Igniting a Programmed Fireworks Display? 70
seg9585 asks: "I am interested in setting up a programmable fireworks display this New Years, and I was wondering if anyone from the Slashdot community had any advice as to how to set one up easily, inexpensively, and safely by someone with little experience with electronics/wiring. I do have a VEX controller which I can use for digital output, but I would rather not have to buy a ton of relays and create a spark by just shorting out the circuit. Is there a better way to do this?"
Nothing for you to see here (Score:2)
Get a professional (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd suggest getting a professional to do it or having a professional teach and supervise you. Fireworks are essentially explosives so I'd be very cautious.
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Re:Get a professional (Score:4, Informative)
He's not asking for a way to set of handgrenades and claymores here.
What he wants is to set off normal, legal fireworks (well that's what we have to assume anyway), doing that electronically is much safer than doing it with the old cigar as most people do.
I'd suggest using a short length of constantan wire (5cm or so) wrapped around the fuse, you need a lot of current, but that will ignite the fuse every time.
You can also get some non-fireproof (duh) 1/4W resistors, experiment to find a good size (10Ohm perhaps) that give a good flame when hooked up to 12V, then solder the resistor to the wires and tape the resistor to the fuse.
Do make certain that noone is near the fireworks when you set them off, however, getting hit in the face with a rocket isn't much fun.
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Hmm. Am I to assume that you think that fireworks (in particular starburst terminating ones) aren't in effect just high explosives? Do you think that being close to a starburst wouldn't fuck you up big time?
What he wants is to set off normal, legal fireworks (well that's what we have to assume anyway),
Because it's legal, it must necessarily be safe? Tell that to all the scarred/burned/dead people.
doing that electronic
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If I could be bothered to buy fireworks then I'd most likely set it off electronically, mainly to be at a good distance for viewing.
You'd need to take some primitive precautions to avoid having the controller ignite prematurely, but it's easily handled by a large switch on the main power feed.
If you turn off the power before getting near the fireworks then it's no more dangerous than when transportin
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Just because it's illegal doesn't mean it's not safe. M80s are perfectly safe when used properly, just as you can severely injure yourself with a kiddy sparkler. I have no sympathy for people who hurt themselves with fireworks because it's there own fault for being careless, just as I would expect no sympathy if I hurt myself while doing something stupid. In fact, I wish further harm on them if they then try
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If that's the case, they've completely failed as a weapon then.
Solution (Score:4, Funny)
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Model Rocket Igniters (Score:3, Informative)
Also, I am in no way liable for whatever you do here.
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Me too. (Score:5, Funny)
Funny, I was going to post the same response to the thread about midgets, whipped cream, and a tazer gun.
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My 6 year old loved it! She could light all the fireworks from a safe distance by herself!
We only have 2 duds, but those were due to bad fuses on the fireworks.
When I want a firework display (Score:2)
Model rocketry (Score:5, Informative)
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Be very careful with modle rocket igniters - the modern ones do require very little current to ignite, which means that your circuits need to be designed right. There are other types of igniters that take even less current, so be cautious if you use them.
I'd suggest that you check the archives of the Usenet group rec.pyrotechnics for pointers to safe techniques. There are amateur pyrotechnic groups that do very impressive shows.
I'd also be ca
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I did however notice that Michaels (where I bought them as a kid) no longer has any model rocketry supplies on their website. Am I going to ship my kids off to Canada for their childhood sc
Electronic igniters (Score:4, Informative)
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If you want a spark, then use transistors (or push buttons even), a car ignition coil and sparkplugs. Sparkplugs are relatively cheap, and built damn tough so they'll be reusable. Sparks are fas
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Look into model rocketry (Score:2)
You should be able to order a few dozen of them from any model rocketry place before the men in black show up.
Get a professional (Score:5, Insightful)
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Devil's advocate here...
How was he killed? What there something mortally dangerous in what he was doing, or was it just some kind of wild fluke? I've heard of people being injured with fireworks, but I can honestly say this is the first time I've heard of anyone being killed.
Your story kind of reminds me of the stories I hear of kids who get hit in the chest by a baseball, a linebacker, or whatever, and collapse dead of a heart attack on the spot. Has it happened? Sure. Is it tragic? You bet. But
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That's awful!
Still, for what it's worth, I hope the submitter isn't dealing with stuff this big and dangerous. I'm imagining him trying to set up the kind of stuff you get at your local fireworks shack so that it's timed when they go off instead of lighting it manually himself. Barring stupidity, inattentiveness, or really weird flukes such as what you've described, I would hope that messing around with them should be relatively safe.
In fact, since he'll presumably be standing far away when they're ig
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It happens now and again even to a pro. The Fireworks Alliance [bbc.co.uk]
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I did exactly the same thing - 2.5V bulb, crush glass in a vice, blob of superglue on the filament and dip it in the scraped off head of a match. Et voila - electronically operated rocket launcher on my bike.
But I was 14 at the time and a bit of a pyro.
An adult would be a fool to do this for a fireworks display - seek professional help.
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Would that be from a pyrotechnics professional, or a psychiatric professional?
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I used a single strand of wire from a piece of multistranded flexible wire and simply wrapped it around a standard match head for the ignitor
For shooting off big dollars in fireworks i would just pop for the rocket ignitors tho.
Anyways, good luck, have fun, and none of us ever said a word to you......
I saw a television special once. (Score:3, Interesting)
There was a television special once - you know the kind, Discovery Channel or TLC or some such - on some fireworks experts. They were putting together a big display, something like the Washington, DC 4th of July fireworks, to be accompanied with some fancy-schmancy concert. After all the choreography business, and setting up the pyrotechnics, they wired it back to a control panel.
Now, this control panel wasn't actually your typical doohickey with buttons. It had a rows upon rows of exposed metal contacts (little stubs of wire sticking up vertically), and the guy in charge would activate them, one at a time, by touching them to a little hand-held device that I assume was wired up to the ignition current. I think he even had sheet music.
At first I wondered, "how disappointingly low-tech". But consider: you're dealing with pyrotechnics here. If it just takes a little current to ignite the high explosives, then you really don't want to hook everything up to an electrical circuit, microcontroller, electronics, any of that business. You keep the circuit open, until you're ready to close it. And if something goes terribly wrong, you really, really don't want anything to keep igniting rockets until you push a button to turn it off. You want to be able to just stop.
In summary, hands-free control is just not the way to go when dealing with pyrotechnics.
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In recent times, firing current is usually provided by a much more complex setup. The show is pre-programmed into one or many firing boxes. As show time approaches, the operator boots and arms the firing box. In large shows with multiple firing boxes in separated positions, a timecode signal is prov
Darwin was right! (Score:1)
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I think this falls under (Score:2)
No.
But...
No.
Go look up the story on Disney's patent on using air cannons for lauching fireworks- believe that they made it free for anyone to use.
Advice:Don't do it (Score:1)
If you have to ask, don't do it (Score:1)
No LEUP? Use rocketry ignitors and MOSFETs. (Score:5, Informative)
My first attempt used a TINI controller board hooked up to relays [chembal.com] hooked up to model rocket igniters. This worked well, but relays are expensive and don't scale well if you want to do this on the cheap.
My next attempt used a Freescale GP32 controller with MOSFETs [chembal.com]. This worked very well, and is a more scalable solution. Again, I used model rocket igniters. If you look at my pictures, you can see how I made a nice set of firing racks, too, complete with power distribution scheme and chainable serial control. I wrote a program in Java to send control signals to the controllers to shoot the shells off in sequence.
After these attempts, I finally got sick of playing with the small stuff and got my explosives permit so I can play with 1.3g display fireworks. When you have your explosives permit, you're no longer limited to crappy model rocket igniters. You can buy professional quality e-matches that are meant for the task. They're a bit pricey, but they already are the right length of leads, and work GREAT. Also, the larger shells are MUCH easier to electrically fuse, since they use quick match instead of visco fuse. But, no vendor is going to sell you those nice e-matches without first seeing your LEUP. (Low Explosives User Permit.) That takes a bit of work to get, so I'll assume that's beyond your scope. Of course, there are also professional systems available for control, but they're pricey.
So, I'm going to take a guess that you don't have a LEUP and just want to hack something together to shoot off your 1.4g consumer fireworks. Here's what I've learned from my experience doing the same thing. It's not that tough to do, but don't underestimate the amount of wiring you have ahead of you if you intend on shooting off more than a few shells. With only a few weeks from new years, you'll probably get a more impressive display by buying several nice cakes. But, since that's not the slashdot way, here's how you can do what you want to do...
Please be safe about this! It's a ton of fun, but observe sensible safety precautions. I highly recommend taking a class on display fireworks to learn how to do all this right. Premier Pyro [premierpyro.com] gives great classes on this every year, and you'll have tons of fun to boot. At the very least, give NFPA 11
Don't use rocketry ignitors! (Score:1)
The Old Adage (Score:5, Funny)
>set one up easily, inexpensively, and safely
Pick any two.
You might also want to be thinking about your last words for your friends to remember you by. Some of the more popular choices from previous Darwin Award winners are:
Have a friend shoot the video from a safe distance for your In Memoriam web page.
Re:The Old Adage (Score:4, Funny)
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You need someone who is not a close enough friend that he/she will drop the camera and run to help you. Yet close enough that he/she will want to help you and not just bolt from the scene, thus hesitating long enough to get the shot.
Grow a pair, folks (Score:2)
If you have to ask (Score:1, Informative)
This is nothing to mess around with even model rocketry can be very dangerous if and when something goes wrong.
Fireworks are orders of magnitude faster explosives they can kill you faster then you can blink.
All the setups that I have see there are contacts that are MANUALLY closed for every event. The technician(s) has a score that lists what and when to fire. If anything is out of place person/animal on the rang
dude (Score:2)
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passfire.com (Score:2)
It's the type of thing that "professional" fireworks
two out of three (Score:1)
this is stupid (Score:1)
Knock, knock (Score:1)
Amateur Pyrotechnics... (Score:1)
I could (and do) write volumes on the subject of amateur pyrotechnics, but I'll try to keep this response short. Electrical firing sy
How I did it... (Score:1)
The system centered around the 'launch panel'; an old phone display acrylic from Radioshack. We used 20ft. runs of 18awg wire to run from the panel to each tube. Alligator clips were soldered to the end of each set of wires. Each shell had a single strand of wire pulled from a 8awg power wire wrapped around the fuse. This small wire was ~26-30awg. Any smaller and the wire burnt through without igniting the fuse, any larger and I was worried