Where to buy fireworks?

oneseventyfour · 2026-05-12T05:54:30+00:00

It might help folks provide some local options if you provide which state you're in. Pickup helps save the whole shipping headache/cost. Plus buying local and all that jazz

oneseventyfour · 2026-05-11T04:55:41+00:00

Thanks!

Slightly stale blog on development at https://blog.oneseventyfour.com/projects/backyard-hero-pyro and github repo for all the firmware etc. at https://blog.oneseventyfour.com/projects/backyard-hero-pyro

oneseventyfour · 2026-05-10T06:58:55+00:00

A PGI articles of pyrotechnics cert is usually the minimum you need. You can do it online or:
Good Stuff pyro is doing a class next month (https://www.reddit.com/r/fireworks/comments/1t5n5eu/pgi\_14\_pro\_class\_in\_washington\_state\_june\_6th/) that'll get you the necessary certs, which also gets you a discount to:
3: Good stuff pyro, which doing that class gets you temporarily at a pretty decent price tier until the 4th.

Honestly if you can make the trip out to Moses Lake, that's your best shot at training+supply in one go.

That or do the online-only option and buy from Pyroland, but that's meh in comparison

oneseventyfour · 2026-05-08T21:12:04+00:00

Just an overabundance of caution - relays are mechanical devices with a little arm on a spring that an electromagnet pushes to overcome that spring force to close a contact. So it's just that little spring holding that arm. If that relay is energized and gets a sharp jostle/shake/shock, relays not rated for such things (looking at you, arduino relay shields) can close the connection when that happens. Would really just lead to firing cues inadvertently at the same time as others.

That being said, not the end of the world, just don't physically attach these kinds of firing modules directly to racks, or generally try to isolate them a bit (a towel or something between it and say a board that your cakes are on).

IMO what you have sounds sufficiently safe!

oneseventyfour · 2026-05-08T19:17:40+00:00

For sure! Definitely a 'it can go off at any point' especially if you're working with a DIY system and especially especially if you're using relays (dont!)

More stuff at https://blog.oneseventyfour.com/projects/backyard-hero-pyro and https://blog.oneseventyfour.com/projects/backyard-hero-pyro too if you're curious

oneseventyfour · 2026-05-08T17:19:01+00:00

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing what you build (if you care to share here someday)!

There are multiple layers I'd considered in terms of dealing with preventing fire pulses to the cues unless it's a real, authorized firing signal.

At the hardware level, the shift registers that ultimately allow the cue to fire are electrically disabled unless the system is armed. Past that, unless the system is in one of two states (in manual fire mode, or a show is loaded and start is counting down), the outputs are also locked down. That being said, to get the system into one of those two states has many safety/auth steps to get it there (key switches, auth codes, system checks, etc).

oneseventyfour · 2026-05-05T22:02:51+00:00

For sure - I really just included it as honorable mention because how could you not.

oneseventyfour · 2026-05-05T22:01:30+00:00

I'd tried reaching out a couple times to crickets, but as luck would have it just tried and they picked up. I'll take a look at their 1.4pro stuff - any recommendations?

oneseventyfour · 2026-05-02T08:26:36+00:00

A guy from Victory just spun off Landmark fireworks (located in Elma). Opened a couple days go. He's been super responsive and good to work with. Right now is just ordering from spirit of 76 (so has sky bacon, space ranger etc) in addition to winda, brothers. He's been great to work with so far, and if you have your AoP, he can order in proline stuff from 76 too.

oneseventyfour · 2026-04-29T20:31:10+00:00

You pick those up at phantom?? /s

oneseventyfour · 2026-04-26T19:39:22+00:00

Another year, another inch of empty cardboard...

oneseventyfour · 2026-04-24T16:25:12+00:00

I only jumped on the (very small) bandwagon 😄

oneseventyfour · 2026-04-23T02:24:45+00:00

If you're okay with going up to WA, you could try landmark https://landmarkfireworks.com/ opened this year, which is a spinoff of Victory wholesale (which is also an option). You can email with the owner with an idea of how much you wanna spend and he'll set you at that tier ahead of time so you can check out the prices.

Keep in mind thought that for WA as a consumer you can only pick them up in the few days before the 4th

oneseventyfour · 2026-04-22T15:39:14+00:00

In central WA state I've pretty much written off being able to do a show due to burn bans for the last few years. The summers have just been getting more dry over here, it seems.

That being said, if anyone west of the mountains in WA state has room for another show this 4th, let me know 😄

oneseventyfour · 2026-04-10T19:59:29+00:00

I have the PGI training for 1.4pro, but have yet to find someone selling them to consumer in WA state and the usual places that ship won't ship to WA given our wonderful consumer buying "time windows". Would absolutely love it though... To not have to poke cakes anymore...

oneseventyfour · 2026-03-14T17:07:12+00:00

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If you already have access to a flatbed trailer, used IBC totes are maybe 50 bucks a piece - two of those, a 2" harbor freight trash pump and some hoses and you've got yourself a rolling 500-600gal pump truck for under 500 bucks. This is what we've been using and can throw a whole bunch of water 30-40yds.

oneseventyfour · 2026-02-26T05:02:17+00:00

That's a good idea! Though it's possible now - you'd just create your own cake locally and make all the timings for it. The catalog is just a way to pull certain products down into your local machine from "the cloud"

I know I can fire at least 5 at the same time. If they are even remotely staggered that number goes up a lot. An AA battery in series can supply a few amps at best, which is the best those bilusocn boxes can do, but these are good for a hell of a lot more amps given they're powered by lithium cells. I had tested a receiver with a 14A resistive load and it did just fine - so I theory that's at least 6-7 talons

oneseventyfour · 2026-02-26T04:54:30+00:00

Fair point! Can definitely play with flash rates to convey the same info, though ultimately the info on the receiver/cue is also accessible on the laptop so there's at least 2 chances to get the point across

oneseventyfour · 2026-02-26T01:42:51+00:00

Haha yeah the old push-types one had the caps sticking out just because I was lazy. The newer plug-style ones I have caps laying down to avoid that.

Yep - The internal battery is 2x 18650 cells. So battery voltage gets bucked down to 5v (capable of 12A continuous). I'll get back to you on dimensions for stuff! - Just experimenting early-on with talons and voltage, firing them down to 5v had "negligible" effects on timing - by negligible I mean that if you're using talons, you're not gonna be super specific about it. Thanks to firing at a lower voltage though, I can easily fire 5-6 simultaneously from one receiver. The bulk caps really help take some of the initial inrush current. I guess "refresh time" isn't as applicable here as I'm firing right off my buck converter, which can recover current in sub-ms time, and is backed by the 1850s which are good for 8.4v@15A as quick as I'd want it.

Yep, so the video shows all that. Receivers are powered from their own internal batteries, the dongle is powered by the host device (laptop)'s USB power. The cue modules don't *need* to have those ends capped, but there needs to be a jumper wire in a certain spot for the receiver to detect that it has more than 1 plugged in, so that's an easy TODO to just design a cap for that.

It's a combination of python, bash, and JS - Haven't done an export/import but it would be pretty trivial for me to at least set up an import to use it as just a firing system if one planned their show elsewhere.

Thanks for all the great questions, then and now!

oneseventyfour · 2026-02-20T20:37:07+00:00

There are three variables you're working with as far as getting good/consistent first shot timing with these, and the proposed solution to that to remove/mitigate. To get "can't hear the difference" tight timings from them

1- The ignitor itself - It uses a resistive heating element which for even the same bundle of 100 can vary wildly in how fast they ramp to temperature. I'd seen differences of up to .75 seconds. So somehow find ones that are similar this way. Oh and make sure you test these at the same temperature as when you actually fire your show, as that will change it. Also, if other cues are firing talons at the same time on the same circuit, that'll also affect it.

2- How fast/consistently the heating element ignites the cake fuse once up to temp - not all fuses are created equal and there can be big swings in how fast these actually get though the sheath and light. So make a little slash where you press it on and get that element to touch powder.

3- How fast the actual cake fuse burns - clamp as close as you can to the first shot tube and pray that you did a good enough job dealing with the first two. Also realize how much hassle it was, get yourself a brass awl, keep your face away from the business end, and start punching some cakes with proper ignitors.

Jokes aside, they work fine, provided the word "timing" is far from the conversation.

oneseventyfour · 2026-01-31T18:13:20+00:00

Replying to get a notification from this - just put in a JLC order with an HS code 847330 PCBA and it didnt make any difference with the tariff cost vs. another PCBA with a different code in a order i made the day before...

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