|
|
Post by Ingrimus on Mar 28, 2018 15:15:01 GMT -5
Hey folks I'm Ingrimus and I'm in the Vancouver area so unfortunately I don't have a lot of free access to play around with the wonderful world of pyro =(
But come Halloween I do have a good time.
Used to love lighting off with my Dad and used to spend maybe 50 bucks a year and have some giggles but the last 2 seasons I've been going more so towards 600 or so a year and loving it but think this year I'm gonna go off somewhere like halfpricefireworks and just do a big order instead of doing the popup stores.
But lighter in hand shows have many a downfall and after spending part of my most recent outing on the ground as fireworks went off around me (not hurt just...went down for safety. planning a fallback line of lighting works when it's you...don't trust others with a lighter behind you o..o I learned this when I turned around to see sparks, got very lucky.) I figured maybe I shouldn't do it that way anymore.
So I decided to get into a firing system and am building one, I'm making a 27v(3 9v) 40 cue pushbutton with speaker terminals and 24awg and using talons as ignitors.
Should be solid and hopefully all good, I'll put up a build log for funsies when I get the rest of the parts.
Anywho!
Hello to all!
|
|
|
|
Post by Grisom on Mar 28, 2018 16:56:11 GMT -5
Welcome to our little pyro world .
|
|
|
|
Post by djwolf on Mar 29, 2018 10:28:42 GMT -5
welcome to the group
|
|
|
|
Post by Aussie on Mar 29, 2018 12:08:11 GMT -5
Welcome
|
|
|
|
Post by londonfan on Mar 30, 2018 9:05:04 GMT -5
Welcome and enjoy!
I believe that I was the last new member, and I have picked up a lot of good info from the other members posts.
I have also built my own firing system, initially using 9 volt batteries and then switched to 3 - 6 x AA packs for more stable firing current.
Great success with testing, but only about 60% success in actual use. I will be curious to see your posts.
|
|
|
|
Post by Xplode on Apr 2, 2018 18:33:47 GMT -5
Welcome!
I'm in the Metro Vancouver area as well so I feel your pain with the lack of space and restrictive rules.
Have you got your license yet or are you happy just playing around on Halloween?
I spent a lot of time working on developing my own firing system before I bought Cobra. It's fun and greatly satisfying to build something like that. I would suggest considering a more beefy power source than the 9v though. Just a thought, but a couple of small 12v lead acid batteries will supply a heck of a lot more current to your talons to light them.
But that's easy enough to change later if you want.
Again, welcome and glad to have another pyro lover on this coast.
|
|
|
|
Post by Pyro Boss on Apr 3, 2018 5:23:16 GMT -5
Welcome and enjoy the forum!
|
|
|
|
Post by aaron1977 on Apr 3, 2018 12:43:30 GMT -5
Hi Xplode! I'm over in Victoria, nice to meet someone closer to me. I just bought my first Cobra  and am very excited for my annual Halloween show which will now be a pyro musical! I would love to become a licensed supervisor though, I did take the course many years ago as I needed it at my firehall but never continued on to get licenced. Do you know of any courses coming up and if so do you do shows that I might be able to get some experience with you? Great to be here! |
|
|
|
Post by markhampyro on Apr 3, 2018 21:42:43 GMT -5
Welcome aboard
|
|
|
|
Post by Ingrimus on Apr 3, 2018 22:55:34 GMT -5
Welcome and enjoy! I believe that I was the last new member, and I have picked up a lot of good info from the other members posts. I have also built my own firing system, initially using 9 volt batteries and then switched to 3 - 6 x AA packs for more stable firing current. Great success with testing, but only about 60% success in actual use. I will be curious to see your posts. Awesome! When you say testing did you use a test LED or did you use actual ignitors (with or without fuse clipped in)? I'm glad someone used the same battery setup I did and found it lacking, rather nip that in the bud before I cut into the plastic. Have you got your license yet or are you happy just playing around on Halloween? I would suggest considering a more beefy power source than the 9v though. Just a thought, but a couple of small 12v lead acid batteries will supply a heck of a lot more current to your talons to light them. I have not gotten it yet, but am trying to find a course running but as of now there's nothing scheduled (unless I'm wrong, hey that'd be sweet!) and they're currently just taking numbers. You say lead acid, is there a downfall to using a lithium-ion? explodey times or anything? current drop? do tell. I don't want to make any explosions on the ground thanks, just the air for me. Thank you muchly folks! All help is appreciated |
|
|
|
Post by londonfan on Apr 4, 2018 5:54:20 GMT -5
Hi Ingramus:
Many sites that I looked at before building my system suggested 9 volt batteries. testing with a nail board and 3 batteries worked, but not perfectly. I assumed lack of current. A technical specs paper that I found online confirmed the current issue.
I switched over to 3 packs of 6 AA's wired two in series to and the third in parallel to give me both the increased voltage and the boost in current.
This worked great firing off talon igniters alone, and then multiple quick succession fires with a piece of fuse in the igniters.
Canada Day 2017 was the go day and I had about 40% failure rate. It may have been moisture from a very humid night combined with talon installation.
I believe you will find a hint in the threads about giving the fuse a bit of a loosening twist before clipping on the igniter.
This is my next step in a few weeks when the weather is good enough to sit on my driveway and burn up igniters and fuse scraps with more tests.
It is fun, has been cheap to build ($50), but if I was more than a Canada Day warrior I would take Aussie's advice and invest in in a Cobra.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ingrimus on Apr 4, 2018 13:45:26 GMT -5
So London you had 40% failure after switching to the AA Packs?
Looks like I'm in the hunt for some 12vs then.
And I'm lucky enough in the fact I had the speaker terminals, leds, hookup wire, firing wire, voltage readout, case, and pushbuttons already around; just waiting on key switch and a few resistors and then battery choice.
So even if I have to ramp my batteries up it shouldn't be too bad; I just cant justify spending 1000 bucks on a cobra at the moment, wireless is awesome for sure (plus all the other cool stuff cobra has) but just can't do it right now, and 18 cues for a slightly cheaper option (vs the 32 module) just doesn't seem like it'll cut it for me. (plus still a lot of coin on the ground that could be in the air for as you said a "Canada day warrior")
It's going to be myself and a few other people putting in on a show this year so probably 1000-2500 worth of 1.4 from halfpricefireworks (unless I find a better deal) to give you an idea of amount of firing to be done, but a few of them are moving early next year/summer next year so going in on a system would have been great but...sharing a module over a couple 1000km might not work too well for future events.
|
|
|
|
Post by pyrotechsupply on Apr 12, 2018 21:27:24 GMT -5
Welcome and enjoy!
BTW - We all started at that same moment a little of this a little of that and voila a pyro bug is born!
The rest is history!
|
|
|
|
Post by Xplode on Apr 23, 2018 10:49:07 GMT -5
Have you got your license yet or are you happy just playing around on Halloween? I would suggest considering a more beefy power source than the 9v though. Just a thought, but a couple of small 12v lead acid batteries will supply a heck of a lot more current to your talons to light them. I have not gotten it yet, but am trying to find a course running but as of now there's nothing scheduled (unless I'm wrong, hey that'd be sweet!) and they're currently just taking numbers. You say lead acid, is there a downfall to using a lithium-ion? explodey times or anything? current drop? do tell. I don't want to make any explosions on the ground thanks, just the air for me. Thank you muchly folks! All help is appreciated Lithium Ion is a great way to go if you have safe working knowledge. I wouldn't recommend that you go buy Lipo packs and chargers for the one-day-a-year-warrior system unless you have other uses. Lipo is great for current, even better than a Lead Acid I'm sure. But a couple of basic fire-alarm, or home-alarm type lead acid batteries (which can be bought new for $25) will pump out more than enough current to melt the wires you'll be working with. So they're cheap, pretty much freeze proof if you store them in a garage/shed, and safe/easy to charge with pretty much anything. Even a basic trickle charger like you'd use to keep a car battery topped up is perfect. Cobra has the "external power" option so people that want to can use things like the lead acid batteries. They're heavy so they're not popular, but they're cheap, powerful, and reusable. Plus safer than LiPo if you're new to batteries. |
|
and am very excited for my annual Halloween show which will now be a pyro musical! I would love to become a licensed supervisor though, I did take the course many years ago as I needed it at my firehall but never continued on to get licenced. Do you know of any courses coming up and if so do you do shows that I might be able to get some experience with you?
??