COBRA Slats vs Onboard

[tradami]

Curious to know how many people prefer slats over onboard cues and why? I can see why slats would be useful for something such as a 72M. In what situations can you see yourself using the onboard cues instead of a slat?

 

[BMoore]

In my situation I use my Cobra for cakes and I still hand fire my shells. For that it’s easy enough to just use the onboard cues. For shells though I can see where mounting slats directly to the racks would be nice.

 

[MHPyro]

I prefer on board cues as everything is all in one then. One disadvantage is being able to disconnect the mod and remove it from the field during say a lightning storm.

 

[wrtiii]

In our old wired firing systems, the cables and cable connections were always the weak link (literally). Going with the onboard cue modules has eliminated all that - buying, lugging around, testing cables. And I'd rather spend the money on adding cues (18M modules) rather than slats and cables. We hope that whoever bought our slats and cables at the PGI auction is doing nice shows with them.

 

[tradami]

In our old wired firing systems, the cables and cable connections were always the weak link (literally). Going with the onboard cue modules has eliminated all that - buying, lugging around, testing cables. And I'd rather spend the money on adding cues (18M modules) rather than slats and cables. We hope that whoever bought our slats and cables at the PGI auction is doing nice shows with them.

I can see that. For me personally I'm debating the slats because I copy stations and I feel like slats are a cheap solution for that.

I prefer on board cues as everything is all in one then. One disadvantage is being able to disconnect the mod and remove it from the field during say a lightning storm.

I hadn't thought of that. Easy to swap mods out for any reason.

 

[OHMIPyro]

I am new to efiring but this year I picked up 2 18M and 2 slats. I'm running 3 positions that fire simultaneously or 2 (left and right) together. These I'm using the slats and mod for. The other module is for the larger items that are strictly in the center position. Does this make sense to set up this way?

 

[tradami]

I am new to efiring but this year I picked up 2 18M and 2 slats. I'm running 3 positions that fire simultaneously or 2 (left and right) together. These I'm using the slats and mod for. The other module is for the larger items that are strictly in the center position. Does this make sense to set up this way?

Yes. That's a cost efficient way of getting more stations without the full cost of a mod.

 

[cduesman]

I like to pre-wire my cake boards/single shots to slats. On the day of the show, I just plug them into my mods. It also allows me to have the slats fairly close to the product (and use less expensive shorter initiators) and have the mods a several feet away from the product for a little extra protection. I'm mainly doing 1.4 personal shows. For the 1.3 shows that you're wiring the day of, the slats don't offer as much benefit.

I also don't like the traditional 18M cues strips. They are small and have an odd layout. I like the larger cues on the standard slats. (The Quickplugs are nice too.)

Chris

 

[tradami]

......It also allows me to have the slats fairly close to the product (and use less expensive shorter initiators) and have the mods a several feet away from the product for a little extra protection....

A very good point!

 

[Fuse]

We currently prefer multiple 50+18M's(9V - we store in a shipping container, Texas temp.'s are murder in the Summer, we don't have access to a nice 50-18M LIPO recharging center). Regardless, we got burnt out on spooling Salzman & Starfire cables early on, we'd rather deploy more 18M's than some type of combo. parallel or series slats, with all the cables that requires. We recognize the slat advantages for pre-wiring, we're considering the plug in initiators, but for now we'll board and complete in the field without slats.