The Le Maitre Salamander flame 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, Fire Control G2, and Mongoose.
Figure 1 – Le Maitre Salamander
If the flame unit is controlled by two independently configurable DMX channels: Flame, and HSI / Safety Channel. In Finale 3D‘s terminology, “Safety Channel” refers to a channel that must be turned on to enable the fixture. The safety channel may be strictly a logical switch, or it may additionally have some physical meaning, as is the case with the Salamander. For the Salamander, the safety channel controls the ignition heating element (the “HSI”). In Finale 3D, please consider the HSI and the Safety Channel as one and the same.
The Salamander requires the HSI to be enabled in advance of firing by approximately 10 seconds, to give it a chance to warm up. Thus, in Finale 3D if you include the safety channel in the show design, make sure to place it on the timeline at least 10 seconds prior to the first flame effect. For further information about the Salamander operation, please see the Salamander Manual 1.3.
Since the HSI / Safety Channel is independently configurable, it can be shared across multiple units in the same DMX universe.
Instructions
To design a show for Le Maitre Salamander units, please follow these steps:
- Set up. (A) Follow the flame set up instructions in the Flame systems basic instructions to create the Salamander fixture positions and one or more safety positions. Your fixture positions will have a DMX Fixture Type of “Le Maitre [039] Salamander”; your safety positions will have a DMX Fixture Type of “Le Maitre [040] HSI / Safety Channel”. Depending on your DMX controller, you may choose to give each Salamander unit its own DMX universe, or give each Salamander unit a channel in a shared DMX universe (the Salamander units require only a single channel). (B) In the real world configure each physical Salamander unit’s “FLAME Address” to be the DMX channel you allocate for the flame unit. (C) In Finale 3D configure the “DMX Channel Base” to match the FLAME Address exactly. (D) In the real world, configure each physical Salamander unit’s “HSI Address” to be the DMX channel you allocate for the shared HSI / safety channel. (E) In Finale 3D configure the “DMX Channel Base” of the safety position to be the HSI Address. The safety position is separate from the Salamander fixture positions and may be shared by the Salamander fixtures positions if you configure the fixtures with the same HSI Address.
- Add flame effects to the show. (A) Right-click on DMX Fixture positions to add compatible effects from the context menu or to filter the effects window to compatible effects.
- Make your own, or modify existing flame effects. The Salamander effects come in a few example durations in the Assorted Effects collection, which you can turn on with the menu item, “DMX > Choose catalogs of DMX effects to download…” but you can also create your own variations that have arbitrary durations. (A) First copy the original effect by selecting the effect row in Assorted Effects, then right-click copy (or control-C). (B) Then paste into your My Effects or any of your other effects collections. (C) After copying it to your own inventory, you can modify its parameters. Simply edit the duration field to change its duration. The 3D simulation and the DMX Patch will automatically incorporate your change. You can also adjust the height field to change the height of the flame simulation, though doing so has no bearing on the exported DMX script.
- Add HSI / safety channel effects. Add “HSI / Safety Channel” effects to your safety channel position, and adjust their durations to cover the spans of time for which you want to arm the flame unit. Remember to place the HSI / Safety Channel effects at least 10 seconds prior to the first flame to give the HSI igniter unit enough time to warm up.
Since the Salamander FLAME channel and HSI / Safety Channel are configured independently, you need to put the safety channel effects off in their own “safety position” in Finale 3D in order set a DMX Channel Base for the safety channel effects independently of the Salamander fixtures themselves. The “safety position” doesn’t actually represent a position in the real world; it is just a place to put the safety channel effects at an independent DMX Channel Base.
Table 1 – DMX channels for flame position (DMX Fixture Type of “Le Maitre [039] Salamander”)
| DMX Channel | Meaning | Effect in Finale 3D that controls channel |
| Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) | Ignition (0 – 127 = OFF, 128 – 255 = ON) | Part numbers LMTR1001 – LMTR1005 representing flame effects of varying durations |
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Table 2 – DMX channels for safety position (DMX Fixture Type of “Le Maitre [040] HSI / Safety Channel”)
| DMX Channel | Meaning | Effect in Finale 3D that controls channel |
| Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) | Safety channel (0-127 = OFF, 128 – 255 = ON) | Part number LMTR1006, “LMTR [040/0000] With HSI / Safety Channel” |
Choosing the DMX channel ranges for fixtures
Each Salamander fixture requires a firing channel and a safety channel, but the safety channel can be shared among fixtures, so you could allocate your channels as shown in Table 3. 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. Some DMX firing systems only support 50 or 100 channels, so you may not have all 512 channels to work with.
Table 3 – Example channel ranges for Salamander fixtures in a DMX universe
| Fixture | DMX Channel Base | Channels Used |
| Safety | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2 | 3 | 3 |
| 3 | 4 | 4 |
| 4 | 5 | 5 |
| 5 | 6 | 6 |
| 6 | 7 | 7 |
| 7 | 8 | 8 |
| 8 | 9 | 9 |
| 9 | 10 | 10 |
| … | ||
| 511 | 512 | 512 |
Salamander example
The example files in Table 3 include a Salamander show file exported with the Cobra firing system. The Salamander fixtures are configured for different channels (11-19) in the same, shared DMX universe. The show has a single safety channel position, with a safety channel address of 1 (i.e., the DMX Base Channel for the position is 1; and the channel offset in the safety channel effect’s DMX Patch is 0). If you open the example files and look at the positions window (“Window > Position window” menu item), you can see the configurations of all the positions in one place.
Table 4 – Example files
| Download link | Explanation |
| test-salamander.fin | Show file |
| test-salamander.csv | Exported CSV file for the Cobra firing system |
| Salamander Manual 1.3.pdf | Salamander user manual |