Well, fireworks are over for this 4th...

nadams

I only got to work two shows... we got rained out Sunday night, as it rained all day in NY.

We did Greenwood Lake, NY on Saturday, and Peekskill, NY on Monday.

Here's the finale's from those two shows-

Greenwood lake - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFBn7jFtsS8

Peekskill - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhaiqE6g5po

kevhed72

You job is to....set off fireworks (I know there's more to it than that)....that is awesome!!! Seriously, how did you land that gig?

nadams

We do it in our free time; we work for a pyrotechnics company in NY that arranges and insures all the shows...

My brother and his friend are licensed, I am not. So, my role is to show up, set up racks, drop product, wire shells into the electronic firing boxes, and sometimes hand-fire if required. Oh, and then tear down

For Peekskill, it took our crew of 6 guys a total of 10 hours (in the baking sun) to get everything set up for the show. The show lasted 30 minutes. It then took us 3 hours to tear down. We got back to the hotel at 2am.

Sherardp

Cool videos. I imagine alot of work behind the scenes like you mentioned earlier on. Never it thought it was that much though, impressive. Definitely seems like something fun to do though.

nadams

I have a video of a walk down the racks of tubes to give you an idea of the size of the Peekskill show. But, it's on my phone, and my data cable is at work. I'll upload it tomorrow.

stuwee

nadams wrote: »

I have a video of a walk down the racks of tubes to give you an idea of the size of the Peekskill show. But, it's on my phone, and my data cable is at work. I'll upload it tomorrow.

Please do, I love to watch behind the scenes stuff of something cool like fireworks shows :cool:

George Grand

nadams wrote: »

I only got to work two shows... we got rained out Sunday night, as it rained all day in NY.

We did Greenwood Lake, NY on Saturday, and Peekskill, NY on Monday.

Here's the finale's from those two shows-

Greenwood lake - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFBn7jFtsS8

Peekskill - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhaiqE6g5po

Yeah yeah, absolutely breathtaking, now send me some chips.

nadams

George Grand wrote: »

Yeah yeah, absolutely breathtaking, now send me some chips.

Hey, I'm saving your life by not sending you those grease-laden, salt-coated, delicious Wise potato chips. What's your address again?

nadams

stuwee wrote: »

Please do, I love to watch behind the scenes stuff of something cool like fireworks shows :cool:

Here's some pictures to hold you over.

First off - these pods are arranged for hand-fire. We had a few too many shells to fit it all on our e-fire system, so we had to hand-fire the start of the show. This arrangement allows for the fuses to all be taped to the outside, ready to be lit via standard road flare. In the backround, you can see the e-fire body racks, which are all packed tightly together, because nobody has to be around them when they're going off-



Here's a look up the range at all the racks that were in the body of the show.



This is everything that went up in the finale. It started closest to the camera and went all the way to the end of the peninsula, in 45 seconds-



Cheers!

nadams

Here's the video of me walking down the line of racks. I start at the end of the show and walk to the beginning, essentially.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZpX39k3P8

The last thing you see are the hand-fire pod racks that we started the show with.

stuwee

nadams wrote: »

Here's the video of me walking down the line of racks. I start at the end of the show and walk to the beginning, essentially.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZpX39k3P8

The last thing you see are the hand-fire pod racks that we started the show with.

Cool-0-Mundo !!!!!

What fun :biggrin:

nadams

stuwee wrote: »

Cool-0-Mundo !!!!!

What fun :biggrin:

Thanks... Here's two more pictures, detailing the e-fire boxes. When shooting electronically, each shell (or each chain of shells) has to have a squib (e-match) inserted into the fuse. The squib detonates when voltage is applied across the wires. This then lights the fuse, and in turn, the shell. Each squib gets run to a mod, which then gets linked back to the main firing panel, either by wire, or wireless. Each mod has a unique address, so that you can switch back and forth to different mods on the firing panel, and still only have to have 45 switches on the panel to fire the whole show. Pick a mod, flip the switch, and it ignites the squib that corresponds.

So, first, a general shot of a neatly-wired mod -



Next, you can see what the mod looks like under the cover. The squibs get hooked into the mods using basic speaker-wire spring terminals.



The equipment we used for the weekend (firing panel and approx 9 mods), runs in the neighborhood of $35,000 to $40,000 (if not more). We cover all the mods up with fire-proof blankets before the show, but they still sometimes get damaged. Usually it's only superficial, on the outside of the casing.

nadams

Sometimes, we don't have fire blankets... and we have to improvise...