Learned my lesson with going cheap.(firing systems)

[Jred201]

I bought 7 Quantumfire 12 que cheap Chinese firing systems from Firingsystems.us. First two shoots went just about perfect. My 3rd shoot, July 4th of all days, went bad. First I turned on the first remote and all 12 question went off. That remote is now fried. I'm glad they were all shells and not cakes. I had them hooked up with Ematches. One of the six remaining systems did not fire at all. Needed to be reprogrammed, which I tested it fine before I started hooking them up. About another 10 of the random ques did not fire at all for some reason, the Ematch was not popped. I am not sure I want to break down and fork over the doe for a Cobra, but if I do another electronic shoot it will be with better systems. I know everyone will say you need to get a Cobra, I have a hard time forking over $500 for an 18 que system. Maybe someday when I have the money. I do not doubt they are top of the line.

[wizard7611]

Sorry to ask you this, but why would you use cheap firing systems?

[Playingwithfire85]

Were they Quantumfire branded or one of their other lines they carry? I don't see a 12 cue system under quantumfire but I do have two of their rfremotech brands and have fired over 250 consumer igniters with mine no problems. One thought I had was whether or not there was a low of dew on the ground. When I set up my show there was none and around firing time the dew was setting in so I moved them into kids pencil boxes with holes drilled in the top for the antenna. From my understanding the ones from firingsystem.us do not have a coating on the boards but there is another retailer that sells the same system but they have modded it.

[PyroManiacs]

There are still people who dont want to spend money on a Cobra, pure and simple.

I myself have no interest in buying a firing system anytime soon...

Right from the website... 2 Modules and an 18R manual remote....$1000+, I cannot justify spending that.

[PyroManiacs]

Then again..... I dont put on shows either.

[Playingwithfire85]

That's my issue. I cant justify spending 1/2 to 1/3 of my show cost on a cobra firing system.

[Pyro Nation]

I look at it as... not justifying spending 1/3 to 1/2 of show budget on cobra...what about day of show those systems fail...so now what.... Cobra would of been worth the investment then

[killer57]

I look at it as... not justifying spending 1/3 to 1/2 of show budget on cobra...what about day of show those systems fail...so now what.... Cobra would of been worth the investment then

and you only have to buy it once!

[cfdtk1]

Look into remotefiringsystems.com aka dewey. He sells an aray of 32 cue systems and is a top notch guy who backs up his product. I have a bunch of his stuff and if I don't drop the cash a switch to star fire going to add a few more 32 cue mods to my system.

[mguerra]

The Sequencefire 32 is an awesome product. You can put on a superb show with it. With some creative fusing and 32 cues you can easily put on a 15 minute or longer show. My basic setup is to fire every other cue as a chained mortar rack and every other cue as a set of two or three cakes spaced 20 to 50 feet apart. You can program a different time between every cue, this is the beauty of it, and you program it on the box itself, you don't need a PC to write a script. It will easily fire three or more igniters per cue. You can also chain Sequencefire units so that after the first 32 cues fire, the next Sequencefire unit will start up and shoot its 32 cues, and so on. The 24 cue unit is not chainable, BTW. It's cheaper than a Cobra, allows a scripted show, and is a huge step up from manually pushing buttons for each cue. However, you can fire it that way if you like. If you have it set up to fire an automated sequence and you have a malfunction, you can stop the sequence, fix the problem, and resume. I actually use this in combination with some Quantumfire 12 cue units and some MS12Q units also, which I often use to manually fire the finale. My Quantumfire units have never failed to fire.

[PGH_Pyro]

yeah i refuse to pay that much $$$ for a basic Cobra set up . I think they are nice/slick firing systems and all but shrug i'm not doing elaborate pyro-musicals . i can hand-fire a show and get a good result. i can have helpers hand-firing certain things at certain times for more complex happenings.
hopefully Cobra will be reasonably priced, eventually ...

[PyroManiacs]

Look into remotefiringsystems.com aka dewey. He sells an aray of 32 cue systems and is a top notch guy who backs up his product. I have a bunch of his stuff and if I don't drop the cash a switch to star fire going to add a few more 32 cue mods to my system.

I actually looked into this last night. Those prices are way more affordable for someone like myself.

[PyroJoeNEPA]

hopefully Cobra will be reasonably priced, eventually ...

When you look at the price compared to a Fire One or comparable system the Cobra is reasonably priced for what it does. True, it is not cheap, but the niche market is between the hand-fired or small backyard guy & the full blown commercial "big guys". The company I work with has over$50,000.00 in Fire One equipment! Definitely not hobbyist level at that kind of investment.
On the other hand, I shot my show last week using a friends Cobra system--18R2S, AudioBox, & 16 modules. Fully scripted 22 minute PyroMusical & it went flawless.
The Cobra is rapidly gaining a big seat in the hobbiest market because of the capabilities it has for the $$$ it costs.
Again, not something you would invest in for a once a year shoot---unless you have lots of spare $$$. But I do see it as an very good investment for someone that wants to step their game up a few notches.

[cfdtk1]

When you look at the price compared to a Fire One or comparable system the Cobra is reasonably priced for what it does. True, it is not cheap, but the niche market is between the hand-fired or small backyard guy & the full blown commercial "big guys". The company I work with has over$50,000.00 in Fire One equipment! Definitely not hobbyist level at that kind of investment.
On the other hand, I shot my show last week using a friends Cobra system--18R2S, AudioBox, & 16 modules. Fully scripted 22 minute PyroMusical & it went flawless.
The Cobra is rapidly gaining a big seat in the hobbiest market because of the capabilities it has for the $$$ it costs.
Again, not something you would invest in for a once a year shoot---unless you have lots of spare $$$. But I do see it as an very good investment for someone that wants to step their game up a few notches.



The company that I shoot for also uses fireone and I have to say it is an awesome system. One of the reps from fire one can to one of our bigger shows this year (2500 shells) and spent the day going over the system with us even though this is my 3rd season using the system it was great that he sat there with the whole entire day and even the show.

[Jred201]

Yeah I'm looking at the Sequencefire 32. The Quantumfire 12 que worked great for the first two shows. I think the remote thing was unusual and the research I have done makes me think I need to elevate the systems higher off the ground. Either way I guess my point was my mistake was going cheap thinking it would work perfectly. These systems are perfect for someone shooting a small 1.4 show or something. I will be investing in better systems. Maybe even get one cobra and see how quickly I fall in love with it.

[Jred201]

Look into remotefiringsystems.com aka dewey. He sells an aray of 32 cue systems and is a top notch guy who backs up his product. I have a bunch of his stuff and if I don't drop the cash a switch to star fire going to add a few more 32 cue mods to my system.

Thanks. Never heard of them. I will check them out.

[spanks_4]

I have one of the S32I 32Q Remote Firing System that I got for a good used price and Dewey offered up a 1 year warranty on it.
So yeah great customer service and hopefully great product! I'm sure by next year I will probably buy another so I can have 64 ques and make life easier somewhat...

[cfdtk1]

The only thing I don't like about my dewey system is the S12 remote. Unlike trmpyro cobra and getting into the bigger systems it does not show continuity on the S12 and like all the other systems has the red and green on the firing remote. Whis he would upgrade that

[PyroJW]

I feel it's very important that the system be FCC Certified, So make sure it is before you purchase anything.