Taking it to the next level!

[South Carolina Mike]

As rumor has it, once you've fired your first show electronically you automatically want your next show to be a pyromusical! I'm here to confirm this rumor is true!
My Cobra system worked flawlessly so naturally I want to stick with Scott's products. I'm eyeing up the Cobra Audio Box paired with the Cobra Show Creator.
Scott recommends wikifireworks for product and duration info but there's no lift time info? I used Talons for my first show but may go to e-match for a pyromusical. I know there are guys on here that have mastered the pyromusical aspect of our dear hobby. Where do find lift times? Do you bypass the visco and e-match to the lift charge? I only have 346 days to figure this out so time is of the essence!
I would love to hear from our pyromusical experts and help myself and others here take it to the next level!

[Mattp]

I have been studying this topic myself. Havemt dome one myself yet. But.. from what ive gathered by forum/internet almost impossible to have a consistent lift time with visco.. way to many factors to be consistent.. but with a ematch/initiator straight into lift charge its instant every time!! And yes i feel the same way.. next year will be here before you know it.. gotta start planning now.!!!! Lol

[djsmurf]

Depends on product. Are you shooting 1.3 or 1.4?

[chriskrc]

I've been watching the videos myself and eventually the cobra system and pyro musical will take place one day. They are awesome to watch.

[displayfireworks1]

For accurate firing you need to get into the lift charge on Consumer Fireworks. Another thing is not all Consumer Fireworks have the exact performance times , I was told they are not built to the exacting degree as professional fireworks. For advanced backyard displays you can still make a nice display. Usually the audience does not notice little mistakes like we do. 1.3 product will perform better if you can get it.

[Bazerk]

For accurate firing you need to get into the lift charge on Consumer Fireworks. Another thing is not all Consumer Fireworks have the exact performance times , I was told they are not built to the exacting degree as professional fireworks. For advanced backyard displays you can still make a nice display. Usually the audience does not notice little mistakes like we do. 1.3 product will perform better if you can get it.

This is true....to an extent. The 1.3 cakes I ordered from Lynch never last the time they are supposed to. Ive had them almost as much at 10 seconds longer than they should be which usually isnt an issue unless, like me, you are trying to have everything end at the same time. Unless you are using all shells, fan slices, gerbs and comets you wont ever get it exact. However, as Dave pointed out, the crowd doesnt realize it when it goes wrong. Hell, my 4th of July this year was devastating to me, but most of the crowd said it was the best one yet, so I dont know, lol.

[MontanaMike]

However, as Dave pointed out, the crowd doesnt realize it when it goes wrong. Hell, my 4th of July this year was devastating to me, but most of the crowd said it was the best one yet, so I dont know, lol.

Agree with this. We had several spots in our show this year that I thought were glaring mistakes but nobody noticed, even when I pointed things out to people on the video, they were kind of like "Yeah....so?
"

The most important thing to me is having things start at the same time, which is (as pointed out) almost impossible unless you get into the lift charge, and even then the duration can vary from one cake to the next. If I want a whole segment to end at the same time, I'll put up a group of mortar shells which are easier to predict. But still, not as precise as desired -- so, I'm sure we'll be doing at least a partial 1.3 show before too much more time goes by! :)

[South Carolina Mike]

Depends on product. Are you shooting 1.3 or 1.4?

It will all be 1.4

[esgrillo]

Mike, my 2 cents and I know some will disagree. I use talons for almost all my cakes. If it is a proline 1.4 and has an e match port port, I use that if not I use talons. I always try to clip the talon on the same portion of the fuse so they generally light pretty much at the same time. Honestly once the show starts and if you are generally overlapping cakes a bit to avoid black sky, it works precise enough at least in my opinion. I believe the variability from cake to cake on the internal fusing is larger than the fuse used to light it as montana and Dave were saying.

I fuse a lot of cakes together and again that really makes trying to get tenths of a second timing on the initial cakes by using an awl to get the lift charge and use a firewire somewhat pointless. I just don't think it is worth the time if you are consistent with where you clip the talon on. I think the overall timing of my show is pretty good and I use a 3 platform layout so I am always shooting the left and right ones with duplicate cakes at the same time.

For all my special effects like comets and fan cakes that have a port, I use the port and a firewire.

[WithReport]

I did my first 1.4 pyromusical this year. I provided some information on how I set it up on another discussion. (http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/showthread.php?6065-4th-of-July-quot-Front-Yard-quot-Pyromusical-with-1-4G-items)

For the lift times it is hit or miss. I watched lots of YouTube videos with a stop watch in hand. I tried to find videos taken by consumers not the wholesalers or manufacturers. I also went back to my older videos and lastly snuck in a few testing shots in the week prior.

In my video you will see I had a lot of cakes going off in parallel and you can see the variations in length (there were two on the right side that did not go off).

Hope this helps. I'm stoked for next year and maybe this New year's.

[South Carolina Mike]

Thank you all for the feed back/advice! I'll keep digging into this and please keep the info coming! Dave, how about a section just for pyro musicals? :) As another day clicks off the calendar I need to get moving!

[Twitch]

For advanced backyard displays you can still make a nice display. Usually the audience does not notice little mistakes like we do. 1.3 product will perform better if you can get it.

Dave, can you explain this? To me it sounds like you're saying 1.3 would be ok to use in backyard displays just as 1.4 is. When I think backyard show I don't picture a suitable area to be shooting 1.3 product. Also in order to shoot 1.3 don't you have to have a shooters license and everything else that comes along with 1.3 pro shows including all paperwork for the ATF? I just have a feeling that people may be misled by statements like yours. I bet there's a lot of misconception that if you can get 1.3g fireworks you can shoot it off in the street just like anything else that you might get at the firework tent on the corner. I'm really just trying to get my head around this and think some clarification could be a useful teaching tool.

Thank you.

[aerialpyro]

Some people's backyards are bigger then others... Also, 1.3 isn't always bigger. There are smaller 1.3 fireworks for proximity stuff, and other smaller 1.3 shells that mirror 1.4 stuff with just more precision, color, intensity and noise. You must always make sure the product matches the venue.

If you stick to the venue appropriate sized 1.3 stuff with the same type of devices people will probably think it was just a really good show.

[Twitch]

Good points thank you. As far as storing 1.3 goes... does everything need to be stored in a magazine or are there only certain items that need to be stored and paperwork kept for the ATF?

[Pyro Paul]

Maybe you should order Daves dvd atf package Twitch, then you'd know the answers to all those questions. Any person that has went thru the interview with the ATF agent and can legally purchase 1.3 has had all of this information explained to them. :cool:

[Daniel]

Twitch it all goes into a magazine and the paperwork that goes with having the 1.3. I do agree with Pyro Paul get the dvd package of Dave's. http://www.pyrotalk.com/shopping.php
One more thing on the same page as the dvd's you can download a free copy of the orange book. It will answer most of your questions.

[Twitch]

Thanks guys.

[WithReport]

download a free copy of the orange book. It will answer most of your questions.

I"m fairly new into this and I had no luck finding an answer to a question here in the forum, so I figure I'd add my discussion to this discussion since it was recently referencing the orange book.


I see a lot of reference to the orange book in hyphens ("orange book"). I saw online a green 2012 ATF book. Is my assumption correct that the orange book is no longer orange and may now be green.

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=2635&stc=1

Thanks.

[displayfireworks1]

It is know colloquially as the "Orange Book". That is not the official title. They can change the outside color anytime they want. That green image of the book you have is on Amazon and for some reason they are selling it in the United Kingdom.
.
Here now its a White Book
http://pyrotalk.com/pdf/2012-BATFE-orange-book-web.pdf

[WithReport]

It is know colloquially as the "Orange Book". That is not the official title. They can change the outside color anytime they want. That green image of the book you have is on Amazon and for some reason they are selling it in the United Kingdom.
.
Here now its a White Book
http://pyrotalk.com/pdf/2012-BATFE-orange-book-web.pdf


Thanks. Yes I've been reading through the regs from the copy I've downloaded from your site. I like the hard copies so I may order one.

It's been a long day I realized I referred to parentheses as hyphens. Oh well, the question made it through still