The Showven Circle Flamer unit is a flame projector with a single nozzle that can rotate and fire flame bursts or continuous wave under programmable control, similar to the Explo X2 Wave Flamer. The unit can be controlled by any of the DMX-capable firing systems, such as Piroshow, Pyromac, PyroSure, fireTEK, Cobra, and Mongoose.
Figure 1 – Showven Circle Flamer
In addition to the 70 pre-defined flame effect “macros” (e.g. part number SHV1031 in the Finale 3D supplier catalog for Showven macro #31), you can trigger flame shots at arbitrary angles and for arbitrary durations. To do so, insert the “rotatable” flame effects in Finale 3D (e.g., part number SHV1174 in the Finale 3D supplier catalog for Showven) the same way you insert the flame effect macros, by right-clicking on a fixture and doing the menu item, “Add compatible DMX effect“. After inserting rotatable flame effects, adjust the angles of the effects interactively by dragging their trajectories in the 3D view or by doing scripting commands like “Fan” to make interesting patterns of angles. Finale 3D will incorporate your adjusted angles in the exported DMX script.
Exported DMX scripts will contain multiple DMX channel values for controlling the characteristics of a single effect (angle, on/off, speed, etc.) at various times, taking into consideration the preparation time (“drive time“) for the nozzle to rotate to the desired angle before a flame shot is triggered, which is analogous to moving in black (MIB) for lighting fixtures. Finale 3D automatically adds the all the necessary DMX commands, so designing a flame show for DMX simply involves adding flame effects from the effects window, and optionally angling the effects interactively, or putting them into sequences or fans using scripting functions like “Fan” or “Make into sequence“.
Instructions for DMX firing systems
To design a show for Showven Circle Flamer 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. (B) In the real world configure each physical Circle Flamer’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. Right-click on the DMX Fixture positions representing the Showven Circle Flamers to add compatible effects from the context menu or to filter the effects window to compatible effects. There are about 90, beginning with part number SHV1001. In addition to the 70 effect macros, there are a few rotatable effects beginning with part number SHV1170. You will also need to add a “DMX Safety Channel” effect (SHV1188) and to adjust its duration to cover the time range the Circle Flamer should be eligible to fire.
- Design the show. If you insert rotatable effects, you can drag the tops of their trajectories in the 3D view to set their angle, and you can select groups of them and do functions like “Fan” to create interesting patterns. Of course, you can select groups of any of the effects and do functions like “Sequence” to make interesting timing patterns; the timing patterns look particularly good with the effect macros.
Choosing the DMX channel ranges for fixtures
Each Circle Flamer fixture requires six 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. Some DMX firing systems only support 50 or 100 channels, so you may not have all 512 channels to work with.
Table 1 – Example channel ranges for Circle Flamer fixtures in a DMX universe
| Fixture | DMX Channel Base | Channels Used |
| 1 | 1 | 1-6 |
| 2 | 7 | 7-12 |
| 3 | 13 | 13-18 |
| 4 | 19 | 19-24 |
| 5 | 25 | 25-30 |
| 6 | 31 | 31-36 |
| 7 | 37 | 37-42 |
| 8 | 43 | 43-48 |
| 9 | 49 | 49-54 |
| 10 | 55 | 55-60 |
| … | ||
| 85 | 505 | 505-510 |
DMX channels
The Showven Circle Flamer unit can be configured with a “Start Address” from 1 to 507. The flame unit listens to the six DMX channels beginning from the Start Address, i.e., Start Address + 0, Start Address + 1, …, Start Address + 5. The six DMX channels are,
Table 2 – DMX channels
| DMX Channel | Meaning | Effect in Finale 3D that controls channel |
| Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) | Angle (127.5 + angle * 1.2143) | Part numbers SHV1001 – SHV1070 representing various “macros” and SHV1170 – SHV1187 representing rotatable flame effects that can be adjusted by dragging the trajectories in the Finale 3D user interface |
| Channel 2 (DMX Channel Base + 1) | Speed (255 = max) | Part numbers SHV1001 – SHV1070 representing various “macros” and SHV1170 – SHV1187 representing rotatable flame effects that can be adjusted by dragging the trajectories in the Finale 3D user interface |
| Channel 3 (DMX Channel Base + 2) | Ignition (254-255 = ON) | Part numbers SHV1001 – SHV1070 representing various “macros” and SHV1170 – SHV1187 representing rotatable flame effects that can be adjusted by dragging the trajectories in the Finale 3D user interface |
| Channel 4 (DMX Channel Base + 3) | Open time (255 = permanent, 0-254 = N*10ms) | Part numbers SHV1001 – SHV1070 representing various “macros” and SHV1170 – SHV1187 representing rotatable flame effects that can be adjusted by dragging the trajectories in the Finale 3D user interface |
| Channel 5 (DMX Channel Base + 4) | Program (2 + program number * 255/100) | Part numbers SHV1001 – SHV1070 representing various “macros” and SHV1170 – SHV1187 representing rotatable flame effects that can be adjusted by dragging the trajectories in the Finale 3D user interface |
| Channel 6 (DMX Channel Base + 5) | Safety channel (0-49 = OFF, 50-200 = ON, 201-255 = OFF) | Part number SHV1188, “Circle Flamer [009/0000] DMX Safety Channel” |
Speed parameter calculation
The Move-To effect uses the speed parameter (DMX Channel Base + 1) to set the speed of the rotation sweep. The DMX Patch of this effect calculates the speed parameter based on the number of degrees moved and the time between the Move-To effect and the previous effect (usually a Move-In-Black effect or another Move-To effect). The DMX Patch limits the exported speed values to the range of values known to work reliably: 25..128. Please see Move-In-Black (MIB) and Move-To for further instructions.
Table 3 – Example files and downloads
| Download link | Explanation |
| showven-circle-flamer-user-manual.pdf | User manual / documentation |