Thinking of purchasing a Cobra

[Fatmanjiggy]

My apologies if this has been asked before. Tried searching the forums and couldn’t find an answer. Mainly just do 2 small shows a year. Have a big box we use, that can hold 2 smalls, like a Texas Rattlesnake, and a 500g cake. If I buy an 18m, I plan on taping on the quickplug Talons ahead of time. My question is, if I fire 3 can I leave the unit on, once they’re done plug 3 more in while leaving the remote in test mode, then arm it and repeat that process over again? Or do I need to turn the system off each time I plug in more cues?

[esgrillo]

I guess I am a bit confused by your set-up/question. I would say technically the answer is yes but why would you want to do that?? You will switch the unit to "off" when going from armed to test mode anyway. Just leave it off when plugging anything in. I personally would not recommend messing with a module during the show. Not much good can happen with that and I can think of plenty of bad.

Not sure what you mean by a "big box"?? Never seen anyone shoot fireworks out of a "big box" that holds 3 cakes. Your plan leads to exactly the situation you buy a firing system to avoid. Black Sky.

Get yourself some plywood and set up boards or look at some other videos of how people set up their site. You can easily fire over 70 cakes with a single 18m and some scab wire when firing several at a time. With 18 cues available on an 18m use them all and when you run out, by more mods. Contribute the Scott Smith retirement fund like the rest of us lol.

[Fatmanjiggy]

Not a professional. It’s our family cookouts on the 4th and Labor Day. So the audience isn’t too critical of the gaps. Reason we use a box, really thick plywood, is just safety. Before we built it, we once had a cake shoot out it’s side into the crowd. Since we’ve done it it’s helped contain a few that have either tipped over or just started exploding inside the box itself. Hope I can clarify my question here. So what I’m wondering what could happen is,

1. Set up 3
2. Fire them
3. Let smoke clear
4. Remove cakes
5. Set up 3 more
6. Just continue doing that until we run out.

Would I need to cut the module off each time I attach new cues or can I just leave the key switched to arm and have the remote left on “test” until I’m ready to fire the new cues?

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Contribute the Scott Smith retirement fund like the rest of us lol.

ROFLMAO... OMG. Now that's too funny! I love it. :D

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I don't want to speak for Ed but what I believe he's telling you is it's never a wise thing fiddle with a firing module during a show. I totally agree. Having said that.... If you insist on doing it, then turn off your R2 remote and turn off the firing module before you do anything. It doesn't take any time at all to restart and rearm the module after you rewire.

How many cakes do you normally fire in a show? Do you fire more than 1 at a time?

With 18 cues per module you can set up 18 different effects and fire them 1 at a time. No need to wire groups of 3. If you want to fire more than 1 effect at a time you can wire them in series or parallel and do that too without having to wire in groups of 3. Just depends on what you're looking to do.

[Fatmanjiggy]

Thanks for the replies. Fire 2-3 at a time. Not a big show, budget around 700-1000. 6-8 500g cakes and about 15-16 smaller ones. I’d like to just have everything wired up at once, don’t have the storage available to store all the stands it would take. Just extra concerned about safety nowadays since I’m down to one eye. Not a fireworks injury btw.

[AxeElf]

Thanks for the replies. Fire 2-3 at a time. Not a big show, budget around 700-1000. 6-8 500g cakes and about 15-16 smaller ones.

$1000 for 25 cakes? Two words: whole sale.

You'll get three times as much product for the same budget.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Thanks for the replies. Fire 2-3 at a time. Not a big show, budget around 700-1000. 6-8 500g cakes and about 15-16 smaller ones.

So you shoot maybe 24 cakes total. If you shot them even 2 at a time you would only use 12 cues on the Cobra. So you could wire everything you have into the firing module and you wouldn't have to rewire at all! In fact, you'd still have room for another dozen cakes.

Having said all that.... If that's all you're shooting, I wouldn't waste my money on a Cobra system. You can buy a cheap Chinese system and do the same thing, without rewiring, for a whole lot less $$.

[SvnTwoo]

Having a Cobra opens up lots of opportunity for your show, but you can manage with a cheaper firing system for your needs.
Why not build two cake boxes and be able to alternate between them and you can fire them from two seperate modules?

[retlawman344]

AxeElf....I just joined this forum yesterday and picked up so many tips already, but seeing your post about buying wholesale peaked my curiosity. In my area I have little choice of where I go. So I rely on the buy the 2000.00 gift card that they boost to 2700.00 (around Christmas), then use it during the "buy one get two free" sale each year after the 4th. I'd like to buy my product closer to the 4th so I don't have to store it, but if they don't run the unlimited sale like they did this year, then I'd be SOL so I buy the bulk of it now.
I'm in northern Ohio and I'm not opposed to a road trip if I'm getting good product at a better price. Checked out one of the stores in Michigan and their prices seemed pretty good, especially buying by the case.
Not sure how they feel about dropping names here so I left them out. Any comments are welcome...Thanks!



$1000 for 25 cakes? Two words: whole sale.

You'll get three times as much product for the same budget.

[Robbro097]

AxeElf....I just joined this forum yesterday and picked up so many tips already, but seeing your post about buying wholesale peaked my curiosity. In my area I have little choice of where I go. So I rely on the buy the 2000.00 gift card that they boost to 2700.00 (around Christmas), then use it during the "buy one get two free" sale each year after the 4th. I'd like to buy my product closer to the 4th so I don't have to store it, but if they don't run the unlimited sale like they did this year, then I'd be SOL so I buy the bulk of it now.
I'm in northern Ohio and I'm not opposed to a road trip if I'm getting good product at a better price. Checked out one of the stores in Michigan and their prices seemed pretty good, especially buying by the case.
Not sure how they feel about dropping names here so I left them out. Any comments are welcome...Thanks!

If your looking for a good place to buy wholesale check out americanwholesalefireworks.com (theyr really picked over now) u can buy by the case or individual items only about an hour from grafton u can order whenever u like and just pick up closer to the fourth. And best part they offer 20% off to pyrotalk members. They also do a total order history 3000$ get u 30% off all orders and 5000$ gets you 40% off. They typically do a 20% off February so order then and can get you near 40% off theyr list price. Then to add to it i think i seen your a cobra owner so u can get daves Articles of pyrotechnics package and purchase theyr 1.4pro stuff (my 1st year buying that stuff but its AWESOME) def worth a look

[Robbro097]

And if you're up for a lil further drive bout an hr and a half from wfboom.com theyr discount structure can get you 40% off also great place worth a look and check out theyr discount structure buy early and dont have to spend as much to get the 40% off

[CozmicRooster]

My apologies if this has been asked before. Tried searching the forums and couldn?t find an answer. Mainly just do 2 small shows a year. Have a big box we use, that can hold 2 smalls, like a Texas Rattlesnake, and a 500g cake. If I buy an 18m, I plan on taping on the quickplug Talons ahead of time. My question is, if I fire 3 can I leave the unit on, once they?re done plug 3 more in while leaving the remote in test mode, then arm it and repeat that process over again? Or do I need to turn the system off each time I plug in more cues?

You?re going to spend a lot of money for a Cobra. For about $100 it looks like this kit will do what you want, and they are also site sponsors https://electricmatch.com/pyrotechnics/see/16/5/electric-firing-starter-kit

I?m by no means any kind of expert, but I?ve been doing a lot of digging around on this recently and I came across this while looking through the list of site sponsor links. With the 4 trigger kit you can wire up 3 cues on 4 different receivers. If you need to re-use one, someone can wire it up while you are using one of the others, saving down time between firings.

[Robbro097]

AxeElf....I just joined this forum yesterday and picked up so many tips already, but seeing your post about buying wholesale peaked my curiosity. In my area I have little choice of where I go. So I rely on the buy the 2000.00 gift card that they boost to 2700.00 (around Christmas), then use it during the "buy one get two free" sale each year after the 4th. I'd like to buy my product closer to the 4th so I don't have to store it, but if they don't run the unlimited sale like they did this year, then I'd be SOL so I buy the bulk of it now.
I'm in northern Ohio and I'm not opposed to a road trip if I'm getting good product at a better price. Checked out one of the stores in Michigan and their prices seemed pretty good, especially buying by the case.
Not sure how they feel about dropping names here so I left them out. Any comments are welcome...Thanks!

Oh yea 1 more to check out since by sounds your shopping at the purple ghost they have a wholesale site thats also a sponser of pyrotalk bjalan.com but Americanwholesalefireworks and wfboom can get u better deals on most stuff but bjalan does have some nice deals