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Firework launcher switch board

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moody07747

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I'm planning on building a switch board with a bunch of momentary on switches.

I would have about 30 of these switches and each would send a signal to one firework fuse to light it.

edit, maby have 10 switches, a common lug, and 30 lead lugs, i could set the switch to 1 and have the 10 switches fire rockets 1-10, set the switch to 2 and 11-20 will be shot with buttons 1-20 and so on...

I guess a 12V 5A battery will do to run the circuit and launch these suckers, right?

The fireworks all have fuses that normally light by hand with a flame but i would like to do it with an electrical source of some type....maby get a few of those rocket starters.

Any ideas on where to start and how it would all work out?

btw, can you buy these type boards for cheap now?
 
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Electronic Ignition

A certain silicon diode (Part number: IN141 SS) heats up and burns out when connected to a 6V lantern battery. Also, on mythbusters the other night they had a similar set up using a small piece of high resistance wire (not sure on the source used).
These setups cause the wire/diode to heat up when the circuit is completed, placing this next to a match head causes the match to ignite.

The diode does take 1 - 2 seconds to ignite the match.

I assume that the 12V 5A source you mentioned would do the job, unless you plan to ignite 2 or more fireworks at once, in which case you might have some troubles.

I hope this helps.

P.S. Edited to fix a typo.
 
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Hi Dave,

An interesting project. May I propose one idea out of hundreds of possibilities for the control console user interface?

Instead of a whole bunch of expensive switches you might consider something simpler (below). This concept uses a Rotary Encoder with detents to select one of your 30 firing selections as indicated on the LEDs. A built-in push button switch on the Encoder shaft would be pressed to 'fire' the current selection.

A small 18-pin microcontroller uses 6 I/O pins for the 30 multiplexed LEDs, 3 pins for the Rotary Encoder, and 3 pins for loading cascaded serial-to-parallel relay driver chips.

Microcontroller control offers some interesting possibilities. For example, instead of just lighting the current 'target' output LED selection you could use a flashing LED to indicate current selection as you rotate the Encoder and indicate fired LEDs as solid "on". That way you'd see at-a-glance all unfired outputs as unlighted LEDs and your current selection as a flashing LED.

Hey, just an idea. I use this microcontroller scheme for selecting various antennas in my Ham Radio Shack.

Regards, Mike
 

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suicidalmonkey said:
... using a small piect of high resistance wire ...
An alloy known as nichrome. Do a Google search for nichrome wire or go here.
JB
 
Get an old toaster and use the wire out of that if you're not into electronics put 30 switches on a board and run lines,otherwise use a multiplexer like a 154 to select each firing connect a resistor to ground on pins 20-23 inclusive and switches to n/o switches to +ve.
 
edit, maby have 10 switches, a common lug, and 30 lead lugs, i could set the switch to 1 and have the 10 switches fire rockets 1-10, set the switch to 2 and 11-20 will be shot with buttons 1-20 and so on...

MikeK8LH has the neatest idea. But you would need to know a bit more to make one.

Oldtimer has an idea, switch to pick (select) one of the 74154, and 4 buttons (it is a 4 to 16 line decoder) you push combos of the buttons to fire them.

Just note each time you flip the switch, the first bank will fire (if pins are pulled down) if no buttons are pressed, or just do not use that output pin and you have 15 rockets to fire off 4 buttons for each 154 you add.

Another thought, a pic/avr microcontroller with a lot of I/O pins to the fuses (fuse drivers), and some keyboard to the PIC/AVR (on a couple pins) and if you press "A" fires 1, if "B" fire 2..
 
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i thinking about idea your's wonderfull.
i want to request [Firework launcher switch board circuit] and how to make Process??
i will make project in my university... zip Datasheet for me please!!!!!
+thank you+
 
Yes I agree on the Nichrome wire, I've used it for several years on my own pyrotechnic display for live performance, you can also go to theatrefx.com to purchase nichrome wire with leads. The board I built was simple it had a safety toggle switch to arm channel and then momentary push button to fire, it is powered by 110v ac, so I had to install gfi recepticals so not to trip breaker on that circuit.
 
how to make a switch board

hi i am planning on making a switch board. i want to use switches 30+ on a 5 foot by 5 foot pice of plywood. i am thinking of useing wires from the switch going to the fuse, and the power sorce would be a car battery. i was woundering when i flip the switch would that heat up the fuse ant set it off, or what coud i do, please help me.
 
I like Mike's idea. Quadrature wheels rule. Put another switch on it so you can select more than one at a time. Use bicolor LED's so green can indicate live ones, red your current selection, yellow for group selection, off for spent charges.
 
My brother does some very impressive fireworks. He just uses the little christmas tree lights as ignitors. Us a lighter to heat up the tip of the glass and it breaks right off. Then fill the light with powder and stick your fuse into it use some wax or hot glue to hold everything and your set to go.

It works super! And is very cheap! Using 24 volts he can ignite his stuff from over 600 feet away on Cat 5 cable.
 
I can think of plenty of dangerous ways to do this.

An ignition coil or flyback circuit with a tissue covered in wax at the end of the HV cable.

Using ESD packaging (paper is probably best) connected to the mains.
 
What's wrong with the classic Estes model rocket igniter?
 
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