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View Full Version : Make your show bigger at little cost



PyroFL
07-15-2022, 03:09 PM
I found myself as a new cobra user last year, I had to setup modules 100' part and double program to have items go off at the sametime. It seem to me as a waste of a module.

Thought to myself there has to be a easier way and a way I could save on cues.

I only use slates and D-25 breakout board, I purchased a D-25 Y cable and another breakout board 1-3 I could hookup 3 D-25 plus one extra if needed giving me 4, I even added one more board that gave me 5 shooting plus 1 locations I could fire off of 1 bank and 1 cue. This is without using any terminals on the module so that even gives you 1 more.

With many tests on the back porch and on the 4th I can tell you 100% it works great!

This not only help with saving cues, but it also helps with setup time, programming and running scrap wire

Maybe that can help a few of you out there6372

Mattp
07-15-2022, 09:34 PM
I did something similar this year,, and I’m sure I will expand for next year,,, but with 18s quickplug slats… a few more and some more db25… definitely makes thing so much easier and faster to not have to run wire extensions

Jay_
07-17-2022, 09:24 AM
Same here. Converted all of my 18's to slats this year. In the past I would run a 5 position front using 5 18m's with the same events scripted 5 times.

This year, the same events used up 18 cues instead of 90 cues and could be prewired. 72 "free" cues

Make no mistake though, this comes with a bunch more work. I built 32 boards (which are boards/racks ect) and that's a lot to haul and its a ton of igniters.

A few other things that I did to save a few bucks


Igniters-> Bought 600pcs of the Bilusocn 19.68" igniters for $195.90. If you use pegboard single effect racks or make your own compact racks, the length of these are ideal and the quality of the match is excellent.
Slats-> Bought 18 additional slats (non cobra) for $292 on ebay. They have some different options, but on the ones I got the db25 connectors are oriented at the bottom of the boards making it a little more convenient to access.
Cables->Bought some more cheap 28g DB25 cables. I used some last year and they worked just fine. Picked up some more this year. They are dirt cheap compared to what the 24g and 22g cost. Yes I know there is a concern for firing across long distances, but I rigged up a 24v external setup for this (that I ended up not using). FWIW with a little test script, I was able to touch off 25 igniters (5 cues/5 series slats) with 235ft of cable attached to a 9v unit in .1s increment's. No way I would try to do that in a show off of 9v units, but was trying to see if it would actually do it. These were not MJG's rather the elcheapo igniters listed above.
apo Bilusocn igniters that require less amperage.


6373

While my show didn't turn out as I would have liked it to, it was due to operator error, not equipment failure