The Showven Sparkular Jet, Standard Fixture ID 086, is a vertical sparks jet machine that can be controlled by any of the DMX-capable firing systems, such as Piroshow, Pyromac, PyroSure, fireTEK, Cobra, and Mongoose. It generates spark bursts approximately 5-10 meters high using compressed air to loft the sparks.
Figure 1 – Showven Sparkular Jet
The Sparkular Jet has a two-channel DMX personality. The first channel opens the aperture and triggers the spark jet. The second channel turns the “Pre-Heat” mode on. In Finale 3D, Sparkular Jet “Sparks” effects will control the first channel. The Sparkular Jet “Pre-Heat” effects will control the second channel.
The height of the burst of sparks is not controllable over DMX. The user configures the fixture to produce spark jets of a certain height, and then triggers them with the DMX commands. The Finale 3D Showven effect library for this fixture includes three sizes of spark jets, small, medium, and large, but all three of them have identical DMX outputs.
The fixture requires a configured delay of 0.5s to 1.0s between the trigger event and the burst of sparks. The user configures this delay on the fixture itself. The effect simulations in the Finale 3D Showven effect library include a 1.0s delay between the trigger and when the effect becomes visible, to match a configuration of 1.0s delay on the fixture.
Additionally, the fixture requires a separation interval between firings of 6s to 15s to prepare the compressed air, depending on the height. Finale 3D does not enforce or warn about this separation requirement, so the user must take care during the design process to ensure the firings of each fixture are sufficiently far apart.
Since the fixture produces bursts of sparks instead of a continuous fountain of sparks, the duration of the effect is not that significant. The user’s manual recommends using a duration of at least 0.2s. The effects in the Finale 3D Showven effect library have a duration of 1.5s, accommodating the 1s delay plus 0.5s time after the delay for the burst of sparks to come to fruition.
You do not need the “Pre-Heat” effect if you are operating your Sparkular Jet in “Automatic” mode, which heats up automatically when you turn the machine on. You only need the “Pre-Heat” effect if you are operating your Sparkular Jet in “Manual” mode, in which case you use “Pre-Heat” to turn on the heater during specific periods of activity.
Table 1 – DMX channels
| DMX Channel | Meaning |
| Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) | Sparks on/off (0 = OFF; 255 = ON) |
| Channel 2 (DMX Channel Base + 1) | Pre-heat on (255 = ON). You can ignore this channel if you are operating your Sparkular Jet in “Automatic” mode. |
Instructions
To design a show for Showven Sparkular Jet 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 Sparkular Jet its own DMX universe, or give each Sparkular Jet a channel range in a shared DMX universe. (B) In the real world configure each physical Sparkular Jet 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 spark jet effects to the show. (A) Right-click on the Sparkular Jet positions to add compatible effects from the context menu or to filter the effects window to compatible effects. You can adjust the durations of the effects on the timeline after inserting them. (B) If you are operating your Sparkular Jet in “Manual” mode, then you also need to add a “With Pre-Heat / Safety Channel” effect and you need to adjust its duration to cover the time range you want the pre-heat mode ON; you do not need “With Pre-Heat / Safety Channel” effects in “Automatic” mode.
Choosing the DMX channel ranges for fixtures
Each Sparkular Jet fixture requires two 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 2 – Example channel ranges for Sparkular Jet fixtures 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 3 – Example files and downloads
| Download link | Explanation |
| 8137_sparkular-jet-en.pdf | Showven Sparkular Jet user manual |
| SPARKULAR JET parameters.pdf | Showven Sparkular Jet parameters chart |