The Showven uFlamer Vulcano fixture is a 5-head 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 – Showven uFlamer Vulcano
Like the other Showven fixtures, the uFlamer Vulcano fixture has a safety channel in its DMX personalities. The fixture has three different DMX personality mode options: “Normal”, “Professional”, and “Safety Channel”. Finale 3D supports the “Professional” mode, which has independently controllable heads and does not support the pre-defined macro/programs. You can create and re-use your own sequences in Finale 3D instead of using pre-defined macros.
Finale 3D effect libraries for the uFlamer Vulcano include fixed angle effects at the pre-defined angles of the five heads (-40, -20, 0, 20, 40) and also non-fixed angle effects that the user rotates to the desired angle by dragging the trajectory dots in the user interface or by using functions like “Script > Angles > Make into fan”. Although the user interface supports arbitrary angles in functions like the “Make into fan” function, the chosen angles will be rounded to the nearest possible angle supported by the fixture hardware in the exported script. For example, if you insert the effect “VOLC-PRO [047/0011] Long Flame” and drag its angle to 38 degrees, the effect will trigger head number five (at 40 degrees), which is the closest possible angle. The result in the exported script would be the same as if you inserted the effect “VOLC-PRO [047/0201] L40 Long Flame, Fixed Angle” and leave its angle at 0 degrees in the user interface.
Table 1 – DMX personality choices
| DMX personality (“DMX Channel Mode”) | Supported in Finale 3D |
| 6CH “Normal Channel Mode” | NO |
| 6CH “Professional Channel Mode” | YES |
| 6CH “Safety Channel Mode” | NO |
The “Professional” mode DMX personality has six channels, comprising five channels that independently control the five heads, and one safety channel, as shown in Table 2.
Table 2 – DMX channels
| DMX Channel | Meaning | Effect in Finale 3D that controls channel |
| Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) | Head 1 ON/OFF (0-253 = OFF; 254-255 = ON) | Part numbers SHV3200 – SHV3220 |
| Channel 2 (DMX Channel Base + 1) | Head 2 ON/OFF (0-253 = OFF; 254-255 = ON) | Part numbers in the range SHV3200 – SHV3220 |
| Channel 3 (DMX Channel Base + 2) | Head 3 ON/OFF (0-253 = OFF; 254-255 = ON) | Part numbers in the range SHV3200 – SHV3220 |
| Channel 4 (DMX Channel Base + 3) | Head 4 ON/OFF (0-253 = OFF; 254-255 = ON) | Part numbers in the range SHV3200 – SHV3220 |
| Channel 5 (DMX Channel Base + 4) | Head 5 ON/OFF (0-253 = OFF; 254-255 = ON) | Part numbers in the range SHV3200 – SHV3220 |
| Channel 6 (DMX Channel Base + 5) | Safety Channel (0-49 = OFF; 50-200 = ON; 201-255 = OFF) | SHV3221 |
Instructions
To design a show for Showven uFlamer Vulcano 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 5 Head Flamer its own DMX universe, or give each 5 Head Flamer a channel range in a shared DMX universe. (B) In the real world configure each physical 5 Head Flamer 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 Vulcano positions to add compatible effects from the context menu or to filter the effects window to compatible effects.
Choosing the DMX channel ranges for fixtures
Each uFlamer Vulcano 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 3 shows an example for uFlamer Vulcano fixtures. 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 6CH uFlamer Vulcano fixtures
| 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 | 505-511 |
Table 4 – Example files and downloads
| Download link | Explanation |
| uFlamer Volcano Manual.pdf | Showven uFlamer Vulcano user manual |