How Does A Sparkler Work (CryoFX) How Does A Cold Spark Machine Work Showven Sparkular Instructions
How Does A Showven Sparkler Machine Work – Showven Sparkular Instructions
Hey what’s up guys, welcome to CryoFX YouTube channel. In today’s video, we’re going to talk about how a sparkler machine works. Yes, how a sparkler machine works. This machine is also known as a Showven sparkler. You could Google something like “how does a cold spark machine work?” Any of those are going to show you how a cold spark machine works. But, how does a Showven sparkler machine work as a very specific brand of spark machines?
The Advantages of Using Showven Sparkler Machine
I would say it is one of the better brands on the market just due to the build, due to the internal components and the construction as well as the type of components that are inside. However that’s not what this video is about. I just simply want to show you how to use the machine so that those of you that have the machine know how to use it.
Why I Pre-Heated My Machines
When you’re setting up the Showven sparkler machine, now let me just preface this video and tell you right off the bat that these machines are already plugged in, they’re already heated up, and they’ve already been heated up for a little bit for probably about 10 minutes. Now the reason why that is to keep the video short and get straight to the point. I want to show you how these work, they will take about 10 minutes to heat up and I don’t think that you want to be sitting on this video for longer than 10 minutes watching these heat up while I talk and just ramble on.
With that said, taking into account that these are already heated up we have to pretend like they are not. So, when you normally get these spark machines, they won’t be plugged in for obvious reasons. You will have to plug them in, and you’ll have to let them heat up.
Setting Up The Showven Sparkler Machine
So, what you want to do is you’ll want to take the Showven sparkler machine out of the box, you’ll want to set them down where you’re going to set them down. You want to take your cords, some of the cords that you may have are a power con cable which has a blue tip on the end as shown right here on this spark machine. The other end is a regular power cord and that power cord will be plugged in. you already know that the blue power con plugged into the machine.
These machines operate in two different aspects. One of them is with DMX cables, if you don’t know what DMX cables are, and you don’t know what a DMX system is well then you can Google a video, and you can find that out, or maybe we’ll make another video later on.
Leave a comment in the section below if you’d like to learn about that, and I have no problem making one of those videos. But for the purpose of this video, that’s what we’re using.
DMX Cables vs. Wireless Remotes
We’re using DMX cables. The other option is actually using a wireless remote. I personally go against the wireless remotes and the reason being is these RF frequencies that go between the remote and the Showven sparkler machine could get interrupted. Normally, when you use these spark machines it’s for a wedding, it’s for a corporate event it’s for something like that and the thing is you don’t want to have this interrupted when you push the button.
You want that machine to throw sparks. The last thing you’d want is to be jerking around with the button or have your frequency interrupted. I have been on weddings before and I’ve had mic frequencies, I’ve had remote frequencies some of the camera operators they run different frequencies with their wireless flashes all of those could affect the wireless remote.
That’s something that would just be a downer, and it would be problematic at that point when you’re using it. So, I personally don’t like the remotes, but that’s just me. The other option that we’re using here is the DMX cables with a dmx4. Now this is a chauvet ob40, probably overkill for this.
How Does the DMX Function?
However, the Showven sparkler machine take two channels of DMX. Each one channel is going to heat the machine. The other channel is going to actually throw the sparks. There are two settings on this machine and I’m not going to edit that out because I want to just be real with you guys here.
So, there’s going to be two settings on the machines, one of them is to have the machine heat the entire time and then one of the channels will just automatically when you move the slider up and down, or you activate the channel, throw sparks. Now it still requires two DMX channels even if you have it set to where the machine automatically heats like both of these are right now.
I go here channel one which these are both set to DMX channel one on the machine, I’m going to go ahead and activate, and you can see it throw sparks these are automatically heating well they require two channels. Channel two is the heating channel, however that functions off channel two is not activated on my DMX controller.
Mode Settings for Showven Sparkler Machine
If I switch the mode on the machines themselves and I made it to where the mode on the machines allowed me to turn the heater on or off. Let’s say that I have these plugged in I’m on an event and I don’t want these sitting there heating the entire time and just wasting a ton of electricity puts hours on the machine, what I can do is I can put it to that second mode where it allows me to turn that heater on and off.
Obviously if the heater’s off, the machines will not be primed and heated and so the other channel that spits sparks out or allows the machine to spit the sparks out will not do that so that’s just to kind of cover how these work and more. So that’s how a cold spark machine works or cold spark machine instructions.
Using the Wireless Remotes
With that said, the wireless remote has some different abilities as well, you have it on one two three on so different levels of how what the sparks are that come out.
Also you have a set a clear five second, a one second and then a thirty second and that’s going off. The remote right here, I’ll do a close-up of that so if we do zoom in on that you can see that, otherwise we’ll have a link in the description to the manual. This is so that you can see what type of battery, how the remote works and what the buttons on the remote are.
These do take a 12 volt, 23 amp battery it’s a special battery, not something you can’t get at Walmart or something else. However, if you do rent these from us, we will ship this with no battery in it that way we can abide by any shipping rules, any flight rules things like that.
We would rather ship the Showven sparkler machine with no battery. Unfortunately, the battery is on you, that way you can make sure you have a good battery, and it just makes it so much easier. Because the last thing that we would want is somebody to rent these, and then it gets held up because of the battery for whatever reason, and you don’t get your rental.
More on Showven Sparkler Machine Set Up
Enough about that now, how do you set these up? Let’s get back to the basics here. You get the spark machines, your cold spark machine or your Showven sparkler minis which these are. These are Showven sparkler minis, both of them are hooked up. I have one of them facing towards you, in the front. For the other one, the back side is facing towards you. That way you can see both of them, so you want to avoid setting that up in real life. I know that you know that, but just making sure, you never know.
What you want to do is you want to set these where you’re going to set them. Then you will run your power cords. When you run your power cords, you want to make sure that you have enough power cord and that the power cord is thick enough. This is because if it’s thin enough and the longer you run it, those things will tend to heat up.
Power Settings for Showven Sparkler Machine
These draw some amps so case in point, these are 480 watts. Well, I don’t know the answer off the top of my head, but I can tell you this. a times v equals w so amps times volts equals watts. Watts divided by amps or watts divided by volts will give you the missing number. It’s a math equation so 110 divided by, so sorry, so 480 watts a times v equals w. 480 divided by the 110 you’re looking at about four amps a piece.
So, four and four is eight, these are drawing about eight amps. well, if you go ahead, and you put two more on here, that’s about the max you could put on a 20 amp breaker. And that’s important to know because if you overload the breaker, if you plug these into, these are both plugged into a power strip right here.
Normally these power strips have 15 amp breakers on them. So, if you plug in four of these on a 15 amp breaker, you’re going to pop the breaker. It may not pop right away, but it will pop. Now that’s not a bad thing but just avoid. However, the last thing you’d want is to plug all these in which they will all work on it depending on how many you plug in.
Drawing Power
When the heating element starts heating up that’s when the most of the power is drawn, and then you’re going to start getting those wires inside your cores heating up. And then it will pop the breaker at the breakers designed to do that. For those of you that don’t know that, so whether it’s on the power strip, whether it’s on your power panel, wherever it is, that’s something that you want to be aware of.
The other thing and I know I’m kind of getting online here, but this is all super important on how to use a cold spark machine more importantly how to use a Showven sparkler machine. When you put these in, and you plug these into the wall, do not run these on GFI circuits, GFI circuits or CGFI.
Forget what they’re called, but I believe it’s one of those nomenclatures or acronyms if you will. Now those are the ones that have the buttons on the actual power plug itself that goes into the wall. Totally calling that wrong here, but you get what I’m saying and the focus of this is on the concept, not the nomenclature of it.
Choosing the Right Plug for the Showven Sparkler Machine
When you plug these in if you have a plug on the wall that you plug something into, and it has those buttons on it, avoid that. This is because those are made to operate where if one of the poles is off and they’re not equal power, it flips the breaker and that’s made so that if you touch it, anything else if it basically is made to break right at that plug.
Though, I don’t need to go into details about that here, but these will trip those. So, do not contact us and tell us that they don’t work. Because that’s the first thing we’re going to ask is if it’s one of those plugs, avoid that at all cost. Just use a regular plug, those in the production world you know exactly what I’m talking about here.
Connecting Your Power Cords
Now that you have your Showven sparkler machine set up, you run your power cord. You make sure that your cords, you don’t you only have so many of these on your circuit. You know your circuits, I don’t. 20 amp, 15 amp you have to do the calculation and on the back of the machine right here it tells you how many watts. Every machine is different, the Showven sparkler machine is 480 watts it says right here, so the 480 divided by the 110 or 120.
Give yourself some room, make sure that you don’t overload the circuits now. The full-size sparkler, not the minis, the Showven sparkler machine full size like these are Showven’s sparkler minis, the full-size sparkler Showven sparklers, those are going to draw a little bit more. I want to say those are around the 700 or 800 watts, those output a little bit more.
The reason being bigger heating element, larger motor inside and larger blower. Those three things are going to make the machine draw more power. So keeping all of that in mind now you know how to do your calculations, so you take these spark machines, you put them where you will put them, you hook your cords up like I said. Run DMX cables. You’re going to plug the DMX cables in, and then you’ll turn the machine on.
Operating With The Panel
Now I’m going to turn this one off and on, and we’ll probably zoom in on this video that you can see here exactly what the panel says. The panel is going to say the serial number of the machine, how much total time in hours and minutes or minutes and seconds, I forget which one it is.
Let’s go ahead and check this here. So, turn it off and on. We’re going to see, yep, the serial number, hours, and minutes and then the time remaining. The time remaining is the time on the machine. So I’m going to cycle the power on this one and then I’m going to sit and wait because we could show on the video here exactly what it looks like for you guys to see it.
Let’s go ahead and do this. We’ll turn this off really quick, there you go. Now you can see it. So if we didn’t zoom in, we’ll flash another section of the video in there, so you can see what it looks like, but the time remaining is the time that’s on the machines. So, we have another video, I’ll put a link in the description on how these cards work.
Using The Cards
You have your cards, you have your granules here. The granules go in the Showven sparkler machine and make the machine work. The cards themselves add the time to the machine. Why do they this? So that these come as a set typically after many tests you say okay well these are roughly about four minutes in use of granules.
So, we’re going to add four minutes to this card. The cards cannot fluctuate, the time I’ve said this on other videos, the cards are a set time. However, the way you use the machine is a fluctuation because not every single pack of granules is going to be used evenly as you use the machine. So with that said, you get a brand-new machine with zero time on it, probably not going to happen because we run tests and the factories do tests on these.
So, you’ll get some time and that’s an added bonus to you. Can’t guarantee it though but what I’ll say is this if this machine was at zero, I use this card if I just put the granules in, the machine’s not going to work with the remote or the DMX cable not going to work. Now if I go ahead and take the card, scan the card on the back of the Showven sparkler machine right where you see this RFID sign, you just tap the card right there it’s a one-time use card and then the card’s pointless. You could throw it away after that, just make sure that time gets on the machine.
How to Verify Card/Time Addition
The way to check that is the machine will notify you that the time has been added. If not, turn the machine off, turn it back on again and see how much time is on the machine and that’ll tell you if that card’s been added. Now the card will add four minutes to the Showven sparkler machine on these small sparkler minis. So, now you have four minutes to operate this machine without it not being able to operate anymore.
Using the Granules
Regardless of how many granules are in the Showven sparkler machine or not, I will tell you right now, most likely you will use the granules before that four minutes is up. And so, you go, and you get another card and granule set. You add the granules in, or you don’t, you scan the card in you’re probably going to add another you know, have an extra minute left. Let’s hypothetically say you have a minute left on the first one, a minute left on the second one.
You do that two more times, well now you have four minutes of time left on the machine, but you don’t have any granules. And you’re going to keep getting the pack of granules in the card, and it’s going to add more time. Well, with us, you see where I’m going with this, with us, you can contact us and say “hey my machine has this many minutes on it, I just want some granules”, and we can make that happen.
Other companies may not do that. I just have to explain this because I want to make sure I convey this and articulate it well because a lot of people get misunderstood on what the card does and what the granules do.
Do the Cards Always Match With The Granules?
In a perfect world, the granules would match up with the card, and you would use them both at exactly four minutes. Unfortunately, it’s not a perfect world because of the way these machines are built for many other reasons. Moreover, now I have other videos link in the description as well where we go in the detail on how a spark machine works and cold spark machine cleaning process.
In those videos, I go inside the Showven sparkler machine, and you see the mechanics of them, you see how they work inside the different corkscrews. The motors, the blowers, the heating element, all of that dictates how many granules you use. So with that said, now you know the difference between these, so what you’ll do is you’ll have your machine set up.
Setting up DMX Channels and Address
I know I’m just going right forward here, plug all the cords in. You plug the power cables in. Make sure your DMX controller is plugged in. Again, we’re using a chauvet ob40. Now, you turn the machines on. You cycle through the menu there like I showed you earlier. Then, you’re ready to go. The machine will say DMX address, I have address number one set on my controller because address number one is set right here.
These are on the same channel, so they will work at the same time when I activate the DMX channel here. If I didn’t want them to, I would set this one to channel one, and I would set this one to channel three. Now, why would I do that? The reason I would do that, which actually I’m going to do this to show you here. So, I am going to setting, you can’t see this but I want to show you this.
This is because if this one is set to channel three which it automatically does that so one, three, five, seven so on and so forth, and this one is set to channel one. Well, because of that again if you already know DMX, sorry if you don’t kind of a crash course real fast.
Activating the Channels
So, I activate channel one, only one of them works. I activate channel three, now the other one works. Now if I go back to this one, and I set this one back to channel one, press enter you want to do mode select the channel and then press enter. Buttons are down there, you can see it for yourself. They both work, so then you use it, and you have a grand old time, people love it. They’re just blown away from it, literally.
Safety Measures for Showven Sparkler Machine
Make sure that these are not under anything where they’re going to hit the ceiling. They’re not under any drapery. These are just safety precautions I have to state that on this video. So, you’re done using the spark machines, and now it’s time to put them away.
Turning the Machine Off
What you want to do is you want to go ahead, and I’m not going to do it on this video, but you’ll take a container, I would recommend turning the Showven sparkler machine off. So, you would turn the machine off, I’m not going to do it on the video, but you turn the machine off, you would open this door. Now I did not tell you this earlier. But when you enter, when you put these granules in, just to kind of go back in this video you want to put them in first.
After this, open the drawer, the door here, the little trap door if you will. You will find that there’s a hole, you put the granules in there. You do not put them in the area that has a white circle so, preface here, you do not put them in this area, you put them in the other area that has the door on it, okay?
Now kind of got ahead of ourselves but that’s okay. If you’re watching the whole video which we always recommend, you do then you’ll get that you’ll be able to piece together this puzzle.
Removing and Storing The Granules
Now you’re at the point where you want to take these down. You want to pack them up. You’re going to open the door. I would recommend turning the Showven sparkler machine off. You don’t have to, and you’ll take your machine, and you’ll turn your machine upside down and empty the granules from here into a container. This container has to be dirt free, lint free and have nothing in it. You can reuse those granules again and put those granules in a bag, get the air out of the bag and seal the bag.
You’ll do that with both Showven sparkler machine, so now there are no granules in the top of the reservoir on either machine. What you’re going to do at this point is you’re going to come back, you’re going to turn the machine back on, let it heat back up.
If you are that type of person that would rather skip that step, probably won’t hurt the machine, we just don’t recommend it. You can leave the machine on and empty it out, but we don’t recommend that. Again, now I’ve emptied these, okay? I did not do it on the video but for the sake of the video, I would have emptied these. You go back to your machine. This one as you can see now is empty, you go back, move it, tap it just a little.
That is what you want to see on your spark machine when you finish using it. Regardless of what model you have, whether it’s an Ispark FX, a pro x blitz a pro x splits mini a phoenix, sparktacular sparkler, Showven sparkler machine or any of the brands out there.
Post-Use Machine Care
This is what you want to do after every use you want to empty the machine out, and then you want to turn the machine back on. And you want to let all the sparks out, I will show it to you again, until you see this. Now don’t put your hand over it, but what I’m showing you is that there is air coming out. The chamber is clear, every piece inside is clear, the heating element is clear. Now it’s time to go ahead and turn the machine off.
You can, regardless of what manner, take this out. We go ahead and take the DMX cable out, okay? And the power con cable. Now, where’s our rag? I go ahead, I like wiping my machines down, I like keeping my machines really clean, so they look very nice. I don’t think somebody’s going to come to an event, oh my god, that guy’s machines are like all dirty. Well, things get dirty in the production world, you know that.
More on Post-Use Machine Care
Wipe the machines down, let the machines cool off before you put them back in to a cold spark machine case or a flight case or a box or whatever you’re going to use. Let them cool off for about 20 minutes or 30 minutes, and then you’re good to go. I’ve taken my cables off. I always say this you can run your hand down the face of the machine that means all the cables are out and everything’s good to go. And now you’re able to put your spark machine away until next time.
The DMX, the cables, all of that. That’s a whole other video, don’t need to show you that. But, that is how you use a cold spark machine. And that is cold spark machine instructions if you will with the sparkler mini Showven sparkler mini. How to use a Showven sparkler machine.
Conclusion
So, thank you guys for watching this video. Comment in the section below if you would like any additional videos; or if you want me to explain something thoroughly enough. I’m fine with making another video on that. Thanks for watching CryoFX. And do me a favor, if you like this channel, like, share and of course subscribe. We have more videos coming up. This is how to use a cold spark machine or how to use a Showven sparkler machine. They all pretty much operate the same, so you could take this and apply these techniques to your machines. See you next time.