I've been firing under a license for 7 years, but working for my fathers sound/laser light/lighting/pyro company for as long as I can remember. I moved up here to NY to continue being a sound technician for theater a year ago.
As far as available controllers, an 18 circuit firing panel from Pyropack will cost ~$1000 as I remember. Controllers from LeMaire will run around the same price, maybe a bit less- With the wireless systems, for example, starting at about $1600 for ONE circuit. And you need a license to purchase most commercial pyro equip, especially since recent events. That's why building your own is a viable option if you are unlicensed, cause if you have one you HAVE to use certified commercially available equip unless you have the cash to insure your custom equip against failure. Theater Effects is another good company and may sell to consumers, and thier controllers are quite a bit less. A 24 shot 12v system controller is about $695 as I remember. Theater effects is a good lower cost option as they have good quality stuff, but it's not quite as good as Pyropack and LeMaitre. There may be other manufacturers out there, but not any that are used professionally. Most of the controllers I've seen for aeriel shows are home built, I think it goes along with the whole world of aeriel fireworks. A controller like what you are building would be extreeemly expensive to buy, and if you're careful theres no reason why it wouldn't be safe.
As far as available controllers, an 18 circuit firing panel from Pyropack will cost ~$1000 as I remember. Controllers from LeMaire will run around the same price, maybe a bit less- With the wireless systems, for example, starting at about $1600 for ONE circuit. And you need a license to purchase most commercial pyro equip, especially since recent events. That's why building your own is a viable option if you are unlicensed, cause if you have one you HAVE to use certified commercially available equip unless you have the cash to insure your custom equip against failure. Theater Effects is another good company and may sell to consumers, and thier controllers are quite a bit less. A 24 shot 12v system controller is about $695 as I remember. Theater effects is a good lower cost option as they have good quality stuff, but it's not quite as good as Pyropack and LeMaitre. There may be other manufacturers out there, but not any that are used professionally. Most of the controllers I've seen for aeriel shows are home built, I think it goes along with the whole world of aeriel fireworks. A controller like what you are building would be extreeemly expensive to buy, and if you're careful theres no reason why it wouldn't be safe.
imix500 said:
Unfortunately I don't have my pyrotechnicians license yet. My uncle however has all the proper permits and paperwork(seems to be alot of it), and he is my supervisor. I do plan on getting all the requirements and credentials to become licensed myself, so I can do my own small aerial shows by the law man's book. I am neurotic about safety though, it's been drilled into my head by my uncle since I was 12 or so. That's part of the reason I want the electric firing board.
Ok well I figured from what I've seen on a few sites that commercial units were well out of my range. Well over what I'm spending on shells and cakes for my show in fact. If I was Mr. Big Bcks maybe, but since I'm not I DIY.
So if I go with the possibly risky resistor continuity tester circuit, do you think I'll be adding a sufficient layer of protectio if I built an e-match tester like I described?
Thanks yet again for your obviously proffessional advice.
Portable continuity testers I've seen that look like little "photon" led squeeze lights. They limit the current to about 15ma, conveniently just enough to light an led. Because most igniters are designed for about 50ma, that's a good saftey margin. You can even get some lower current leds that only need 10ma to light, adding a further margin of saftey. A portable tester wouldn't be a bad idea to check the ignitors before wired up the the shells. If nothing else, you'll find some bad ignitors before all the trouble of wiring them up. But if you stick to 10-15ma of current, there should be no problems.
Ok I'm definitely going to build a handheld eMatch tester so I don't have any cues fire in test mode. Should I test with 24VDC@15mA, or is the amperage really the most important figure for testing purposes.
And I will choose resistors for my firing panel circuit to keep the current there at 15mA or below. Hopefully the extra layer of protection the handheld tester will afford me will keep any slightly different eMatches from surprising me during testing.
I've been reading a little bit more and trying to get a better understanding of a PLL. Are there any links you have to similar circuits? I'd really like to learn more about that. Sounds nice.
thanks for all your help
ken
And I will choose resistors for my firing panel circuit to keep the current there at 15mA or below. Hopefully the extra layer of protection the handheld tester will afford me will keep any slightly different eMatches from surprising me during testing.
I've been reading a little bit more and trying to get a better understanding of a PLL. Are there any links you have to similar circuits? I'd really like to learn more about that. Sounds nice.
thanks for all your help
ken
Actually you only need enough voltage and current to light an led for testing. Approx 2v at ~15ma. Not really enough power to fire the ignitor but pleny to light an led for continuity. The current limiting resistor for the led will drop any extra current and release it as heat. But building a simple voltage divider in addition to the current limiting resistor for the led would be the way I would go. That way, even with an open circuit theres only ~2v of potential at the match leads as opposed to 24v. Now that's for the tester in the firing panel. For a portable tester you can use a lithium cell with a small limiting resistor that could be built into a very small box. A 3v lithium coin cell would last for years. You could always buy the one from Theater Effects for around $10.
It's been a while since I delt with PLL's, but I'll look for the material I have and get back to you.
It's been a while since I delt with PLL's, but I'll look for the material I have and get back to you.
What's the best way to charge my 2 12V sealed lead acid batteries? Together as one 24V battery, or seperately?
Should I buy a charger or is it simple enough to build?
Imix : wondering if you found any of that phase locked loop documentation you were talking about. Sounds like the way to go next year, if I can gain an understanding of how it works and how to implement it by then. Thanks for all your help with this.
Should I buy a charger or is it simple enough to build?
Imix : wondering if you found any of that phase locked loop documentation you were talking about. Sounds like the way to go next year, if I can gain an understanding of how it works and how to implement it by then. Thanks for all your help with this.
Yes, please.
faithblinded at comcast.net (trying to avoid spammer spiders lol)
Sounds like you play musical drives the way I do. I hate losing track of data. pdf's and text files tend to get hard to organize if you wait to long. They accumulate sooo fast.
Anyone have input on charging those batteries?
faithblinded at comcast.net (trying to avoid spammer spiders lol)
Sounds like you play musical drives the way I do. I hate losing track of data. pdf's and text files tend to get hard to organize if you wait to long. They accumulate sooo fast.
Anyone have input on charging those batteries?
Will do, as far the batteries go, they are not far off from what secuity systems use for back up power. You can get a trickle charger from a supply house like Wm B Allen for about $40 that will charge the batterys correctly. You can use a lawnmower battery charger but they can overcharge these batterys. Otherwise charger kits are available from several sources on the web. You're max charge current should be about 2A at 14.4V and then floated at 13.5 volts for these guys.
new in fireworks
Hi, i'm new in this topic but i saw your texts, have you ever thought about using PIC(fromm 16 to 80 ports) or 8051 to make a Electronic Timed Starter?
Something where you choose in a keypad how many seconds between e-matchs interfaced with relays?
*sory about my english, i'm brazilian and i'm rusty in english writing.
Hi, i'm new in this topic but i saw your texts, have you ever thought about using PIC(fromm 16 to 80 ports) or 8051 to make a Electronic Timed Starter?
Something where you choose in a keypad how many seconds between e-matchs interfaced with relays?
*sory about my english, i'm brazilian and i'm rusty in english writing.
Re: new in fireworks
Sounds great, but also way over my head. I'm new to electronics. I understand most of the simple stuff. But beyond that I'm drowning in an ocean of stuff I can't understand, yet.
I think for my 2nd board, I might try to step into IC'c and get a PLL system going, but I still don't have a very good understanding of how to implement that.
This is on hold right now since I dropped the loot on the fireworks recently, and won't have the money for parts for a few weeks.
Thanks for your suggestions.
eajunqueira said:
Sounds great, but also way over my head. I'm new to electronics. I understand most of the simple stuff. But beyond that I'm drowning in an ocean of stuff I can't understand, yet.
I think for my 2nd board, I might try to step into IC'c and get a PLL system going, but I still don't have a very good understanding of how to implement that.
This is on hold right now since I dropped the loot on the fireworks recently, and won't have the money for parts for a few weeks.
Thanks for your suggestions.
Hey eajunqueira, there are several manufacturers that do use a microcontroller to do just that in thier auto sequencers that are just a step below computer control. Well, a step below PC control anyway since a microcontroller is... a computer. It's pretty expensive though because it's a fairly mission critical application so there are many safeguards built into the microcontroler system. Something like several of them working together with different code running to keep everything in check. They work beautifully though. If you've ever seen american "professional" wrestling, all the pyro they use is fired by a couple breifcase size microcontroller sequencers by one person.
Faithblinded- I havn't forgotten about you. I've been out of town until... 5 minutes ago. I'll send you the docs here shortly.
Faithblinded- I havn't forgotten about you. I've been out of town until... 5 minutes ago. I'll send you the docs here shortly.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.