Chase speeds...

[skogason]

Why are the chase speeds so slow on the Pearl?
I'm trying to do a "flashy" thing with a trackpod and as of now I can only do 8 steps in about a second. Thats to slow.

Any suggestions?

[niclights]

You should be able to achieve speeds much higher than that. I assume by 'flashy' you mean a dimmer or shutter chase. Occasionally the console can slow down after a long programming session, but a quick reset will always fix. I can't think of anything else unless there is something very wrong with the personality.
Are you using latest software?
Perhaps you can describe in more detail what you are doing?

FYI speeds are ultimately limited by DMX. Here is explanation from 2000 manual. (The BPM part is largely irrelevant)

1.1.1 DMX limitations on Chase Speeds
The following text explains why only some BPM rates are allowed.
Given that every step of a sequence MUST be output (otherwise some critical information may not get to a Fixture), the fastest Chase speed in BPM is determined by the DMX refresh rate.
The maximum theoretical DMX refresh rate is 44 times a second or 2640 times a minute. In practice this is not normally met, and on the Pearl a speed of 2400 can be achieved. In other words the maximum number of chase steps that can be output in one minute is 2400.
The next rate down is that on every other DMX cycle a new step is output, giving 1200 steps per minute. The next speed down from this is that on every third cycle a step is output, giving 800 steps per minute. This is how BPM’s of 2400, 1200, 800, 600 etc. are computed.
If a channel is to fade from 0% to 100% or 100% to 0% and every least significant bit (LSB) which is the smallest level change a channel can make then it will take just over 8 seconds for an 8 bit channel fade and over 27 seconds for a 16 bit channel. This is why many moving lights use smoothing to give smooth pan and tilt movement.
These limitations are inherent problems in DMX.

[skogason]

I'm trying to do some a "moving strob/lightning" effect using a trackpod (eventually multiple trkpd's), and the fastest speed I can get up to is not even close to what I want to get when the chase speed is set to 0.02 on the Pearl.
Right now I get about 12 steps/second, which shouldnt be the limit.

I tried using Marting Lightjockey to get the desired effect and it works perfectly.

I'm using the latest software and I tried changing the DMX idle time.