233 replies to this topic

[adamw]

I have the internals of a MK1 FireByWire sequencer for sale if anyone wants to make me an offer via PM

[karlfoxman]

He he! Its a good bit of kit so i'd advise anyone to go for it, the rest of it is fairly simple to wire up if its anything like the one I have. Hope you get good price mate!

[Ninjapoo]

to be honest im too much of an amateur to know how to use one properly let alone warrent me spending the possible high costs for it (compared to making one out of a plastic project box) sure it probably wont be half as good but i personally still need to get the simplest and easiest things sorted first before i go on the higher level stuff.

just out of interest, how much do they sell for normally?

[karlfoxman]

http://www.firebywir...uk/products.php

Here are the products and prices.

Edited by karlfoxman, 06 October 2006 - 06:10 AM.

[pyromaniac303]

As part of my college course IVA (internally verified assesment) I've been asked to design and make an object that requires engineering skills, can be electronic, mechanical, or any other method you can think of as long as it is concerned with engineering. Naturally I had to go for something pyro-related, and as I'm studying electronics, a firing system doesn't seem too far beyond my reach.

For the first stage of my project I need to do a brainstorming session or use some method of gathering ideas from other people, and when I talk to anyone else about pyrotechnics they haven't got a clue, so I was hoping that maybe you could help with providing some ideas. They don't neccesarily have to be practical, or in depth, or even to actually work. Though I disagree with the way this is running, they seem to have taken a 'quantity, not quality' approach and I get more marks for having more ideas.

Although I have several ideas of my own, I do not yet want to suggest anything that could influence your ideas as a wide range of approaches would be preferable, and also remember that it can be ANY method, not just electrical, it could be even something such as using a lot of time fuse with holes punched in to plug visco fuses.

Thanks in advance for any replies I get

Paul

[fishy1]

Any method?

Most of these are probably impractical. Don't try this for real.

1) A clockwork system you wind up and which strikes fuses when it gets to a set time.
2) Molten lead or suchlike which rolls or is pumped down a heated pipe and flows into the fireworks.
3) An arc welder wired up so an arc is made inside the firework, igniting it.
4) Launching flaming arrows/projectiles at the fuses, which would have piles of BP around them, with some kind of firer, maybe a pneumatic mortar.
5) Fireworks are placed on a sheet, flammable liquid is poured on all over, light the liquid, as the fireworks are a distance apart there would be a delay.
6) Some mix which catches fire (e.g something with zinc) when it gets wet is put on the fuses, spray water on them or wait for it to rain.


Don't try any of these at home, unless you really know what you are doing. Some of them are positively stupid, but you didn't need anything practical. And of course, they're all the normal methods e.g a normal firing box and e-matches etc.

[adamw]

Yeah, make some convoluted W. Heath Robinson contraption

On a more serious note, the BX24 and ZX24 microprocessors are a good starting block which will let you have up to 16 channels (which you can obviously multiplex for extra scope), an LCD screen, button / keypad interface etc etc. They are in 24pin DIP format and all you need is a 7805 or similar regulator to provide a stable 5v, a couple of LEDs, resistors and decoupling capacitors and you've got a basic platform which you can then program with a BASIC language.

[pyromaniac303]

Thanks, some good ideas there. Was thinking along the lines of a PIC with around 30 outputs, as I have learnt a bit of assembler code, a key switch for safety and some transistor buffered outputs to provide enough current. If I have enough time left I may even get round to a voltage booster/capacitor circuit to ensure the ematches fire instantly.

Another simpler method would be one of the PICAXE microcontrollers, they are so easy to reprogram and as I am only setting timings which would need to be reconfigured every show I dont want to end up writing several hundred lines of code each time creating delay routines etc.

Got a year for it so I'll keep you updated if it goes well

[Ninjapoo]

dont mean to interrupt your convo there guys but i just want to post a pic of my completed and tested (and working too) firing system. it's a very basic firing system (switches and speaker ports inside a plastic project box)



the stickers there are for the airsoft event i've organised where these boxes will be actually tested in. (dont worry there're pros setting off the simulation charges and everything...) IF i manage to get some videos, i'll show you guys the airsoft side of pyros.

some of you may ask what's airsoft, think paintball but with 1:1 replica of the real deal guns but firing 6mm wide plastic balls. and people wearing fancy real deal kit (some replica again) but it's much more realistic and cheaper than paintballing.

back on topic. what ya all think of my 'toy box' compared to your project boxes or nail boards? or any comments?

cheers for reading

[BrightStar]

Well done Ninja! - the boxes look great. When ever I'm asked to paintball events (to get shot, again and again and again) the invitation has the addition 'and no exp105ives' - they know me too well!

pyromaniac: PIC chips are indeed quite promising here. As you spotted, they have lots of I/O built in for firing plenty of channels (at least 24 from 1 chip), have serial USARTS for simple coms with your PC, can be arrayed together via the ICP/SPI bus for even more channels, and very easily drive the ?5 LCD display modules found on ebay etc. etc. You can learn the entire base instruction set in a day with a good book. Best of all, they are cheap and reliable if used properly and there is a huge community of free source code available to do pretty much everything you need (you can just copy and paste the delay routines you mentioned).

If you are starting out with PIC chips though, find someone with the programmer, prototype board and initialisation code working to give you a running start. It can be quite tricky getting everything in place at first, selecting crystals, clock rates, peripheral configurations etc. for your app.

Whatever processor you choose, the challenge is to design in safety and reliability. Start-up, shut down, supply brown-outs and voltage variations, software crashes, communications errors, nearby lightning strikes, broken cables, rainwater etc must not stop the show or cause an accident. It looks like MLE have done a great deal of work on the output stages (and presumably the firmware) of their systems for this reason... Herein lies the engineering challenge!

Edited by BrightStar, 11 October 2006 - 09:11 AM.

[pyromaniac303]

Have found the HEF4749B which is used normally as an 8 LED driver, driven serially with just a clock, data and strobe pin being used, and as these can be connected together for even more outputs I could get away with a small PIC having as many ouputs as I could possibly need.

I already have a PIC development environment, software, test board and a 16F627 which should have more than enough memory and I/O ports. The main concern with this is what happens on startup to the registers, maybe I will end up using a delay before ground is connected to the e-matches while the first bit of code to set everything to 0 runs, for instance I would not want any outputs being high and prematurely setting off part of the display!

I was thinking it would be possible to just write to an array which is incremented every 1/4 of a second then read the value and display it as an output. On an 8 bit microcontroller that gives me 255 different firework cues which is more than enough for what I am planning (0 will be reserved for no-fire).

Do you think that 1/4 of a second gives enough accuracy for a decent display? Obviously the faster this is the faster I will run out of memory on the microcontroller.

At work I have a transient generator and ESD discharge gun which could be used for testing. I will probably end up using this when the project is completed to see what effect different conditions will have. Also there is a temperature and humidity test chamber that I could borrow if no-one is using it.

Thanks for the good advice everyone, and that box looks very professional

Edited by pyromaniac303, 11 October 2006 - 07:47 AM.

[pymp]

{Sorry to butt in}
Finished mine today, or rather moved it into this smaller container.
Pictures:






Powered by a 12v, 5A battery.

Edited by pymp, 11 October 2006 - 10:33 PM.

[adamw]

Nice systems guys!

Always remember a safety / arm keyswitch is essential. Just a note also to people planning on delving into the work of SFX / Stage, at a lot of places, a keyswitch where the key is only removable in the Safe / Off / Disarm position is a requirement.

[Ninjapoo]

sorry this post is a bit off topic but it also has a video of the pyros used as promised,

here's the link to the movie : video link here

and here're the pics: link here
the event was a great sucess but i froze my bum off this weekend in the middle of nowhere in hereford...

[ProfHawking]

Hello all
I've finally finished my new firing system for this season, im quite chuffed how it turned out


click for full thing

24 cue, each cue with continuity testing. Key switch (only removable when off) to arm.
Each module has an indicator to warn anybody setting up/on the field that the system is armed.
It has a built in battery, but can also run off a car/battery and be charged up by a car charger.
cant wait to use it in anger