WithReport
07-08-2017, 08:57 PM
OK so I have a lot of people to thank on this forum. I only joined this year, but this has been one my go-to site for some time for information on fireworks and firing systems. My 4th of July show was the best in the past 8 years!!! We had about 150 friends and family and I had a big surprise for them.
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=2471&stc=1
I also feel sorry for those in sunny Florida that were dealing with rain. It was amazing here in rainy Washington, we had your sunshine and a moon out to watch the show.
Based on the discussions and videos on this forum, I ponied up for a FireTek system to replace my basic Chinese systems. I have to say it took a while to get all the bugs worked out and the find the right software for scripting, but after dozens of emails back and forth to Laurian at FireTek I got everything up and running. (As others have stated - he must not sleep).
This year I was going to attempt to script it to music. My kids all like Imagine Dragons so I blended a bunch of their songs together along with a tribute to Jimmy Hendrix in Audacity (Audacity was a first, too).
I also used MJG initiators for the whole show, most of them with Martinez quick clips. I was going to do the best music syncronization with talon ignitors, but figured the MJG initiators would get me much better precision. I opened up every cake and set an initiator to the first tube. Two cakes did not go off, but I think they were both due to my fault - in both cases, the initiator had ignited. Since the cakes were in parallel, it really didn't affect the show much.
As mentioned in another post, FedEx lost an order of the vast majority of Mines, Meteors, and Comments from AcePyro - a handful did make it. I took some of the consumer cakes and split them up and refused them so I could control separate sections (again with some help from members here on this post). I think this worked out great. I wanted the fan cakes to fan back and forth from opposite directions and it worked!!! I used this in three places in the show - here are some pictures.
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=2469&stc=1 http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=2470&stc=1
After scripting it all, I set up test bulbs (again, this form helped me figure out how to best use the test bulbs). It was a good thing, because I found out that I had one cake near the finale firing too close to another (~20ms) so the system was missing it. With a few tweaks of the script it was all firing.
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=2472&stc=1
Anyways, I hand lit a few mortars and cakes on the 4th waiting for it to get dark enough and then set off a few multi-minute fountains. While those were running I cranked up the PA system hiding behind everyone ARMED the Firetek and set the show off. It all worked flawlessly. I'm still giggling about the whole thing.
For me, This was a big step and I feel like I set the bar a bit too high for next year - We already have 3 other families planning to come out next year.
Let me know what you think. Please listen to the audio with it. I'm open for any comments and criticism to add to the list is appreciated. As I pack everything up for this year I want to get a good list of things to do better next year. Besides, mom and dad will be here next year and I have to really impress mom. :o
The list so far:
1) clean up the ending - get rid of the lingering fireworks - Ahh!!! I was yelling at them to stop.
2) minimize some of the strobes (part of this was because all the stuff that was list by FedEx)
3) Fan out the mortars for the finale a few more degrees
4) Raise the speakers up higher or put them in front of everyone so all can hear well.
5) Add some more precision (single mines, comments meteors, etc.)
6) Better transition through some of the song changes.
7)....
The best news is my wife is now encouraging met to buy another FireTek module or two:cool:.
Here is the link to YouTube:
https://youtu.be/rsQUQ6g-gR0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsQUQ6g-gR0&feature=youtu.be
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=2471&stc=1
I also feel sorry for those in sunny Florida that were dealing with rain. It was amazing here in rainy Washington, we had your sunshine and a moon out to watch the show.
Based on the discussions and videos on this forum, I ponied up for a FireTek system to replace my basic Chinese systems. I have to say it took a while to get all the bugs worked out and the find the right software for scripting, but after dozens of emails back and forth to Laurian at FireTek I got everything up and running. (As others have stated - he must not sleep).
This year I was going to attempt to script it to music. My kids all like Imagine Dragons so I blended a bunch of their songs together along with a tribute to Jimmy Hendrix in Audacity (Audacity was a first, too).
I also used MJG initiators for the whole show, most of them with Martinez quick clips. I was going to do the best music syncronization with talon ignitors, but figured the MJG initiators would get me much better precision. I opened up every cake and set an initiator to the first tube. Two cakes did not go off, but I think they were both due to my fault - in both cases, the initiator had ignited. Since the cakes were in parallel, it really didn't affect the show much.
As mentioned in another post, FedEx lost an order of the vast majority of Mines, Meteors, and Comments from AcePyro - a handful did make it. I took some of the consumer cakes and split them up and refused them so I could control separate sections (again with some help from members here on this post). I think this worked out great. I wanted the fan cakes to fan back and forth from opposite directions and it worked!!! I used this in three places in the show - here are some pictures.
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=2469&stc=1 http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=2470&stc=1
After scripting it all, I set up test bulbs (again, this form helped me figure out how to best use the test bulbs). It was a good thing, because I found out that I had one cake near the finale firing too close to another (~20ms) so the system was missing it. With a few tweaks of the script it was all firing.
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=2472&stc=1
Anyways, I hand lit a few mortars and cakes on the 4th waiting for it to get dark enough and then set off a few multi-minute fountains. While those were running I cranked up the PA system hiding behind everyone ARMED the Firetek and set the show off. It all worked flawlessly. I'm still giggling about the whole thing.
For me, This was a big step and I feel like I set the bar a bit too high for next year - We already have 3 other families planning to come out next year.
Let me know what you think. Please listen to the audio with it. I'm open for any comments and criticism to add to the list is appreciated. As I pack everything up for this year I want to get a good list of things to do better next year. Besides, mom and dad will be here next year and I have to really impress mom. :o
The list so far:
1) clean up the ending - get rid of the lingering fireworks - Ahh!!! I was yelling at them to stop.
2) minimize some of the strobes (part of this was because all the stuff that was list by FedEx)
3) Fan out the mortars for the finale a few more degrees
4) Raise the speakers up higher or put them in front of everyone so all can hear well.
5) Add some more precision (single mines, comments meteors, etc.)
6) Better transition through some of the song changes.
7)....
The best news is my wife is now encouraging met to buy another FireTek module or two:cool:.
Here is the link to YouTube:
https://youtu.be/rsQUQ6g-gR0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsQUQ6g-gR0&feature=youtu.be