58 replies to this topic

[ChesterPFX]

My electrical firing panel was used 'operationally' for the first time on Nov 6th for our display at home. I had used it to do some test fires leading up to the big day but to finally put the key into the panel knowing that there were 36 cues out there ready to go was a bit nreve jingling.

Once happy that everything was safe and ready to go and that the wind was OK, the key was turned and on came the red LED. A quick look at the cue list and off we went. Finger down on cue 1, hear a pop and phut and see the quickmatch ignite and the first batch are off. Back to the cue list. 30 seconds to cue 13. Check the stopwatch. 30 seconds later, cue 13 goes off and fires just as the first batch are coming to an end.

In total 34 of the cues fired. One blew the PIC leader out of the cup and failed to light it which I think was due to the continued persistant drizzle. The other one, well I missed firing it. On the safety check at the end I discovered that I must have completly missed it as I went along.

All in all I was pleased with how it went and judging by the comments from the crowd caught on the video they enjoyed it as well.

One priority though is to decide on some weather proof covers for the break-out boxes as they got soaked in the drizzle.

Firing Box Pictures

Display Screen Grabs

Edited by ChesterPFX, 16 November 2004 - 11:26 PM.

[Richard H]

Excellent! I'm very tempted to build a small manual electric system. How did you wire it up? Multiplexed?

[ChesterPFX]

I will email you with the circuit diagram at the weekend Richard

[Kembang Api]

ChesterPFX: Congratulation for the success, very impressive

[BurlHorse]

Looks Good and Sounds as though it funtioned well also!!

Good Job!!

Stay Green,

Bear

[Arthur Brown]

Truly Great.

Its good to see people setting high standards, I suspect it makes your life easier too.

[The_Djinn]

Nice work... very neat and tidy.
I opted to spend some hard earned pyro cash on a little firing device instead of building one Richard knows what is sitting next to me in the office all the way from accross the pond from Burlhorse land

Mark

[Richard H]

It's hideously expensive but rather nice! Chortle...

[RegimentalPyro]

<oblique reference>And cue Jim Morrison .....

Come on baby fire my light........</oblique reference>

[ChesterPFX]

Could light quite a few fires with that baby I suspect.

I am quite humbled that I have been asked for the circuit diagram by a number of people. To save emailing everyone, I have loaded it up to the following page:

Here

Please feel free to advise me where I have gone wrong or could make some improvements.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Arthur Brown]

Seems a greaat idea. Perhaps a collection of wisdom in a few posts would add to our knowledge base. How many channels, what cable length .....

[The_Djinn]

ChesterPFX, the next challenge is to hunt around the web (they are out there) for addressable 8 wire to 2 wire converter modules to encode and decode signals... will eliminate the need to run multi core cable from the fireing box to your modules on the front line. Get that right and you will have a very sought after manual firing panel.

Mark

[ChesterPFX]

Ha ha, you got me bang on there. I would love to be able to find something to allow me to do that. As I said, my electronics expertise is next to none, but I'm learning. I'm thinking about looking at visual basic programs that could automate the firing program so I can run it off a laptop, but that is for next year.

All the cables are 25m by the way, rated to 60V, 1A per core.

Edited by ChesterPFX, 20 November 2004 - 06:29 PM.

[broadsword]

Now theres something I could make well! A good electronic firing system as my electronic knowledge is ALOT wider than my pyro! And my dad is an electronic engineer
How much did your whole system cost to build Chester?

[SwissTony]

That looks sweet.
I am going to have a go now after seeing that.
My mate is doing electronics at college so i am gonna see if i can get him to make some kind of circuit bored so that all the push buttons are lit, then when u push them they go out so u know which ones have been fired and which ones havent.
Can i ask how you guys connect the electrical wires to the quickmatch??
I have access to both quickmatch and pic at the mo, no visco though
I am fairly new to it all, the way i do mine at the moment which probably isnt ideal, is to run a thin peice of wire into the quickmatch, clip the 2 ends to the main wires then touch the battery so the wire burns hot.
i have done about 10 out of 10 successfull test lights using this method. Is there a better way???
Chester, what kind of plug do u use to connect the battery to the box, u say a 2.1mm plug, but i am still not sure what that is.

Cheers
Swiss T

Edited by SwissTony, 21 November 2004 - 10:30 AM.