COBRA Firmware Updates & Release History

The COBRA 6.1.9 release includes the following features and fixes.

18R2

• Resolved a rare issue where cues from a previous script were not properly removed when loading a new script while modules were armed.
• If a script is configured with a Deadman button, you can now bypass SMPTE input by pressing ARM again while holding the Deadman button to start the show.
• New Error Reporting:
  • Er3: Triggered if the CSV being loaded contains more than 32 scripts.
  • Er28: Triggered if more than 18 alternate events are used for Alternate 1 or Alternate 2 in the script being loaded.
  • Er54: Triggered if a script being loaded exceeds 400 events per channel.
  • Er12: Fixed an issue where non-ASCII characters in the cobra.csv file caused invalid errors.
• When importing a script with over 999 events, if an error occurs after the 999th event, the 18R2 shows the error line number by displaying the thousands digit on the top 7-segment display, followed by the remaining digits. For example, for line 1,345, it shows "1" and then "345".
• In some cases, importing a script file generated from Finale3D would generate an invalid error 18. This issue is now fixed.
• 18R2 Rev 2 LiPo Compatibility: Added support for the new 1S LiPo battery and adapter kit, allowing the 18R2 to accurately calculate and display battery voltage (P-values).

18M

• 18M units now display "HdA" or "HdB" during the startup sequence to identify hardware versions.
• Resolved an issue where the firing mode could reset to a null value after an update, causing only the first cue to fire.
• The 18M now remembers channel changes immediately, even if powered off within 10 seconds.

6M

• The 6M now remembers channel changes immediately, even if powered off within 10 seconds.

36M/72M

• 36M/72M units now properly send null values for all channels when the script is finished or when paused on a STEP event.
• Modules now always appear on the Control Panel after powering on, even if the 18R2 is already armed.

Control Panel Gen 2

• Fixed a benign issue where the Control Panel might indicate a script was still running after it had ended.
• In some cases, DMX event times were displaying incorrectly in the Control Panel. This was a display-only issue, as the DMX events were firing at the correct time but were displayed incorrectly in the Control Panel event list UI. This issue has been fixed.
• In some cases with larger scripts, the Control Panel may fail when importing the script. This issue has been resolved.

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• When manually firing cues when armed, the cue continuity would disappear from the channel. This issue is now fixed as the cue continuity remains and the proper firing statuses display.

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• In some cases, multiple alternate events will fire when pressing the alternate 1 or 2 button.
• The 18R2 now changes channel and changes the cue LEDs to red on the remote display when firing. This functionality was removed in 6.1.4 and is now re-introduced in 6.1.6.

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• Within an optimization change to 6.1.4, an issue was introduced where a script may not fire specific cues due to logic error in our firmware code. This was reported by one customer on Oct. 7th and would only occur in some cases of specific module and cue timing.

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• 18R2 - High-intensity firing cadences combined with SMPTE may cause for a module to skip a cue in rare cases
• 18R2 - No longer changes channel while a script is running allowing for manual firing during a show (no longer in current release, coming in next patch release)
• 18R2 - Bug fix for pressing multiple cue firing buttons at the same time on the 18R2
• Audio Box - Optimized and fix some issues for audio alignment during SMPTE run scripts

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• 36M/72M Hardware A only becomes inoperable in some cases due to flash memory configuration issue

View Critical Release Notes

• 18R2 / Control Panel - Jump to re-enabled in Control Panel for timed and STEP events
• 18R2 / Control Panel - Elapsed time showing incorrectly when jumping is performed
• 18R2 / Control Panel - Changing firing mode now supported from Control Panel
• Audio Box - Audio skipping may occur if SMPTE is used with 18R2 together with the Audio Box
• Control Panel Gen 2 - The UI may display a 36M or 72M's key state momentarily in the wrong position. This only affects the 36M and 72M modules.
• 18M Hardware B - When initiating a STEP command from the 18R2 from a scripted show, if a module does not receive the STEP command, it's possible an event may fire late and eventually re-align once the heartbeat from the 18R2 is received.

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• 18R2 - STEP event may cause script to not fire

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Minor New Improvements

• Total Events in COBRA Show Creator and Control Panel Consistency
• Audio Box Always Plays Single Audio File
• Audio Box Feature to Not Pause Audio with STEP Events
• Double Tapping TEST or ARM Displays Device Count
• Modules Indicating Communication Status
• Blank Lines in Script Now Ignored
• Script Loading Event Line Indicator on 18R2
• Jumping Forward and Backward in SMPTE Scripts Now Supported

Bug Fixes

• Audio Box Not Recognizing USB Drive
• 18M and 6M Not Firing Script if Power Cycled Mid-Show
• Module Powered On Mid-Script may Fire Previous STEP Event
• Script Error 16 Incorrectly Displayed as Error 54 on 18R2
• Control Panel Not Displaying Modules
• Events Between 0 and 1 second Not Appearing as Fired in Control Panel using SMPTE
• Quickplug 6-Cue Visualizer Now Works on 36M/72M for Showing Continuity
• Auto-Fire LEDs Displaying on 36M/72M in TEST Mode
• Modules Not Displaying in ARM Count on 18R2
• 18M May Not Turn Off Red Cue LED if Cue is Shorted and Fires
• Updating Firmware on 36M/72M May Change Voltage Mode
• Space Between Filename and .mp3 Extension Causing Playback Issues
• Module Not Firing Script
• Minor DMX Issues
• Manually Clearing Scripts Not Blinking SYNC LED or Displaying 00
• Changing Firing Mode (0.1s vs. 2.0s) While Module is Armed is Disabled on 36M/72M
• SMPTE Timecode Quality Displays 0 with Large DMX Scripts
• Last Event in SMPTE Driven Scripts May Not Fire

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Major New Improvements

• Manually fire cues while the script is running
• Reinforced wireless security
• Fire multiple scripts without disarming
• Improvements to the ER3 stuck button error codes to allow full operation of the unit while only displaying which button was stuck, and disabling that button.

Minor New Improvements

• Synchronization process change
• Audio accuracy
• 320k MP3 audio quality
• Sleep mode efficiency improved by 25%
• Manual AUTO-FIRE works past 12 seconds

Bug Fixes

• Sleep mode no longer displays backlight

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Major New Improvements

• Universal compatibility
• 1P low battery level warning

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The COBRA 7.1.8 release includes the following fixes and stability improvements.

18R2

• In rare cases when loading a new script to the 18R2, cues from a previous script were not properly removed causing inadvertent cues to fire. This only occurred if a new script was loaded while the modules were on and armed. This issue has been resolved.
• The Control Panel may not know if a script has stopped and would indicate the script was still running. This was a benign issue and is now resolved as the Control Panel now properly displays stopped when the script ends.
• If you have a deadman button configured on your script and are holding the deadman, you can now press ARM again to start the show without receiving SMPTE timecode input.
• In some cases the 36M or 72M may not appear on the Control Panel if you power the unit on while the 18R2 is armed. The 36M and 72M now always appear on the Control Panel after powering on when the 18R2 is armed.
• In some cases, invalid non-ASCII characters following the # comment character in the cobra.csv file would cause an invalid error 12. This issue is fixed as non-ASCII characters are now ignored.
• Error 28 was added to the 18R2 for script importing to inform the user that there are more than 18 alternate events for ALTERNATE1 or ALTERNATE2 events.
• When firing a script that is configured for a deadman and SMPTE and you start the script with the deadman engaged, but no SMPTE is coming in, the 18R2 would change its channel to the channel of the first event in the script. This issue has been fixed as the channel no longer changes when the script starts in these specific conditions.
• If you attempt to import a script file with more than 32 scripts, error code 3 is now displayed on the 18R2.
• If you attempt to import a script with more than 400 events per channel, error code 54 is now displayed on the 18R2.
• When importing a script with more than 999 events, if an error is encountered past the 999th event, the line number displayed shows the thousands digit followed by the remaining digits.
• In some cases, importing a script file generated from Finale3D would generate an invalid error 18. This issue is now fixed.
• In some cases, DMX event times were displaying incorrectly in the Control Panel. This was a benign display-only issue and has been fixed.
• In rare cases, the 18R2 was sending an invalid pulse time to modules, causing firing at the default pulse time instead of the scripted value. This issue has been resolved.
• When changing security mode on the 18R2, the channel + or - button pressed during startup could become unresponsive until the controller was power cycled. This issue has been resolved.
• The 18R2 now displays error code 37 if more than 12 disable groups are loaded.
• After clearing scripts from the 18R2 and power cycling the 36M/72M while the 18R2 is powered on, the modules may have displayed invalid characters. This issue has been resolved.
• In rare cases, after upgrading from 7.0.x to 7.1.x and loading a new script, a module may not download the updated script. This issue has been resolved.
• If the 18R2 has an improper script identifier, it will now display Er7 and require the user to re-load the script.

18M

• Hardware version (A or B) is now displayed during startup as HdA or HdB.
• In rare cases, the firing mode could reset to a null value after a firmware update. This issue has been resolved.
• Channel changes are now saved immediately, even if the unit is powered off within 10 seconds.

6M

• Channel changes are now saved immediately, even if the unit is powered off within 10 seconds.

36M/72M

• The 36M and 72M now always send null values for all channels when the script is finished or the unit is in TEST mode.
• You can now change the voltage mode on the 36M/72M if an Er1 code is encountered.

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18R2

• Addresses a rare situation (only reported once), whereby the 18R2 may pause while receiving a SMPTE feed and have no recovery other than re-starting the 18R2.
• Improved communication between the 18R2 and Control Panel, ensuring that all modules are displayed correctly as in some cases, a module may not appear.
• Improvements to the ER3 stuck button error codes to allow full operation of the unit while only displaying which button was stuck, and disabling that button.

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The COBRA 8.0 BETA release introduces several feature improvements across the 18R2, 18R3, 36M, and 72M hardware.

DMX Enhancements

• 18R2/18R3 Increased DMX Events - The maximum number of DMX events on the 18R2 and 18R3 is increased from 10k events to 20k events.
• 36M/72M Increased DMX Events - The maximum number of DMX events is increased from 3k to 20k on the 36M and 72M.
• DMX Ramp Feature - COBRA now supports DMX ramping functionality by defining a ramp start and end value for a defined time duration. For example, if you define a start value of 0 and an end value of 100 over 1 second, the 36M/72M will automatically send 100 events from 0 to 100 over the one second time period. Note that the 36M/72M has a timing resolution of 1/100th of a second. This means if you are ramping a value from 0 to 200 over one second, it would send values of 0, then 2, then 4, etc... due to the 1/100th second timing resolution. This feature is supported both in COBRA Show Creator and also Finale3D.

Script & Arming Improvements

• Modules Download Scripts in TEST Mode - All modules now download script data when the 18R2 or 18R3 is in TEST mode. This means that the arming of modules will occur much faster as in previous releases, the script information was uploaded during the arming process.
• Scripts Saved in Modules After Power Off - All modules with the exception of the 18M hardware A units will save script information on the modules even after the module is powered off. By saving script information on the modules, this increases the speed of module arming as the remote no longer needs to upload script data. If a new script is loaded into the 18R2 or 18R3, the remote will send the new script data to the modules.
• Downloading Script Module Indicator - When a module is downloading script data from the 18R2 or 18R3, the TEST LED will blink. Once the script data is downloaded, the TEST LED will go solid.

18R2/18R3 Display Improvements

• Module Count Improvements - The 18R2 and 18R3 now display the module counts in real-time vs. in blocks. This removes the issue whereby 0 was displayed for an extended period of time on the remote.
• Display Module Count Feature - By double tapping TEST or ARM on the 18R2, the current module count will display on the 7-segment displays.
• Blinking Continuity Exception Indicator - The 18R2 will now alternate blink a cue red and green if continuity exists, but is not within the current script cue, but for the selected channel.

36M/72M Diagnostics

• Local Diagnostics Download - You can now place a USB drive into your 36M or 72M and download detailed diagnostics. Then, press CHANGE BANK until you see "LOGGING" whereby pressing CH+ toggles between enabling and disabling the logging feature. Pressing CH- will download the file into the attached USB. By default the logging feature is enabled.

Control Panel Features

• Change Module Channel - You can now change the module channel directly from the Control Panel.
• Adjust Module Script Timeout - From the COBRA Control Panel, you can now control the timeout period for modules to stop firing if no signal is received from the 18R2 or 18R3.
• Module Field Alert - Using the Control Panel, you can now cause a module to blink all 18 cue LEDs alternating red and green as a way for an operator to quickly identify a module in the field.

Bug Fixes

• 18M Hardware A Ghost Continuity - In rare cases, an 18M hardware A may show continuity on a cue when no continuity exists. This issue has been fixed as the sensitivity of testing continuity was reduced slightly.
• Audio Box Security Mode Visual Enhancements - The Audio Box display user interface has been updated to better communicate the security mode and how to toggle between Basic and Enhanced.

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• Fixed an issue where power cycling a 36M or 72M while armed caused the module to forget script events and not fire.

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• When manually firing cues when armed, cue continuity would disappear from the channel. This issue has been fixed.

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• In some cases, multiple alternate events would fire when pressing Alternate 1 or 2.
• Channel and cue LED behavior while firing has been restored on the 18R2.

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• Resolved a critical issue where unintended cues could fire when using multi-script features.

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• Fixed a logic issue introduced in 7.1.1 that could prevent specific cues from firing.

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• High-intensity firing cadences combined with SMPTE could cause skipped cues in rare cases.
• Channel no longer changes while a script is running.
• Fixed pressing multiple cue buttons simultaneously.
• Audio Box alignment improvements for SMPTE scripts.

View Patch Release Notes