18M Quick Plug Upgrade & Mini Slat Testing

[esgrillo]

Video of some modifications I made to one of my 18Ms and testing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZkyz9bFQX4

[PyroGyro]

Nice. That Cat5 cable is super convenient, light, and cheap. It's too bad you couldn't use CAT5/RJ45 with 18S/18cues. I'd imagine Cobra would then need some logic on the slats and Modules though for that. I also noticed that the 36M with Quickplug does not come RJ45 at all?

[Deanbc]

Video of some modifications I made to one of my 18Ms and testing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZkyz9bFQX4

Ed, So if I understand the test correctly, the shunt is required because the mini slats are Series slats, correct? I don’t believe a shunt would be required if they were parallel slats? Also looks like they are regular speaker terminal slats vs. quick plug slats...did you try firing with Igniters in all three locations (2 slats and quick plug on 18M)? For my 4th show, I used an 18M with quick plugs with Cat5 cable running to three Mini 6 parallel slats and fired the cues from the module at the same time as the single slat and it worked fine. Just a bit more curious on your test.

[esgrillo]

Ed, So if I understand the test correctly, the shunt is required because the mini slats are Series slats, correct? I don?t believe a shunt would be required if they were parallel slats? Also looks like they are regular speaker terminal slats vs. quick plug slats...did you try firing with Igniters in all three locations (2 slats and quick plug on 18M)? For my 4th show, I used an 18M with quick plugs with Cat5 cable running to three Mini 6 parallel slats and fired the cues from the module at the same time as the single slat and it worked fine. Just a bit more curious on your test.

Yes as you state, no shunt needed for parallel. I am guessing you could probably fire 2 matches in each cue of your 3 mini slats and be OK. I don't have any of the quick plug matches so could not test that.

What I am trying to do is ring my retention pond behind my shoot site with strobe/smoke about every 50 ft or so without having to buy more mods to do that. It is about 1000-1200 ft of length. The trick is going to make a low cost "booster(s)" to enable firing about 20 matches over that length of distance. Reed S is working on that part for me.

[Deanbc]

Yes as you state, no shunt needed for parallel. I am guessing you could probably fire 2 matches in each cue of your 3 mini slats and be OK. I don't have any of the quick plug matches so could not test that.

What I am trying to do is ring my retention pond behind my shoot site with strobe/smoke about every 50 ft or so without having to buy more mods to do that. It is about 1000-1200 ft of length. The trick is going to make a low cost "booster(s)" to enable firing about 20 matches over that length of distance. Reed S is working on that part for me.
So I bought one new quick plug 18m and 3 - 6 mini slats and used that setup to fire my strobes. If this helps I used 75 feet of Cat6 cable from the mod to each slat with no problems. I was advised that 100 feet of cable would be pushing it so to do what you want might require a booster as you mention unless you change your configuration of slat placement. I did not run connected slats like you did in your test. It would be interesting to know just how far in length you could do that successfully. I don’t think the Cobra guys know that yet. Let’s us know what you finish up with.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Okay... Only thing I can't figure out is why you shorted cue 18. Is that just to ensure you're getting a good continuity reading from the firing module?

[esgrillo]

Okay... Only thing I can't figure out is why you shorted cue 18. Is that just to ensure you're getting a good continuity reading from the firing module?

Rick that had nothing to do with the slat test. I was originally using some talons to test and was having trouble getting continuity so I was just troubleshooting with that jumper. Talons suck lol.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Ahhh. Okay. Every time I see something like that I get paranoid that I'm forgetting to think of something to ask or a part I need to buy. :confused:

[rfgonzo]

Ahhh. Okay. Every time I see something like that I get paranoid that I'm forgetting to think of something to ask or a part I need to buy. :confused:

Your not alone Rick, I was wondering the same thing.

[AndreMan]

... I used an 18M with quick plugs with Cat5 cable running to three Mini 6 parallel slats...

Can you please confirm whether you can see continuity with the parallel slats. I was looking at using 3 mini 6s slats with an 18M but it looks like the information says I will lose the ability to see continuity on each cue, unless I connect and check one cue at a time, which seems annoying but if something happens during transport or otherwise, I wouldn't see it on another module or remote continuity check. Is this correct?
Thanks,
Andre

[cjurczak]

Can you please confirm whether you can see continuity with the parallel slats. I was looking at using 3 mini 6s slats with an 18M but it looks like the information says I will lose the ability to see continuity on each cue, unless I connect and check one cue at a time, which seems annoying but if something happens during transport or otherwise, I wouldn't see it on another module or remote continuity check. Is this correct?
Thanks,
Andre

That?s correct, if you have 3 slats in parallel if you have an ematch on any of the 3 you will see continuity. You will not be able to tell if you have 1, 2, or 3 ematches connected. It?s either go or no go as a status. If you want the ability to tell if all ematches are good I reccomend series slats and series wiring, but only if you are using ematch or initiators. Talons are limited to parallel wiring only!