He owns a Cobra and a FireTEK

[displayfireworks1]

I am currently offering the Articles of Pyrotechnic continuing education certificate as the newly defined category of pyrotechnics is growing. As I offer the continuing education program in addition to current owners of one of the three currently required owner systems ( Cobra , FireTEK or Firelinx ) I am seeing fireworks enthusiast wanting to further advance into pyrotechnics purchasing one of the three systems at the same time to obtain the Articles of Pyrotechnics certification I offer. Of those wanting to advance I randomly picked one that newly purchase a FireTEK System. I go through a firing system verification process for pyrotalk Articles of Pyrotechnics certificate education program. Once I verified he purchased a FireTEK I randomly selected him and requested an Articles of Pyrotechnic review and comment on the FireTEK. Little did I know he also owned a Cobra System! With his permission at the end of our emails , here are his personal name redacted emails between us after AP Certificate purchase when I solicited his comments pre and post July 4th.
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Just wanting to confirm you received my order via PayPal, trans ID XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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FireTEK verified your system. I'm out and about need my home computer to process into database etc. Will do this afternoon
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Thank you sir!
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Do you think XX XXXXXXX will ever be part of the list of available vendors to purchase 1.4 pro from?
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I tell you XXX, XXXXXX XXXXXXXXX . If you call and talk to someone referencing your order history , the type of firing system I verified and tell them XXXXXX , they may do it. But this close to July 4th it may be too late. American Fireworks in Hudson Ohio sells XXXXX products and does accept it. Once you use that FireTEK for a while . Let me know your opinion on it.

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Good afternoon Dave. Just wanted to let you know my thoughts after the 3 shows I did over the July 4th holiday. Two of the shows were moderate in size with 1.4 and 1.4 pro items, and the last show was rather large with mostly 1.4pro and around 1000 1.4 canister shells. Overall, the FireTEK system did well, it performed as it was described. However, I have a Cobra I got second hand from someone that I will say I still prefer over the FireTEK. Especially when you are expanding past the 64 queues on the FireTEK model I purchased. With the Cobra, being able to spread everything further apart with multiple 18M's on the edge of the shoot site and a 36M in the center is still the ideal configuration for me. I do see myself using the FireTEK in small shows that do not require a spread out configuration. Thanks again Dave!!
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XXXXXX

Thank you for that honest review of the FireTEK. . May I share your review on my website minus your identifying information . Both of these companies are my advertisers and I try to represent both and help viewers make a decision on what they want to purchase and also give them a chance to comment.

Dave pyrotalk

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Absolutely. I do not have an issue with you sharing my review at all. Thank you again for all you do for the pyro community!

[cmill]

Interesting comments. I’m looking to purchase a professional system and am leaning toward firetek right now. I don’t “plan” to do large shows but could see wanting to spread the show out somewhat. This is food for thought. Getting your AP certificate is surely on my list to expand my knowledge and purchasing capabilities.

[topshelfpyro]

The way he said what he said about spreading things out doesn't make much sense.....I use FireTEK and since it's a railed system you can spread it out as much as you want, just use a longer cat5 cable. You can also daisy chain rails utilizing the built in passthru in every rail to parallel multiple rails even further. (I've gone 450' thru 8 rails in parallel)

Sounds like he only has 1 FireTEK mod but several cobra mods LOL. Maybe doesn't understand how rails work?

[displayfireworks1]

The way he said what he said about spreading things out doesn't make much sense.....I use FireTEK and since it's a railed system you can spread it out as much as you want, just use a longer cat5 cable. You can also daisy chain rails utilizing the built in passthru in every rail to parallel multiple rails even further. (I've gone 450' thru 8 rails in parallel)

Sounds like he only has 1 FireTEK mod but several cobra mods LOL. Maybe doesn't understand how rails work?

I suspect it is just as you say. He probably only purchased one module to try the system out. If he had three modules he could have accomplished the task. At Topshelfpyro. On your FireTEK what color Cat-5 cables do you use or do you have a mix of colors? I'm thinking there may be some reasoning to buying select colors for specified lengths for quick reference when setting up a show.

[topshelfpyro]

I suspect it is just as you say. He probably only purchased one module to try the system out. If he had three modules he could have accomplished the task. At Topshelfpyro. On your FireTEK what color Cat-5 cables do you use or do you have a mix of colors? I'm thinking there may be some reasoning to buying select colors for specified lengths for quick reference when setting up a show.


I color code my cat5e cables for length. White/Orange=30' yellow=50' blue/orange=75'. I use orange for both the 30 and 75 since its easy to tell the different lenghts apart

With the FTQ 64 FireTEK mods every output/rail has 16 ques so if you compare that to cobra you almost have 1- 18m per output or 4-18m per mod

[displayfireworks1]

At Topshelfpyro: Great idea ,I suspected dedicated FireTEK users would create some sort of color coding/length for easy reference setting up displays . Me thinking as a pyro-technician cleaning up displays and/or finding cables in the grass etc. The choice of cable colors would be a consideration. Unless you are doing stage work. Then black may be the best choice.
Using the FireTEK do you have an opinion on Cable Category classifications? Are you using Cat-5 ? Is there any advantage to the higher Categories ? I personally get very confused purchasing these types of cables . I mean what are they up to now Category-8. Are the higher Categories backward compatible and have the same end plugs? Do you have recommendations ? The upside is, if Category-5 is good enough , it keeps the cost lower as the sector of cable Categories increases.

[topshelfpyro]

At Topshelfpyro: Great idea ,I suspected dedicated FireTEK users would create some sort of color coding/length for easy reference setting up displays . Me thinking as a pyro-technician cleaning up displays and/or finding cables in the grass etc. The choice of cable colors would be a consideration. Unless you are doing stage work. Then black may be the best choice.
Using the FireTEK do you have an opinion on Cable Category classifications? Are you using Cat-5 ? Is there any advantage to the higher Categories ? I personally get very confused purchasing these types of cables . I mean what are they up to now Category-8. Are the higher Categories backward compatible and have the same end plugs? Do you have recommendations ? The upside is, if Category-5 is good enough , it keeps the cost lower as the sector of cable Categories increases.

No there is no reason to spend any more on Cat6 etc, Cat5e is plenty but you want to make sure that the wire is 24awg COPPER not CCA and stranded is better than solid. The system is simply sending current/voltage down the wire not data so the benefits of the higher "cat" specs are moot. just like the old tech parallel printer cables that other systems use to send voltage/current but cat5e cables are super cheap.

[Smily0]

I'm an IT architect by trade and agree 100% with topshelfpyro. If you are going to use very long cables, you can also look for 23awg or 22awg. 24awg may still work fine, but you may be limited on the max number of simultaneous cues fired at once. I haven't tested it personally, so would love to hear if you guys have experience in that specific manner.

I just bought a 10-pack of 25ft GearIT Cat 6 cables (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D8N4LJM/) to use in my shows this year as they were the cheapest I could find and they worked great. That said, Monoprice is often a great source for cheap cables (Ethernet/DB25/others too).