Show planning

[cauques]

For those of you that don't have extensive firing systems, how do you go about timing and setting up your shows?

I typically have a central fuse line of 24s/ft that I time everything off of, with fast fuse going to each cake/rack. It's worked well for me in the past and having the one central line has stopped me from ever having large blank spots if something doesn't go off (my last show in 2017 only had 1 mortar not go, so not a huge worry). This year though I'm going to try shooting from 3 positions at once, and wonder how close my timing will be by using the same practice but mirroring my boards in each location. I've got a cheap 12 cue firing system (3x4) that I'll use to start each position, but not sure if it would make sense to use it for anything more than a synchronized start.

Picture is from 2015, probably have about 3x the product this year vs then. Spreadsheet is my plan atm this year.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DuLsgEWMuDM8eVrGEEeHIYVoJVQNxJyofGL0pON-aWk/edit?usp=sharing

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=3929&stc=1

[nayslayer]

Nice, i started with similar stuff, hope the cakes are glued somehow, and you have more than tape holding racks upright.

[cauques]

Yeah. I typically use liquid nails to glue down and I believe those racks were screwed to the board. Most of my racks are larger now though and staked off the boards.

[Robbro097]

With 12 cues id use them all and shorten your main fuse do 4 shorter main fuses at each position as opposed to 1 30sum ft long main fuse, or at very least put finale on its own cue. (If for no other reason its fun to press buttons) Your timing can b only so tight using fuse as opposed to just a firing system for everything. Is this your 1st year with a firing system?

[cauques]

With 12 cues id use them all and shorten your main fuse do 4 shorter main fuses at each position as opposed to 1 30sum ft long main fuse, or at very least put finale on its own cue. (If for no other reason its fun to press buttons) Your timing can b only so tight using fuse as opposed to just a firing system for everything. Is this your 1st year with a firing system?

It is my first year with a firing system. In my mind adding in more cues without being able to cue every point would complicate things more than anything and add more places I can lose timing, but again I don't really have any experience with it yet. The main issue I'm foreseeing is variance in the three locations main fuse line over an 11min show. I'm not really sure what kind of variance to expect there, or if it will be pretty close coming off the same spool of fuse. Hasn't been an issue int he past as with only shooting from 1 location the cakes are spaced off each other and that leads to at most a 1-2s delay off what I have planned.

[Pyro Paul]

One thing you can do that makes a minor difference in timing is to fuse your cakes from the last shot of the first cake into the first shot of the next cake and so on. That way when one ends the next begins and you don't have to rely on a single fuse that may or may not burn at the advertised rate. Or you could do both to be redundant. That way if a cake stops halfway thru or your main fuse goes out (and it will happen), the show will still go on. I poke the last tube of one cake and the first tube of the next cake, insert my fuse into each hole and tape over it. When they're all connected the way I want, I duct tape around all of them to keep them together then glue the whole mess down to OSB. I generally only do 3 or 4 in this manner so they're easy to pick up from my work table and glue them down into position. Then I can insert my initiator into the very first shot to start it off. This works well if you're shooting to music as you can fuse your cakes together for each piece of music and save precious cues for other elements you want to add in. Just some food for thought.

[cauques]

I'm not sure how well that would work when trying to time multiple locations together without a more substantial firing system. Also I have never had a main fuse go out. That's only over 5/6 shows since I've started doing this on the 4th, but I'm hoping that can continue. One thing I am going to do this year different than in the past is refuse all my shells with quick fuse so the timings there can be a little more consistent. Also I'm less worried about the main line burning at advertised rate over being consistent over a long run.

To make the most of only having 4 cues per location I was thinking that I would run two cues to the start of each board, and maybe have a secondary line ~15-20 seconds in so I can quickly catch it if something doesn't fire initially. Maybe it would be better to split my show into fourths have 4 boards in each location, then hit the next cue when I get to the end of the previous. This would at least limit the variance I would get over a 28' main fuse line down to 7' or so.

[Mattp]

so, instead of using one 4cue module per location...you can fire 3 igniters off of each cue... giving you 12 cues per board...with each platform perfectly firing simultaneously ... just need to extend the wires.. before i expanded my system, thats what i did...and then using different rate fuses to connect cakes according to their duration..usually not more than 3 or 4 fused one after the other... i dont like the one fuse method anymore(thats what i did for years).. mainly because if something goes wrong there is no way to stop it... all it takes is for it to happen once

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Back when I was doing 1 fuse shows, I was actually on my hands and knees with a ruler measuring the fuse length so I could get the timing right. It never happened. The best I ever got was "close." Way too many variables to get it spot on. Then I made the jump to the Cobra and haven't looked back!

[cauques]

Back when I was doing 1 fuse shows, I was actually on my hands and knees with a ruler measuring the fuse length so I could get the timing right. It never happened. The best I ever got was "close." Way too many variables to get it spot on. Then I made the jump to the Cobra and haven't looked back!

Yeah that's basically where I'm at. Cobra will have to wait a while though. I'm going to do some tests to see what kind of burn time discrepancies I get off of a few sections of 8ft of fuse. If it's within 5 seconds I think it will work well enough for timing multiple locations. If not may just have to go with one central location, at least I'll get a longer show that way.

[stark2210]

so, instead of using one 4cue module per location...you can fire 3 igniters off of each cue... giving you 12 cues per board...with each platform perfectly firing simultaneously ... just need to extend the wires.. before i expanded my system, thats what i did...and then using different rate fuses to connect cakes according to their duration..usually not more than 3 or 4 fused one after the other... i dont like the one fuse method anymore(thats what i did for years).. mainly because if something goes wrong there is no way to stop it... all it takes is for it to happen once

Thanks for your post. have a nice day.
Cheer !

[displayfireworks1]

You take long fuse fireworks enthusiast like this member here from Missouri with the spreadsheet and everything. Once he moves into wireless electrical firing he will be doing some killer choreographed displays. Enthusiast that do this level of planning and documentation at the long fuse phase really accelerate when they advance to the next level. I just want to write so a year of two from now I can say I predicted it. LOL