E-Strobes (Sick of wiring ground strobes - electronics solution)

[Uilnaydar]

Been working on an electronic solution to ground strobe effects. I love the effect but hate the time it takes to e-match and wire the little buggers so I went electronic. This uses an ESP32 as a "master" to sent On/Off/Random commands from three 18M cues.

With the ability to repeat fire cues, the on/off/random selection can be scripted as a normal firework allowing having the LEDs on for any amount of time as well as using random sequences for any amount of time.

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5638&stc=1

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5639&stc=1

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5640&stc=1

Demo is here: https://vimeo.com/528311357

[PyroJoeNEPA]

That is a really innovative application. From what you have shown in the demo video, the possibilities are endless. I would imagine if you wanted color instead of white you could use a piece of theatrical lighting gel around the LED enclosure to give you the color you wanted.
What sort of price [ballpark] are you looking at for the parts for the master & slave units?
Great video---and welcome to the PyroTalk Forums. That certainly is an attention getting first post.

[Uilnaydar]

Wasn't looking to make cash off of it but I'd say:
Master: $30 for the custom pcbs and parts
Slaves: $40 since the 10W LED & Heatsink are $6 and another 2 bucks in polycarbonate tubing.

Full disclosure: Can't remember WHAT fireworks forums I'd been on previously so jumped in here :)

[ssmith512]

Wow! Really nice! Added bonus - strobes are notorious for being big time smoke screen generators, these e-strobes eliminate that!

Quick question - does each strobe require 3 cues or can multiple strobes be daisy chained to one strobe will all strobes being controlled by 3 cues?

[Uilnaydar]

Wow! Really nice! Added bonus - strobes are notorious for being big time smoke screen generators, these e-strobes eliminate that!

Quick question - does each strobe require 3 cues or can multiple strobes be daisy chained to one strobe will all strobes being controlled by 3 cues?

Short answer... nope, just 3 channels on a single 18M.

There is a master unit (ESP32 unit) that connects to 3 cues on a single module

Master is connected to all slaves using the ESP-NOW wireless framework.

There is any amount of slave units (ESP8266 units) that are stand-alone and get commands from the master unit.

When the first cue on the master unit is triggered by the 18M it turns On ALL the slaves sync'd to the master
Second cue on master turns all the slaves to start doing the "strobe" effect (random PWM between 0 and 100% with a 100ms delay between each change)
Third cue on the master turns all the slaves off

[Uilnaydar]

That is a really innovative application. From what you have shown in the demo video, the possibilities are endless. I would imagine if you wanted color instead of white you could use a piece of theatrical lighting gel around the LED enclosure to give you the color you wanted.
What sort of price [ballpark] are you looking at for the parts for the master & slave units?
Great video---and welcome to the PyroTalk Forums. That certainly is an attention getting first post.

There are high intensity RGB versions of these LEDs. The lumen output is 1/3rd of the white. If I wanted to use the 18M framework I'd need a total of 9 channels (Red On/Off/Random, Green On/Off/Random, Blue On/Off/Random).

This is my next generation project that will use SMPTE and the ESP-NOW framework with these high lumen RGBs. (That's unless Scott Smith sees it and beats me to it of course).

[Scotty Rockets]

Or just get a firing system that supports DMX such as fireTEK or Mongoose. Both are compatible with finale 3D new DMX scripting feature also. Here is just a rough test of my fireTEK firing system running a DMX script with a generic china made flame unit. Why wait when it?s already available

https://youtu.be/Qeq3fruyjDw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qeq3fruyjDw
running a PAR DMX light

https://youtube.com/shorts/5tY50m95l70

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tY50m95l70

[Uilnaydar]

Or just get a firing system that supports DMX such as fireTEK or Mongoose. Both are compatible with finale 3D new DMX scripting feature also. Here is just a rough test of my fireTEK firing system running a DMX script with a generic china made flame unit. Why wait when it?s already available

https://youtu.be/Qeq3fruyjDw

running a PAR DMX light

https://youtube.com/shorts/5tY50m95l70

1.) No "new" finale for me - Excel, Audacity, and custom software here.
2.) I'm a Cobra person and not going to spend $1000s to switch to some other system
3.) Electronics is a hobby, why buy when I enjoy blowing up components and burning myself with soldering irons.

[Scotty Rockets]

That’s fair. Just putting it out there that options do exist now.

[krayg]

Great idea!

With the upcoming DMX support by Cobra,youI could glue together falconplay on a pi to accept DMX and multiple 10W RGB LEDs connected to ESP8266s as slaves. It would be a holiday light show in July with any color you want.

[topshelfpyro]

so, i'm wondering why not just buy par lights for this application?

[Uilnaydar]

Great idea!

With the upcoming DMX support by Cobra,youI could glue together falconplay on a pi to accept DMX and multiple 10W RGB LEDs connected to ESP8266s as slaves. It would be a holiday light show in July with any color you want.

I was one of those crazy Christmas Light people so looking forward to reusing all those DMX controllers with the 10W RGBs.... <evil grin>

https://vimeo.com/82255922

[Uilnaydar]

so, i'm wondering why not just buy par lights for this application?

1.) As in my previous post... this is a hobby (electronics/pyro)
2.) These are battery powered (Master lasts all day on a Milwaukee M18 2.0 battery, slaves last all day on standby and can do 2 shows on a Milwaukee M18 2.0 battery)
3.) These are wireless. 700 feet open field, 400 feet with obstructions.
3.) These have been hardened against rain/storms as well as active cooling for sitting in the hot sun after setup.
4.) These are cheap if I source directly through Aliexpress/LCSC (MUCH MUCH MUCH cheaper than the par lights. I'm down to $10 at my most recent small volume order)
5.) Can be scaled up to the 100W LED if I want to go extreme :)
6.) Most importantly, this is a hobby

Finally, these were also designed forward thinking to the upcoming DMX support (when it finally arrives) of the Cobra system.

[ssmith512]

Coolest thing since sliced bread. I need three red strobes for my 4th show. Please tell me where to send funds!! :D

[topshelfpyro]

1.) As in my previous post... this is a hobby (electronics/pyro)
2.) These are battery powered (Master lasts all day on a Milwaukee M18 2.0 battery, slaves last all day on standby and can do 2 shows on a Milwaukee M18 2.0 battery)
3.) These are wireless. 700 feet open field, 400 feet with obstructions.
3.) These have been hardened against rain/storms as well as active cooling for sitting in the hot sun after setup.
4.) These are cheap if I source directly through Aliexpress/LCSC (MUCH MUCH MUCH cheaper than the par lights. I'm down to $10 at my most recent small volume order)
5.) Can be scaled up to the 100W LED if I want to go extreme :)
6.) Most importantly, this is a hobby

Finally, these were also designed forward thinking to the upcoming DMX support (when it finally arrives) of the Cobra system.

Are they currently DMX controllable? With my fireTEK system i have 9- 128 channel DMX universes available to me and if this creation you made is wireless and self contained and you will sell them.......i may never buy another pyro strobe again......many questions in my head lol

[Uilnaydar]

They aren't (yet) DMX controllable. Waiting on the DMX feature in Cobra to start that. Reminds me, need to start bugging Scott Smith about that feature again! However, it's an easy fix/implementation. I would just need to change the master to the DMX controller and the slaves would become "pixels" tied to the MAC address.

The big issue is adding the RGB high intensity stuff. I'd need 1x RED (at 75% PWM), 1x GREEN (at 42% PWM), and 3x!!! BLUE (each blue LED running at full chooch) to duplicate white at 1000 lumens with the cheap chineseium 10W LEDs. 1000lm is about the lowest I'd go with these things from my testing in a fireworks scenario. Hell, I've been eyeballing this 100,00 lumen monstrosity on my workbench wonder how badly I would get sued if I fired it off during a show.

At 20mm x 20mm many 10W modules suck up a bunch of real-estate (and CASH). I'm going to start looking around for possibly doing this with individual LED strings to see if I can get 1000+lm on an aluminum substrate. Might give me an excuse to start playing with optics too. However, I'm gunshy after what the 100,000lm LED did to one of my lenses :)

I'm worried about adding a filter to create the reds/blues/greens since 1.) I haven't played with stage lighting in ohhhh, 30+ years 2.) I hate to give up lumens to the filter gods

For now, just going to get these working for the 4th and looking sideways at that 100,000lm LED module.

Regarding selling them, I doubt I'll do that. If the project is "done enough" I'll most likely toss it up on github and open the project files at OSH Park for folks to use/modify freely. I have nowhere near the patience with the public that Scott at Cobra does!

[bigmike06]

I might be interested in this when you get the DMX part working. I already use par lights and flame machines with my Firetek system. I'm already running wireless DMX with the flames and par lights, so I like how this is already setup wireless. What kind of range are you getting between master and slave?

[Uilnaydar]

I might be interested in this when you get the DMX part working. I already use par lights and flame machines with my Firetek system. I'm already running wireless DMX with the flames and par lights, so I like how this is already setup wireless. What kind of range are you getting between master and slave?

Line of sight I'm out to 300' without an external antenna on the master. I'm running another prototype with some external antennas (using Cobra replacement parts <evil grin>).

[Uilnaydar]

Have been seeing how hard I can push the system without breaking the Cobra system. Think I've settled on 200ms between each e-strobe "command" to ensure the pyros fire efficiently. Here's a night test to make the neighbors nervous:

https://vimeo.com/532841181

[Uilnaydar]

.... and done! 12,000 lumens!

Full setup
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5673&stc=1

Final controller housing
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5674&stc=1

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Very nice! Very nice indeed. :cool:

[Crush630]

Cobra is in the final stretches of DMX testing, with the ability to support over 1000 DMX universes.

[Uilnaydar]

Cobra is in the final stretches of DMX testing, with the ability to support over 1000 DMX universes.

I'm on "The List(tm)" with Cobra but wasn't able to weasel myself into beta.

All these modules can be programmed over the air, so when DMX is ready it's just a quick reprogram (similar to the Cobra firmware reprogramming).

I just couldn't risk it being available for the big show this year.

Another thing I'm dreading is if I upgrade the firmware in my personal modules I have to do the 100s of modules for the company I use for the show... Hate burning firmware in 100s of modules and remotes almost as much as I hate wiring ground strobes. We're talking mother-in-law hate here :)

[WithReport]

Have been seeing how hard I can push the system without breaking the Cobra system. Think I've settled on 200ms between each e-strobe "command" to ensure the pyros fire efficiently. Here's a night test to make the neighbors nervous:

https://vimeo.com/532841181

The whole approach is very clever and cool. Nice Job.

Would I do or use something like this? Maybe - I get stuck on the "keep pyro pure" mental games at time and although my system does DMX, I've rarely used it for anything other than flames in our 4th of July shows - which are cool.

Regarding the e-strobe, maybe it is the camera recording, but the video posted does not seem to have nearly the same effect or brightness as pyro strobes.

[Uilnaydar]

The whole approach is very clever and cool. Nice Job.

Would I do or use something like this? Maybe - I get stuck on the "keep pyro pure" mental games at time and although my system does DMX, I've rarely used it for anything other than flames in our 4th of July shows - which are cool.

Regarding the e-strobe, maybe it is the camera recording, but the video posted does not seem to have nearly the same effect or brightness as pyro strobes.

Nope, not as bright so I'll push them closer to audience and can scale the quantity.

[Uilnaydar]

2021 show using these e-strobes. Seemed to work well and had good comments from the crowd:

Link to Vimeo video (https://vimeo.com/568691888)

[Engineer Cat]

I was one of those crazy Christmas Light people so looking forward to reusing all those DMX controllers with the 10W RGBs.... <evil grin>

https://vimeo.com/82255922

That's cool. I almost fell into that trap 10 years ago. It's super cool. Love watching peoples displays like this. I decided I didn't want to spend all that time program those things to be timed with the music until it was perfect. So I fell into the trap of doing it with fireworks instead. LOL;)

[FBpyro]

Wow! Dude that's pretty damn cool! nice way of using electronics engineering to compliment this hobby. I did the same thing by using my electronics knowledge to design my own firing system, but you had a really clever idea to realize a unique solution to a problem most pyros did not think existed. Also kudos on the use of a Milwaukee battery for powering the strobes.