Firelinx New advertiser to pyrotalk.com

[displayfireworks1]

Please welcome my newest advertiser to pyrotalk.com. Firelinx fireworks firing systems. From major amusements parks , professional display companies to the now advanced fireworks enthusiast. Look for their banners to display soon here on pyrotalk. Until then, check out their website here.
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https://www.firelinx.com/

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[Firelinx]

Thanks, Dave, for the introductory post. We're excited to be part of this networking community and welcome any questions about our system!

-Firelinx

[displayfireworks1]

Today I received a Firelinx system. This is the first I am seeing this system. In the near future I will post more information about it and expand on some of the features. For now I'll post some pictures of the system so the pyrotalk members can get a look at the system. My first impression is it looks and feels well made.
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[displayfireworks1]

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[displayfireworks1]

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[displayfireworks1]

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[displayfireworks1]

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https://www.firelinx.com/

[displayfireworks1]

Adding my video from YouTube introducing the system to my subscribers. I am also attaching the Firelinx user manual to this post.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8K7T0bxcA4

[displayfireworks1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sL79qSB8xQ
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https://www.firelinx.com/​
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If you are advancing into backyard pyrotechnics , its time to make the move into a fireworks firing system. With the Firelinx system you can simply enjoy just pressing buttons to fire each fireworks product or when you are ready design a fireworks display on your computer. The future of the backyard fireworks enthusiast has never been brighter.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWavJT7hVEs&t=0s
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[displayfireworks1]

Updating Software on the Firelinx. Out of the box remote (Command Module) was already running version 1.3. Out the box the Fire Module was running version 1.2 . Now both are running version 1.3. Took me a minute or so to figure software downloads are compressed files. They need opened and then add the .bin file to the USB thumb drive. Going through the learning curve, remote keep saying update not found. Once I extracted the .bin file it immediately found it. Command module (remote) wireless ran the update to the fire module. In hindsight I wish I had the two connected using the two wire to see if that would have increased the speed of the update from the remote to the module. Either way it completed the task in a reasonable amount of time.
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https://www.firelinx.com/software-updates/
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7shzfPgYxuk

[Firelinx]

Hi, Dave & Viewers!

We thought it would be a good idea to share the communication with one of your viewers in regards to a comment left on this video interview. A gentleman reached out to us via email and here are his questions and our answers.

Q: What types of errors caused the failure in this case? Script error, firing error, etc? This caused a safety to trip, but what other kinds of things could trip a safety?

A: This person's comment was about a failure during a recent show, and we know knowledge like this only comes from a detailed review of every failure after a show. We're often surprised how quick a pyro is to break down the show and get going without bothering to check. We agree that many errors just happen and losing a shell or two is often acceptable. One of the things we love about fireworks is that you can completely biff the show (from your point of view) but the audience always loves it. We come from an environment, however, where every shell not launched counts, and there had better be a reason why, and safety is paramount.

We’ll assume some knowledge of basic electronics and programming. If there is something here you don’t understand, write back to us or reach us at info@firelinx.com, and we'll explain that portion in more detail.

To put it most simply, this event was a combination of an overabundance of caution in the programming combined with human error, ours. Yes, we should know better, that’s why this item is being added to our pre-show checklist. We’ll get to that in a minute.

The fateful error was first initiated by the operator pacing around and checking on his audio system, which was behind him. Why does this matter? Because what we call “the big bag of water” – the human body – is the best RF shielding ever devised. He was holding the Command Module (CM) tight to his chest so when he turned around long enough – about 5 seconds – one module lost contact. Short dropouts happen all the time, radio is fundamentally unreliable, so the system is very tolerant of them. The CM is not trying to shoot the show, the firing modules are doing that, but a short “heartbeat” signal is going out every second to ensure everyone stays on time and they know the CM is still in control. If you drop the CM off the barge, the heartbeat stops, and the modules go safe. In this case, the operator turned away just long enough that in one module – the farthest away which unfortunately means the big guns – the combination of having a few normal dropouts due to long-range and then the extended dropout from blocking the CM signal tripped this safety in the module and it stopped firing. As expected within a second or two, contact was re-established and everything should have been fine.

The second part of the programming then went back to trying to shoot the show after it had lost contact. The firing module comes up safe and then first looks at what’s happening: 1) status says it should be armed, 2) status says it was in show so it should be firing. 3) status says it had already fired shells. These are only significant because the combination of all three caused the next question to be asked in the code: 4) what time is it in the show? Here is where the overabundance of caution, in 20-20 hindsight, came in. The program was set to assume that because it had lost contact, it should not trust the timing currently going on in the module. So it had cleared the timer, even though it was valid. The final puzzle piece is there are two heartbeat signals, one for safety, the second for timing. They alternate to keep the RF traffic as low as possible during the show. In this case, we had received the safety/status heartbeat, but we had not yet received a timing heartbeat. With the Timing Good flag reset, the final safety fired because it was armed and firing but did not have a valid timer. This shut down the module. If the timing had not been exactly in this sequence, or we had not invalidated the timer, everything would have been fine. We corrected this chain of logic.

The last item then was human error. As you may have seen from some of my other writings, and I’ll repeat it, wireless is fundamentally unreliable. You have to assume it will drop out on you at the worst possible time. This is not about who built the radio, it’s just physics. You can work very hard and make the radio very expensive, but it’ll only make it better – the problem still exists. This is where the Mesh Network comes in. The Mesh is a two-edged sword. It allows you to extend the range and shoot around corners, both good things. But it also uses up a high percentage of your available RF spectrum – your ability to get a message through. The mesh is bad enough -- if you get more than 10-20 modules in the field they start talking to each other so much just to maintain the mesh network that you start dropping messages. Just a few at first, but the more field modules you get, the more your throughput starts to disappear. That’s why we show you what’s called Link Quality (LQ) instead of RSS. Link Quality is the actual percentage of messages getting through, not just the Relative Signal Strength when they do get through. Ok, so the modules talk too much. On top of that, we have Repeaters. Unicast messages, those going direct to a particular module, are routed directly through the mesh so they work very well. Other messages are broadcast, so they don’t go through the mesh. They have to be received, stored, and “repeated” by other modules to get around the network. This adds latency at every hop, and again your throughput begins to disappear. Only one module can ever be transmitting at one time. So if the CM sends a broadcast message, and I have 5 repeaters in the field, I have used up 5 times more of my bandwidth because I can’t transmit again until all of the repeaters have done theirs. Imagine if EVERY module was a repeater. If a repeater’s message can’t get through, it will delay and try again. If all of them are trying, maybe one gets through, the rest delay and try again, so it’s impossible to predict when you can really send the message unless you completely control the networks.

As the big guns were the highlight of the show, we could have also used the 2-wire to run a line out to that module to guarantee that communication would continue even if there was some kind of RF glitch. Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda. The wet 12 still would have gone off in the tube, but the crowd would have loved it.

To solve these problems, we have two solutions: First, we have an additional control program running inside the radio that controls the mesh network as supplied by the manufacturer. Basically, we get it to sit down, shut up, and play nice. The mesh still functions, but we control it. Second, we give you the decision as to how many repeaters you want in the network. This is where the human error came in. We tell users that it’s a good strategy to turn on one repeater in the network, even if you don’t see a particular problem to solve. One repeater does not use up too much of the throughput but protects the system from things like pacing while the show is on or someone walking in front of the firing table. We forgot to do that. Had we remembered, it is far less likely this series of events would have been triggered in the first place. We're glad to have found the potential failure that was there, but I’d much rather have the show go off perfectly.

In the future, we have a new command we’ve just developed (and are filing a patent on) called the Negotiated Repeater Algorithm or NRA. This is a process you can run once the field is set up, that will automatically find which modules need to be repeaters to give you the highest reliability, with the least number of repeaters, and automatically turn them on for you. And yes, it will automatically turn on at least one just to be sure. I hope that explanation helps.

Q: How does your black box know a match ignited, and why is/was it sometimes inaccurate?

A: The black box cannot know if a match fired, it can only know that it released all of the safety interlocks and sent the current out to the match. There are 5 hardware/software interlocks that prevent accidental firing because it’s possible that a computer program code will go rogue and, unknown to the operator, branch to any part of the program. Even a FIRE command. This is a low probability, true – but not zero. Software fixes alone can’t stop the program from improper branching, you have to have hardware built-in outside the processor that does it. Even continuity testing for the match after the shot isn’t fool-proof, sometimes the match fuses short when it fires or opens the circuit even though it didn’t burn enough to ignite the leader. But at least we know we fired the channel.

Q: What was the resistance of the mine/comet matches that were singly fired and worked correctly, and the total resistance of the matches tied together that failed? Were they in series or parallel?

A: The comet that we measured read 5 ohms. The normal e-match is about 1.5 Ohms and requires 500mA to guarantee firing. The system fires at 12.5V so E=IR 12.5V/0.5A = 25 ohms that we can fire. That’s the equivalent of 16 matches. We suggest firing every channel at 1A if possible for greater reliability, so that’s more like 7 E-matches in series. We don’t recommend wiring in parallel because you can’t do a good continuity test. But if you do, there is a current limit on each channel of about 1.2A. Two e-matches in parallel would be a very low resistance so the current limit would kick in and the two resistors would each get half just clearing the 500mA all fire current of the match. The comet bundles seem to have been wired both ways, a cluster of about 5 that we assumed was in series and then two more wired on at the last minute we think we're in parallel. There was enough there to give good continuity. To answer your question directly, we recommend 7 e-matches in series and 2 in parallel. Since the capacitor bank allows you to shoot all of the channels at the same time, if you like more in parallel we suggest using additional channels instead to achieve the same result but with good continuity checking and a full ampere per shot.

I think you can see now why we’re justifiably proud of getting all of this technology down close to the price of some other low-cost systems. When I joined Birket Engineering to build the pyro systems for the theme parks, the first thing that they told me was, “It's easy to build a firing system that’s safe. Just make one that won’t fire.” It’s a delicate line between safety and practicality. I think we put a toe over the line on this particular piece of code. That’s why we do post-mortem analysis on most shows now to find any hidden flaws like this.

Attached are a couple of photos: “matchfired” shows a shell where the match has fired but it did not ignite the leader, the second is titled Rack5 which somehow never got wired into the module.

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[Engineer Cat]

Dave thanks for all the details you have provided about this new system. I think it's fantastic how the manufacture explained to detail the issues they had with the one show and how they were able to track down step by step what happened. I emailed Firelinx some questions I had and they replied very quickly and with great details.

I was pretty much settled on getting the Cobra but I really like the features of the Firelinx. The cheap Chinese system I use now is not reliable and as I work on the timing for the show this 4th of July, the more I feel like I will be disappointed when cues fail to go off so it's time to bite the bullet.

Is Firelinx giving PyroTalk members a discount code or coupon to use if we buy the system?

[Firelinx]

Dave thanks for all the details you have provided about this new system. I think it's fantastic how the manufacture explained to detail the issues they had with the one show and how they were able to track down step by step what happened. I emailed Firelinx some questions I had and they replied very quickly and with great details.

I was pretty much settled on getting the Cobra but I really like the features of the Firelinx. The cheap Chinese system I use now is not reliable and as I work on the timing for the show this 4th of July, the more I feel like I will be disappointed when cues fail to go off so it's time to bite the bullet.

Is Firelinx giving PyroTalk members a discount code or coupon to use if we buy the system?

@engineercat - I think you've been communicating with one of our team members via email already. Hopefully we've answered all of your questions, if not, let us know via email! ��

[displayfireworks1]

Dave thanks for all the details you have provided about this new system. I think it's fantastic how the manufacture explained to detail the issues they had with the one show and how they were able to track down step by step what happened. I emailed Firelinx some questions I had and they replied very quickly and with great details.

I was pretty much settled on getting the Cobra but I really like the features of the Firelinx. The cheap Chinese system I use now is not reliable and as I work on the timing for the show this 4th of July, the more I feel like I will be disappointed when cues fail to go off so it's time to bite the bullet.

Is Firelinx giving PyroTalk members a discount code or coupon to use if we buy the system?

I help to promote products from my advertisers , they set the price for their products. My opinion is their current price , quality , features etc in this sector of advanced fireworks firing systems, additional at this time of year in United States it is priced competitively. I will further add the detailed description of the investigation of a reported error and their findings for us all to see , shows transparency from this company. You do not always see transparency from companies in the fireworks industry. LOL

[Engineer Cat]

I help to promote products from my advertisers , they set the price for their products. My opinion is their current price , quality , features etc in this sector of advanced fireworks firing systems, additional at this time of year in United States it is priced competitively. I will further add the detailed description of the investigation of a reported error and their findings for us all to see , shows transparency from this company. You do not always see transparency from companies in the fireworks industry. LOL

LOL totally agree with transparency in the industry. Reading that report was fascinating. Being able to explain in incredible detail what went wrong was fantastic. I also agree the price point is very fair.

@firelinx yes I have been emailing with Brendon and he has been very helpful. I have a few other questions I'll be sending his way.

Thanks Guys

[Firelinx]

LOL totally agree with transparency in the industry. Reading that report was fascinating. Being able to explain in incredible detail what went wrong was fantastic. I also agree the price point is very fair.

@firelinx yes I have been emailing with Brendon and he has been very helpful. I have a few other questions I'll be sending his way.

Thanks Guys

@Engineer Cat - Great, we did see your email come in over the weekend. Brendon is checking with our senior engineer to provide you with a correct answer, you should be hearing back from him shortly! ��

[Firelinx]

I help to promote products from my advertisers , they set the price for their products. My opinion is their current price , quality , features etc in this sector of advanced fireworks firing systems, additional at this time of year in United States it is priced competitively. I will further add the detailed description of the investigation of a reported error and their findings for us all to see , shows transparency from this company. You do not always see transparency from companies in the fireworks industry. LOL

Thanks, Dave, we appreciate the support you've given us. We're happy we got the chance to send you demo units to test them out on your own! ��