The Showven Sparkular, Standard Fixture ID 014, is a vertical sparks 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 fountains approximately 3-5 meters high, with variable height specified in the DMX signal. The Sparkular Cyclone, Standard Fixture ID 015, is a more powerful sparks machine from the same manufacturer that generates sparks as high as 10 meters.
Figure 1 – Showven Sparkular
The Sparkular has 10 height levels (“gears”). The Showven supplier catalog of effects in Finale 3D contains Sparkular effects for a range of durations and three heights (small, medium, and large). You can create your own custom duration or height effects as described below.
The Sparkuler has a two-channel DMX personality. The first channel turns the sparks fountain on and specifies the height. The second channel turns the “Pre-Heat” mode on. In Finale 3D, Sparkular “Sparks” effects will control the first channel. The Sparkular “Pre-Heat” effects will control the second channel.
You do not need the “DMX Pre-Heat” effect if you are operating your Sparkular in “Automatic” mode, which heats up automatically when you turn the machine on. You only need the “DMX Pre-Heat” effect if you are operating your Sparkular in “Manual” mode, in which case you use the “DMX Pre-Heat” effect to turn on the heater during specific periods of activity.
Table 1 – DMX channels
| DMX Channel | Meaning | Effect in Finale 3D that controls channel |
| Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) | Sparks off (0 = OFF) or on at varying height (255 = max) | Part numbers SHV3000 – SHV3017 representing spark fountain effects with small, medium, large height at durations from 0.1s to 1s |
| Channel 2 (DMX Channel Base + 1) | Pre-heat on (255 = ON). You can ignore this channel if you are operating your Sparkular in “Automatic” mode. | Part number SHV3018, “Sparkular [014/0000] DMX Pre-Heat” |
For further information about the Sparkular units, see the Showven website (www.showven.cn) and the sparkular-user-manual.pdf.
Instructions
To design a show for Showven Sparkular 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 its own DMX universe, or give each Sparkular a channel range in a shared DMX universe. (B) In the real world configure each physical Sparkular 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 fountain effects to the show. (A) Right-click on the Sparkular positions to add compatible effects from the context menu or to filter the effects window to compatible effects. Although the catalog contains effects with short durations, you should choose effect durations that work well for your fixtures, or you should adjust the durations of the effects on the timeline after inserting them. Common Sparkular fixtures work best with durations of at least two seconds. (B) If you are operating your Sparkular in “Manual” mode, then you also need to add a “With DMX Pre-Heat / Safety Channel” effect (e.g., part number SHV3018) and to adjust its duration to cover the time range you want the pre-heat mode ON; you do not need “With DMX Pre-Heat / Safety Channel” effects in “Automatic” mode.
Choosing the DMX channel ranges for fixtures
Each Sparkular 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 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 |
| sparkular-user-manual.pdf | Showven Sparkular user manual |
| sparkular-cyclone-user-manual | Showven Sparkular Cyclone user manual |