Real Rough Timing with Clip on

[Viper76Man]

I am looking for some real rough timing starting places with some clip on Ignitors. I have large light show with music and the fireworks are a secondary piece (for now.... I know this is going to suck me in). I know it will vary by cake etc and I am not looking for perfection (yet). With a short wick and clip on ignitor the videos I have found seem to yield about 3 second delay. Does this seem about right? I know about modifying the cakes for instant fire etc but just dont care to be that precise yet. Thanks for everyone's patience being new to the hobby.

[displayfireworks1]

What firing system are you using? Are you trying to time this into a computer software program to music?

[rthruska]

I am looking for some real rough timing starting places with some clip on Ignitors. I have large light show with music and the fireworks are a secondary piece (for now.... I know this is going to suck me in). I know it will vary by cake etc and I am not looking for perfection (yet). With a short wick and clip on ignitor the videos I have found seem to yield about 3 second delay. Does this seem about right? I know about modifying the cakes for instant fire etc but just dont care to be that precise yet. Thanks for everyone's patience being new to the hobby.

3 seconds would probably be close for the smaller cakes, maybe 2 secs for ignition and little over a second for lift time. For bigger cakes lift time can be longer up to 3 seconds for a total of 4-5 seconds on the 9 shot cakes

[BMoore]

If you are asking about fuse burn time, I'd say closer to 2 seconds on average but that's going to depend on the speed of the visco, the length of the fuse both inside and outside of the item and where you place the clip on igniter. In other words you really won't have any consistency at all. A fraction of a second can seem like an eternity especially when trying to time with music.

[PyroFL]

Sounds like you’re new to this and before I joined Pyro Talk I learned a valuable lesson that no fuse is the same. My show was all over the place on timing!

Each cake, even from the same manufacturer, including cannon fuse we buy in 20’ rolls that come out of the same case can and do have different burn times.

All cannon fuse should be tested before using to check timing when chain fusing.

For cakes, remember they’re made by people and each one isn’t going to be the same.

Here’s how a lot of guys do it, where the fuse goes into the cake use a knife to cut that open to expose all of the fuse. The length you see on the outside will not give you any idea how long the timing is as I’ve seen some 3 to 4 inches long and some only 1 1/2 inches long which can equal a second or more in timing delay.

Next use a roll of 1 1/2” tape to use as a guild to make all your cake fuses the same length to get as close as you can on timing.

Be sure to buy fuse safe pyro cutters before cutting the fuse.

Would hate to see this as your first and last post

:cool:

[Viper76Man]

Thanks all for the quick replies. I have lift times calculated. Just pretend you had 48 hours to put it together and clip on fuses. I am perfectionist like you all. I did my first XMAS show this year an crossed the 1/2 million pixel mark. I am aware of the safety/preparation on working with the fireworks. This is a quick and dirty setup with lights being the focus (250K pixels in this case). I know 1 second is forever but I have lights running the party/music in this case. Just trying to get as close as possible with your knowledge. Since the system on the back end is tied to lighting the firework triggers with music is always experimental in this case. Mixing 3 elements here (and multiple systems).

[PG2159]

How much product are you using? Poking with a brass awl and inserting e-match really is not hard, nor should it take a considerable more amount of time than using clip on ignitors. Just a consideration.

[PyroFL]

PG2159 is correct.

You’re better off getting a brass awl if your concern about +/- 1 sec or more.

Shouldn’t take more than an extra 10sec per cake for one person over doing clips.

If you have people to help, we assembly line ours and it goes really fast.

We setup 3 6’ tables
2 guys cut
2 guy pokes cakes
1 guy preps Dave’s magic tape
1 guy installs the MGJ and tapes

If you have a lot to do you could do prep work before hand, cut tops off, cut open the side of each cake. Then all you have to do is poke, MGJ and tape. That would save you some time.