Wireless firework ignitor! Early? Yes! Cool? Yes!

I thought I would post this now So people could either love or hate this in time. I thought that it would be cool for Ben to make a wireless firework igniter (electric lighter) for the 4th of July? Maybe? One that costs less than the commercially available one of $500!

Justin

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Former Member over 11 years ago

My cousin and I built a wireless setup about 3 years ago. It uses a single 255 channel wireless receiver board and a custom PC software interface. which was far cry from my 16ch single wire prototype the year before. Just last year we added (14) 8ch mini receivers to the setup. I've attached a photo of the miniRX-8 and some links to our family's forth of July fireworks display.

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colecago over 11 years ago in reply to Former Member

Ah Linx, I've used their radios before. Not the cheapest in town but definitely easy. Are you using the encoder/decoder with it as well? Or did you roll your own protocol?
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colecago over 11 years ago in reply to Former Member

Ah Linx, I've used their radios before. Not the cheapest in town but definitely easy. Are you using the encoder/decoder with it as well? Or did you roll your own protocol?
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Former Member over 11 years ago in reply to colecago

Kept the data protocol simple. The transmitter sends a single byte of data for the active channel. The mini-receiver only decodes the last 4 bits out to the 8 outputs via gates and the upper bits are manually set via switches. Linx products are little pricey but made the whole process easier. Didn't have to use a microcontroller on the receiver at all.
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Problemchild over 11 years ago in reply to Former Member

Impressive this looks like you are in time for the next Godzilla movie

What ignitor system do you use ...most people I know just massively overload a low wattage resistor and get good results!
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Problemchild over 11 years ago in reply to Problemchild

BTW some guys in the Edinburgh hackerspace were building a system it may be worth a look around their site for information
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Problemchild over 11 years ago in reply to Problemchild

Thinking about it what responsibility does the manufacturer of these devices even at an amateur level have to the correct functioning of these ignitors. Are you horribly liable if your device has a misfire or a failure ?
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Former Member over 11 years ago in reply to Problemchild

Thats exactly what I use. 10ohm 1/8w resisters burn up great at 12V, lots of heat and a flame. I've used/tried commercial ignites(expensive), thin copper wire(easy to break), and nichrome wire(hard to work with) but resistors are very cheap and easy to work with, you can get 100 of them for less then $3.00 From digikey, http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/CF18JT10R0/CF18JT10R0CT-ND/2022697

To increase the reliability of ignition you can dip resistors in E-match compound from Skylighter http://www.skylighter.com/electric-match-kit.htm
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