 12p for question and ariel 20pt for responses.
The profile I was using was one created with the beta version that I copied across.
Good spot.
Do I need to create a new personal one from scratch? Any suggestions?

Kevin

[SandorB]

Kevin,

I managed to reproduce your crashes. After removing the correct answer assignments, it worked ok, and continued to do so after reassigning correct answers. Let us know if it works for you.

Sandor Ballago

Promethean Ltd

[Louise Chew]

Hi Louise,
Changed profiles to authoring profile and got Ariel 12p for question and ariel 20pt for responses.
The profile I was using was one created with the beta version that I copied across.
Good spot.
Do I need to create a new personal one from scratch? Any suggestions?

Kevin

confused me then with the new log in name!!

I would create a new profile, perhaps this is an upgrade from beta - release version bug we've not encountered. Create a new profile & keep an eye on it! (not that you could miss text that large though:D)

[kevhogg]

To Louise,

Business as usual - logged in on the school profile and was too idle to log out and log in again as me.

Really glad to know that it wasn't something I was doing or the hardware was doing - I was beginning to think I had gone gaga. One moot point however - if there is no way of editing the size of the font within the question inserter, there really needs to be one. I shall try new profiles to see if I can make any difference - or is 20pt now set in stone?

To Sandor,

Well I'll be .....
I take it this is one to fix in development. I don't fancy going through all my own assessment flipcharts (let alone Promethean ones) to reset the correct answer. At least it's in the know now.

[kevhogg]

Have built replacement profile and question inserter now behaves correctly, using 12pt/20pt Ariel.

[Louise Chew]

thats good news then.

I know there is someone looking at the crashing problem so I wouldn't start going through all your flipcharts just yet!!

[kevhogg]

Too late Louise - what else would I do on the first day of the Easter hols.

Weird stuff though.

On the Y2 place value ones, using the question editor, there are some questions that are set to use 6 responses but actually only use 4. If you reset this to 4 one of the responses falls out and you have to re-enter the response.

So far so good.

But when you close the question editor the added response sets its visibility property to false (formatting goes a bit haywire and parts of the question are re-added to the page too). You have to then manually reset the visibility to true to see it out of design mode.

Of course I cannot test the questions away from the classroom!

[thor_cms]

Hello Daniel,
I am hoping that this has been resolved in another thread but I am not finding it and this thread appears to head off in another direction?
Is there any resolution to use the 915Mhz voters with the Pro 100 series boards that are currently being sold? A Hub that can be purchased? Software to connect the voters to the computer?
I have a high school that has 18 sets of voters that were purchased a long while back and after a fire the school has all new 100 series boards that will not talk to the old votes?
Any ides?

[lghiorso]

Do not despair! I have been able to get my legacy activotes to work with Inspire--at least for ad hoc voting. I don't know enough about the software to do the prepared question bit. The green button doesn't work, you have to make sure you are clicked on the activotes rather than expressions in the activote browser (once I did this, it defaults to it and I rarely have to do it again)--then click on the express poll button and choose what type of answers you have. It seems to work fine from there as long as I don't try anything fancy! I can also export them to excel without any problems except the software creates another express question flipchart which houses the voting results (you have to export from that flipchart) I think that is some kind of preference--when I didn't have the preference selected, the software would add another page to my flipchart and it always seems as if the percentages were off, so this seems to work better. Someday, I may be better trained on the whole Inspire--learner response stuff!

[bevmar]

I bought a used system but need a 915 MHZ hub to make it work . Anyone know where I can find one?

[rreese]

I too would like to purchase the older hub. However, I was told by our account manager from Logical Choice Technologies, who supplies Promethean products to our school district, that they no longer make the older 915mhz Hub that works with the first generation Activotes. The older set of votes can only be used with an older version Activboard. Therefore, I have a set of 32 older activotes that are now very expensive paper weights. It's hard to believe that Promethean would not continue to support their older hardware, or at least make the newer products backward compatible with the first generation hardware. If anyone knows of a source for the older 915mhz Hubs, I'm sure there would be a lot of people very interested. :confused: