The Showven uFlamer unit is a vertical flame projector that can be controlled by any of the DMX-capable firing systems, such as Piroshow, Pyromac, PyroSure, fireTEK, Cobra, and Mongoose.
Figure 1 – Showven uFlamer
Triggering a flame effect requires two DMX channels — an ON/OFF ignition channel and a compression/safety channel. Both channels are contained in the DMX personality of the fixture at defined offsets relative to the DMX Channel Base of the fixture. The fixture has three different DMX personality configuration options, 2CH-P, 6CH, and 2CH-N, to support master/slave compatibility with other fixture types. In Finale 3D you will select which DMX personality configuration you want as you configure the position/fixture. At any time you can change the personality configuration with the menu item, “Change DMX fixture and convert effects” from the right-click menu on the fixture. If you do not care about master/slave compatibility with other types of fixtures, just use the default channel mode, 2CH-P, which is the simplest.
Table 1 – DMX personality choices
| DMX personality (“DMX Channel Mode”) | Compatible with |
| 2CH-P | No other fixture types |
| 6CH | Showven Circle Flamer |
| 2CH-N | Showven Sparkular |
The Showven uFlamer DMX personalities include the safety channel within the range of firing channels in the personality, so there is no need in Finale 3D to create separate “safety positions”. you can add the safety channel effects directly to your flame positions.
Table 2 – DMX channels for 2CH-P personality
| DMX Channel | Meaning | Effect in Finale 3D that controls channel |
| Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) | Ignition (1 – 110 = OFF; 11- 255 = ON) | Part numbers SHV2000 – SHV2017 representing flame effects with small, medium, large height at durations from 0.1s to 1s. The varying heights are only reflected in the visual simulation, no change in the DMX channel values since the uFlamer does not have dynamic height settings. |
| Channel 2 (DMX Channel Base + 1) | Safety channel (1-49 = OFF; 50 – 200 = ON; 201 – 255 = OFF) | Part number SHV2018, “uFlamer [011/0000] DMX Safety Channel” |
Table 3 – DMX channels for 6CH personality
| DMX Channel | Meaning | Effect in Finale 3D that controls channel |
| Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) | Unused | None |
| Channel 2 (DMX Channel Base + 1) | Unused | None |
| Channel 3 (DMX Channel Base + 2) | Ignition (1 – 110 = OFF; 11- 255 = ON) | Part numbers SHV2100 – SHV2117 representing flame effects with small, medium, large height at durations from 0.1s to 1s. The varying heights are only reflected in the visual simulation, no change in the DMX channel values since the uFlamer does not have dynamic height settings. |
| Channel 4 (DMX Channel Base + 3) | Duration (0 or 255 = permanent ON; else time = N * 10 ms) | Part numbers SHV2100 – SHV2117 representing flame effects with small, medium, large height at durations from 0.1s to 1s. The varying heights are only reflected in the visual simulation, no change in the DMX channel values since the uFlamer does not have dynamic height settings. |
| Channel 5 (DMX Channel Base + 4) | Unused | None |
| Channel 6 (DMX Channel Base + 5) | Safety channel (1-49 = OFF; 50 – 200 = ON; 201 – 255 = OFF) | Part number SHV2118, “uFlamer [012/0000] DMX Safety Channel” |
Table 4 – DMX channels for 2CH-N personality
| DMX Channel | Meaning | Effect in Finale 3D that controls channel |
| Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) | Ignition (1 – 110 = OFF; 11- 255 = ON) | Part numbers SHV2200 – SHV2217 representing flame effects with small, medium, large height at durations from 0.1s to 1s. The varying heights are only reflected in the visual simulation, no change in the DMX channel values since the uFlamer does not have dynamic height settings. |
| Channel 2 (DMX Channel Base + 1) | Safety channel (0 – 254 = OFF; 255 = ON) | Part number SHV2218, “uFlamer [013/0000] DMX Safety Channel” |
For further information about the uFlamer units, see the Showven website (www.showven.cn) and the showven-uflamer-user-manual.
Instructions
To design a show for Showven uFlamer units, please follow these steps:
- Set up. (A) Follow the flame set up instructions in the Flame systems basic instructions and Exporting a firing system script for flame systems. Depending on your DMX controller, you may choose to give each uFlamer its own DMX universe, or give each uFlamer a channel range in a shared DMX universe. (B) In the real world configure each physical uFlamer unit’s “Start Address” to be the start of the channel range you allocate for it. (C) In Finale 3D configure the “DMX Channel Base” of the fixture to match the Start Address exactly.
- Add the Showven supplier catalog to your Finale 3D account. Login to the finale3d.com website. At the top of the page, go to “My Account > Supplier Catalog Settings” (www.finale3d.com/supplier-catalogs-settings/). Find the Showven supplier catalog in the table, and turn the switch to ON. Then launch the Finale 3D application and synch to network. The Showven catalog will appear as one of the available collections in the effects window, which you can choose from the selector at the top of the window. This catalog contains effects for all types of Showven fixtures currently supported in Finale 3D, together.
- Add flame effects to the show. (A) Right-click on the uFlamer positions to add compatible effects from the context menu or to filter the effects window to compatible effects. (B) You will also need to add a “DMX Safety Channel” effect (e.g., part number SHV2018 for the 2CH-P mode uFlamers) and to adjust its duration to cover the time range you want the fixture to be eligible to fire.
Choosing the DMX channel ranges for fixtures
Each uFlamer fixture requires multiple channels, so if you are putting multiple fixtures in the same DMX Universe, you need to set the Start Address on the fixture in the real world and the corresponding DMX Channel Base on the fixture in Finale 3D to a range of channels that doesn’t overlap with others. A DMX universe has channels 1-512. If you want to pack as many fixtures into the 512 channels of a DMX universe as you can, back-to-back ranges are the most efficient. Table 5 shows an example for uFlamer fixtures in 2CH-P or 2CH-N mode. Some DMX firing systems only support 50 or 100 channels, so you may not have all 512 channels to work with.
Table 5 – Example channel ranges for uFlamer fixtures in 2CH-P or 2CH-N mode in a DMX universe
| Fixture | DMX Channel Base | Channels Used |
| 1 | 1 | 1-2 |
| 2 | 3 | 3-4 |
| 3 | 5 | 5-6 |
| 4 | 7 | 7-8 |
| 5 | 9 | 9-10 |
| 6 | 11 | 11-12 |
| 7 | 13 | 13-14 |
| 8 | 15 | 15-16 |
| 9 | 17 | 17-18 |
| 10 | 19 | 19-20 |
| … | ||
| 256 | 511 | 511-512 |
Table 6 – Example files and downloads
| Download link | Explanation |
| showven-uflamer-user-manual.pdf | Showven uFlamer user manual |