element14 Community
element14 Community
    Register Log In
  • Site
  • Search
  • Log In Register
  • Community Hub
    Community Hub
    • What's New on element14
    • Feedback and Support
    • Benefits of Membership
    • Personal Blogs
    • Members Area
    • Achievement Levels
  • Learn
    Learn
    • Ask an Expert
    • eBooks
    • element14 presents
    • Learning Center
    • Tech Spotlight
    • STEM Academy
    • Webinars, Training and Events
    • Learning Groups
  • Technologies
    Technologies
    • 3D Printing
    • FPGA
    • Industrial Automation
    • Internet of Things
    • Power & Energy
    • Sensors
    • Technology Groups
  • Challenges & Projects
    Challenges & Projects
    • Design Challenges
    • element14 presents Projects
    • Project14
    • Arduino Projects
    • Raspberry Pi Projects
    • Project Groups
  • Products
    Products
    • Arduino
    • Avnet Boards Community
    • Dev Tools
    • Manufacturers
    • Multicomp Pro
    • Product Groups
    • Raspberry Pi
    • RoadTests & Reviews
  • Store
    Store
    • Visit Your Store
    • Choose another store...
      • Europe
      •  Austria (German)
      •  Belgium (Dutch, French)
      •  Bulgaria (Bulgarian)
      •  Czech Republic (Czech)
      •  Denmark (Danish)
      •  Estonia (Estonian)
      •  Finland (Finnish)
      •  France (French)
      •  Germany (German)
      •  Hungary (Hungarian)
      •  Ireland
      •  Israel
      •  Italy (Italian)
      •  Latvia (Latvian)
      •  
      •  Lithuania (Lithuanian)
      •  Netherlands (Dutch)
      •  Norway (Norwegian)
      •  Poland (Polish)
      •  Portugal (Portuguese)
      •  Romania (Romanian)
      •  Russia (Russian)
      •  Slovakia (Slovak)
      •  Slovenia (Slovenian)
      •  Spain (Spanish)
      •  Sweden (Swedish)
      •  Switzerland(German, French)
      •  Turkey (Turkish)
      •  United Kingdom
      • Asia Pacific
      •  Australia
      •  China
      •  Hong Kong
      •  India
      •  Korea (Korean)
      •  Malaysia
      •  New Zealand
      •  Philippines
      •  Singapore
      •  Taiwan
      •  Thailand (Thai)
      • Americas
      •  Brazil (Portuguese)
      •  Canada
      •  Mexico (Spanish)
      •  United States
      Can't find the country/region you're looking for? Visit our export site or find a local distributor.
  • Translate
  • Profile
  • Settings
Personal Blogs
  • Community Hub
  • More
Personal Blogs
Legacy Personal Blogs Firecrackers Improvements
  • Blog
  • Documents
  • Mentions
  • Sub-Groups
  • Tags
  • More
  • Cancel
  • New
  • Share
  • More
  • Cancel
Group Actions
  • Group RSS
  • More
  • Cancel
Engagement
  • Author Author: drlucyrogers
  • Date Created: 22 Dec 2015 10:44 PM Date Created
  • Views 1588 views
  • Likes 3 likes
  • Comments 4 comments
  • smoke_machine
  • firecrackers
  • rpi_pins_hi
  • gpio_pins_hi
  • robin_hill
  • make
  • node_red
  • node-red
  • raspberry-pi
  • raspberrypi
  • nodered
  • iot
  • chinese_new_year
  • rasp_pi
  • @drlucyrogers
  • lucy_rogers
Related
Recommended

Firecrackers Improvements

drlucyrogers
drlucyrogers
22 Dec 2015

image

 

The Firecrackers (blog here and video here) that I made for Robin Hill Country Park on the Isle of Wight were good, but after I'd tried them out in real life on site, I knew there were some improvements I could make.


These included stringing the lights in one line, rather than going over the top of the path, improving the sound and increasing the amount of smoke.

 

Stringing the lights in one line is simple, and one I can leave to the Robin Hill staff when they next need the firecrackers. (The displays are changed regularly at the Park).

 

I got an improved sound file which gave a more realistic firecrackers noise.

 

I also simplified the NodeRED flow by taking out most of the delays and loops.

 

image

 

The amount of smoke produced by the hand held 12V fog machine I had used was great for indoors ...


image


but outside it got blown away too quickly. My next step was to adapt one of the larger mains powered fog machines used by the Park. These have to be permanently powered and the smoke output is controlled with a switch, so I could not power them through the relays. The hand held one was almost instantaneous - power on and smoke comes out.


Another thing I noticed on site was the Raspberry Pi GPIO pin that controlled the smoke machine triggered on bootup or reset of the pi - meaning I got a wash of smoke before anything else. I had thought I had worked out which pins were high on bootup, but obviously not.

 

After connecting LEDs to every pin and rebooting and starting the Pi from scratch, I made the following table - both Pi B+ and Pi2 gave the same results:

 

Pin NumberPowerupReboot

NodeRED deploy

3HiHiHi
5HiHiHi
7HiHiLo
8HiHiLo
10HiHiLo
11LoLoLo
12LoLoLo
13LoLoLo
15LoLoLo
16LoLoLo
18LoLoLo
19LoLoLo
21LoLoLo
22LoLoLo
23LoLoLo
24HiHiLo
26HiHiLo
29HiHiLo
31HiHiLo
32LoLoLo
33LoLoLo
35LoLoLo
37LoLoLo
38LoLoLo
39LoLoLo
40

Lo

LoLo

 

I therefore changed the pins for some of the inputs and outputs.

 

I also had to de-bounce the remote control - when triggered it sent two messages. I put a "limit messages" node in to fix this.

 

The whole system is now ready for the Park to install at their next event - Chinese New Year.

 

image

  • Sign in to reply
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 9 years ago

    you are great ~it is so cool image

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • clem57
    clem57 over 9 years ago

    Love the Indie hat in last pic.Lucy Rogersimage

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • drlucyrogers
    drlucyrogers over 9 years ago in reply to DAB

    Thanks Dab. Cast comes off tomorrow - yay!!

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • DAB
    DAB over 9 years ago

    Nice post Lucy.

     

    How is the hand?

     

    DAB

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
element14 Community

element14 is the first online community specifically for engineers. Connect with your peers and get expert answers to your questions.

  • Members
  • Learn
  • Technologies
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Products
  • Store
  • About Us
  • Feedback & Support
  • FAQs
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal and Copyright Notices
  • Sitemap
  • Cookies

An Avnet Company © 2025 Premier Farnell Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Premier Farnell Ltd, registered in England and Wales (no 00876412), registered office: Farnell House, Forge Lane, Leeds LS12 2NE.

ICP 备案号 10220084.

Follow element14

  • X
  • Facebook
  • linkedin
  • YouTube