What i want to know is if anyone has or knows of any way, schematics or anything, to make somekind of wireless fireworks igniter. i already have the igniters(and they work awsome, just say something if you want the link), but what i need now is wireless transmitter and receiver to control a bunch of relays (12+ would be good). i know they sell some IR and radio controllers like this but i would really like to get a design or something. if anyone has any info no matter how minor please reply, it would be most heplful. Thanks.

 

I use a laser or bright light to activate a Photodiode or LDR. Works fine every time. Igniters are 1.5v incandescent bulbs with a hole cut/drilled/smashed into the glass. RF would work to but simple photo circuit is heaps quick and easy!

 

Hi bd13, you and lopesn1464 should get together. :wink:

http://www.electro-tech-online.com/viewtopic.php?t=3261

A wireless or IR link that can fail at any time or can be set off by accident is not something you want to be the one to walk up to and check out. Research some fail-safes before relying on a simple trigger circuit, IR or wireless. Some kind of modulation or encryption can be a good second layer of protection.

I've gotten "burned". Electronic circuits seem to pick the worst times to fail, usually when you're messing around with the wires...

 

go on then, show us the link please!

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OLLY_K

 

i nknow this solution sound stupid. but ......here it is....just use a switch and a string attached to it. pull the sting and you get the contact.
i also like the idea with the laser.
when shorting a photoresistor with the laser pointer it's resitance becomes near to 0. i mesured less 1K for a resistor wich had more than 1Mohm in total darkness. you can make a sistem wich will not be so sensible. and i presume that you will use them during the night so ambient light will not be a problem that bad.
if you want to go for IR......hm....not that good. you are very limited by the distance.
if i were to choose....i would go for radio

 

ok here's the igniter link:

http://sparksrocketry.com/igniters.htm

if you follow the instructions and don't use steel wool instead of Nickel Chromium, then they work fine (cool, though), you can also use estes igniters too, same as Nickel Chromium wire, but with a little black powder on the tip...

anyway i did think of using a long string, bogdanfirst, but that would be wierd and an inconvenience, it would work though... what i really want is to make a radio transmitter/receiver units and use them to control relays, or if the battery is over 6v at a good amperage then it can just run direct curent. the problem is i have no schematics like that, and am not even smart enough to design one....

the laser idea sounds cool, but you need to be in a line of sight... i would much prefer radio....

 

How about looking for a surplus RF control unit? ALL electronics was selling some ultrasonic units recently, but you don't want things going off when someone blows a dog whistle...

Still, an ultransonic link with a bit of encoding/decoding would be more omni-directional than a laser, less so than RF wireless. Pointing it in the general direction of the ignitor would work, which is what you want, right?

Haven't seen a good (tiny, cheap + surplus) RF unit anywhere lately, but I'll keep my eyes open. You could easily bolt on a simple encoder circuit to the the transmitter and a decoder on the receiver to lessen the chance of mis-triggers.

 

yea All Electronics does have some of those really small r/c cars for about 12$. i don't know if it would work well because of its short range but you could always hook up an amp to it and a encoder/decoder and it would work really well (saying the range is >500ft). but under 'web only' items they have a alarm receiver thing that, when it gets a signal, it sends 12v to whatever for 5 sec, this sounds really interesting but it doesn't list the transmitter know anything about it?