What is an alternate firing event, and how do I use it within my script?

COBRA introduced the alternate firing event in firmware version 4.0, and this functionality allows you to define alternate events in your cobra.csv script file. An alternate firing event is a specific channel and cue combination you wish to fire to produce "filler" in a black sky situation. An excellent example of using an alternate firing event would be a pyromusical where a specific effect, for example, a 45-second cake, fails to ignite or ends prematurely. Press the alternate button on the 18R2, as you defined in your script or the COBRA Deadman Alternate Button to fire the first of your defined alternate events. By pressing the button again, the next alternate event will fire until all alternate events have fired.

To define alternate events, add an event line in your cobra.csv file with the word "alternate" in the event time column. Below is a simple script example, including three alternate events. Using the model below, by pressing the alternate button the first time, cue #1 on channel 03 will fire first, pressing the button again, cue #2, channel 03. In firmware version 5.0, you can further use "ALTERNATE2" in the event time column to create a second list of alternates. During your show, you can choose to fire from either ALTERNATE1 or ALTERNATE2.

 1,1,deadman,1,,,,17,18

 00:00:1.0s,1,1,Blue mine

 00:00:2.0s,1,2,Red comet

 00:00:3.0s,2,1,Blue mine

 00:00:4.0s,2,1,Red comet

 ALTERNATE,3,1,Shell

 ALTERNATE,3,2,Shell

 end

There are two options available to fire alternate events:

• 18R2 Button - To fire an alternate event from the 18R2, specify the Alternate Button argument in the script header row, as shown above in column H defined as button 17. The Alternate 2 Button argument in the script is defined in column J defined as button 18. For alternate buttons, you must define the button as 1-18, you cannot use the STEP or AUTO-FIRE buttons.
• Deadman Handheld Alternate Button - Press the right button on the Deadman Handheld Switch to fire the alternate cues. Note that this only fires alternate 1 cues. You do not need to modify the script header to use the alternate button on the Deadman Handheld Switch.

For script samples that include alternate events please see our Script Example support document.