09-05-2010, 11:34 AM
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Old Far...er...Rocketeer
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Plano, TX resident since 1998.
Posts: 3,965
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dcastle
The launcher was cool and very portable.... but...I discovered a fatal flaw in the design one day.
(snip) the launch controller [is] a plunger connected to a 10 foot tube that inflates a balloon that pushes the batteries against the contacts to fire the igniter.
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I've never laid hands on one of these, but based on what I've seen and read over the years, it sounds gimmicky. I suppose that's the basis of the cool factor. But it really does sound Rube Goldberg. It's needlessly complex - I can think of many ways of closing a switch that don't involve balloons and hoses
Surely a little heavier wire or a relay could have been used in lieu of the pneumatics at comparable cost. Of course, it wouldn't have been as cool.
Nor as kludgy.
Doug
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