Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
I agree. As George wrote in one of his attached threads, the system gives continuity *and* misfire indications (if one presses the ignition button on the wireless transmitter and the rocket *doesn't* lift off, but the audio buzzer keeps sounding, the igniter didn't fire--or it did but failed to break [it can happen, rarely, with "hot-wire" nichrome igniters], while if the buzzer stops the igniter burned through without igniting the motor).
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Umm, no. None of the wireless systems I used produced any continuity.
The newest one, the fireworks system I got from ebay, does have an LED light up for each output that is "fired". But no sound.
The continuity and buzzer stuff that I did mention in the thread I linked to, made use of a homemade continuity/arming box for each of the two earlier systems I used (and for a long-wire relay system before those).
And one of those features was to have a buzzer ("bzzzzzt" type, not piezo beeper) to sound off when fired. For two reasons. One, to confirm that the system was firing, so if I heard the "bzzzzzt" but no ignition, I knew it was a misfire, not a relay/wireless problem.
But also, as a WARNING, that if I heard the buzzer going off before hooking up the clips, that the relay was hung up (or wireless system firing by accident). A big safety feature. I remember a launch where two totally different relay systems accidentally fired, one I think was hung up mechanically, the other used a too-sensitive sensor in place of a relay, that moisture from rain screwed up (Ironically it was an Impulse Aerospace "Veri-Fire" system!). So two times at that launch on different systems, someone hooked up clips and the rocket took off!
So when I later made a relay system, I made sure to have a warning buzzer to sound when firing, and highly recommend doing so, for relays, at least.
Back to the fireworks wireless system, a buzzer ("bzzzzzt") could be wired in parallel with the micro-clips to indicate the system is firing. An easy thing to add. Doing continuity, more complicated.