ru leisure
New Member
Newby looking for help with a Pyro Project
Hello, My name is Ian, aged 30, and im based just south of London, England.
A quick history, I studied to become a general electrician after leaving college. After qualifying I stupidly did not pursue electrics and spent the last 10 years on the technical side of running night clubs and bars, which Im now out of. As both the electrical regs and employers requirements have changed so much in the UK over the years I am now starting to re study for this. Basically I have an understanding of electricity and electrical safety, and as part of my training done a foundation in electronics, so know the basic basic basics of components, their functions and how to treat them with regards to assembly.
As a money earning day job during my studies im a maintenance / odd job man for a property company. However my real passion is pyrotechnics and I am a qualified pyrotechnician under the BPA (British Pyrotechnics Association)…Projects regarding this will be what I seek advice on.
Like most joining forums, im seeking your skilled advice, and eventually like the other forums I have joined over the years will one day be able to offer something back from my skills knowledge.
Ok, will blabbing intro over the questions…
Im looking to build two simple circuits
First and most important, a stepper circuit (not sure of the tech name – it will be explained) in pyro we call this “Step-Fire” or often seen on US info sites as “Trigger Fire”
One momentary push button switch on a firing desk will step fire through multiple channels on a remote (wired remote – pref minimal number of cores) field box. So, when I press the fire button on the desk first time it will send an electrical pulse and trigger channel one. Press it again to trigger channel two, and so on. It dose not matter if the previous channel(s) stay on as the igniters would have already burst and been left in a state of open circuit.
Iv had a quick play around with the Velleman K8023 kit (http://www.velleman.be/ot/en/product/view/?id=348779)
to replace its automated pulse with a push button with no joy.
Can any of you guys offer a circuit or links to a circuit to do such a simple step program.10 channels would have to be the lowest, ideally 20-30 would be great. Voltage would ideally be in the 12v range but my basic electronics will allow me to work with other values. The more power the better, although igniters/dets normally pop around 60mA we can often have several connected to one channel… again, I can overcome this part on my own.
The second circuit should be even easier, but again I have failed to succeed in my spec. I am looking to build a simple chase circuit. Again I purchased a Valleman kit as a base to start from. What im looking to achieve is a chase sequence which I can vary the time between steps using a variable voltages, such as a multi way rotary switch with different resistance vales on each position or a variable resistor (potentiometer). I have achieved success in doing this with one of the Valleman kits but only at 6 channels… I need to achieve 20+ channels in each chase unit!
Sorry for rambling on.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ian (E)
Hello, My name is Ian, aged 30, and im based just south of London, England.
A quick history, I studied to become a general electrician after leaving college. After qualifying I stupidly did not pursue electrics and spent the last 10 years on the technical side of running night clubs and bars, which Im now out of. As both the electrical regs and employers requirements have changed so much in the UK over the years I am now starting to re study for this. Basically I have an understanding of electricity and electrical safety, and as part of my training done a foundation in electronics, so know the basic basic basics of components, their functions and how to treat them with regards to assembly.
As a money earning day job during my studies im a maintenance / odd job man for a property company. However my real passion is pyrotechnics and I am a qualified pyrotechnician under the BPA (British Pyrotechnics Association)…Projects regarding this will be what I seek advice on.
Like most joining forums, im seeking your skilled advice, and eventually like the other forums I have joined over the years will one day be able to offer something back from my skills knowledge.
Ok, will blabbing intro over the questions…
Im looking to build two simple circuits
First and most important, a stepper circuit (not sure of the tech name – it will be explained) in pyro we call this “Step-Fire” or often seen on US info sites as “Trigger Fire”
One momentary push button switch on a firing desk will step fire through multiple channels on a remote (wired remote – pref minimal number of cores) field box. So, when I press the fire button on the desk first time it will send an electrical pulse and trigger channel one. Press it again to trigger channel two, and so on. It dose not matter if the previous channel(s) stay on as the igniters would have already burst and been left in a state of open circuit.
Iv had a quick play around with the Velleman K8023 kit (http://www.velleman.be/ot/en/product/view/?id=348779)
to replace its automated pulse with a push button with no joy.
Can any of you guys offer a circuit or links to a circuit to do such a simple step program.10 channels would have to be the lowest, ideally 20-30 would be great. Voltage would ideally be in the 12v range but my basic electronics will allow me to work with other values. The more power the better, although igniters/dets normally pop around 60mA we can often have several connected to one channel… again, I can overcome this part on my own.
The second circuit should be even easier, but again I have failed to succeed in my spec. I am looking to build a simple chase circuit. Again I purchased a Valleman kit as a base to start from. What im looking to achieve is a chase sequence which I can vary the time between steps using a variable voltages, such as a multi way rotary switch with different resistance vales on each position or a variable resistor (potentiometer). I have achieved success in doing this with one of the Valleman kits but only at 6 channels… I need to achieve 20+ channels in each chase unit!
Sorry for rambling on.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ian (E)