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View Full Version : Whats the story with The Launch Pad???....


bacasino
11-06-2008, 10:26 AM
I have picked up pieces of the story here and there about them moving and the owner being sick. Do they still produce rockets?? have they made any new designs?? etc. Just curious if any one wants to take the time to fill me in. Thanks in advance.

Doug Sams
11-06-2008, 10:42 AM
I have picked up pieces of the story here and there about them moving and the owner being sick. Do they still produce rockets?? have they made any new designs?? etc. Just curious if any one wants to take the time to fill me in. Thanks in advance.Last I heard, they were shipping some kits to dealers/on-line resellers, but had no direct presence on the web. Someone - can't recall who - recently posted that they had received another shipment for resale, and from that I surmise Chuck is still in biz :)

Doug

I said TLP had no direct presence on the web. I should have said little direct presence. (But they have more presence via multiple resellers.)


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jetlag
11-06-2008, 10:45 AM
I thought they were back in business. Just a few months ago, they sent fresh kits out to the venders, and I was glad they were back up and running.

Launch Pad's site: http://www.the-launch-pad.com/products.htm

Red Arrow appears to have quite a few:
http://redarrowhobbies.com/the_launch_pad_rocket_kits.htm

I know this did not really answer your original question, but perhaps someone will chime in with some news...........Hope they are alright.
Allen

Gus
11-06-2008, 11:11 AM
Commonwealth Displays (http://www.commonwealth.net/rocketstore/rocketryframes.html) has a huge number of Launch Pad kits in stock.

Launch Pad has been around a long time and has had a few periods where their kits were not available due to illness/injury to the owner, Chuck Barndt. Last year they moved to Florida and now appear to be up and running again at full steam. From what I understand, current versions of the kits appear slightly improved from the old ones with new nosecones which, for a number of kits, no longer require add-on cardstock cone tips.

I've read some complaints about how these kits are very basic, almost scratch-build sets with instructions, but I disagree. These are builder's kits with very good instructions and all the materials you need to produce really cool models. I think the kits are also very reasonably priced for the work that went into designing them. I'm really glad to see them back up and running again.

marcsl
11-06-2008, 01:24 PM
We have them in stock too :

http://www.rocketarium.com/thelaunchpad.html

Marc

bacasino
11-06-2008, 02:52 PM
Commonwealth Displays (http://www.commonwealth.net/rocketstore/rocketryframes.html) has a huge number of Launch Pad kits in stock.

Launch Pad has been around a long time and has had a few periods where their kits were not available due to illness/injury to the owner, Chuck Barndt. Last year they moved to Florida and now appear to be up and running again at full steam. From what I understand, current versions of the kits appear slightly improved from the old ones with new nosecones which, for a number of kits, no longer require add-on cardstock cone tips.

I've read some complaints about how these kits are very basic, almost scratch-build sets with instructions, but I disagree. These are builder's kits with very good instructions and all the materials you need to produce really cool models. I think the kits are also very reasonably priced for the work that went into designing them. I'm really glad to see them back up and running again.

Thanks for the info guys!! I agree that these are true builders kits. My Perseus 2 was anything but basic. A lot of precise measuring and cutting of the fin holders and the fins. I truly enjoyed the build. I look forward to adding a few more to my collection. Thanks againhttp://images42.fotki.com/v1314/photos/9/926347/6874660/perseus1-vi.jpg

harsas
11-06-2008, 10:18 PM
We have them in stock too :

http://www.rocketarium.com/thelaunchpad.html

Marc

I defintely recommend buying kits from the Rocketarium. Marc's shipping time is excellent and his prices are very competative.

MarkB.
11-08-2008, 10:25 AM
I love these TLP kits!

I'm finish-painting the Lance and the PAC-3 right now. I have a Standard missle in the queue that I'll probably start before the end of the year.

Now they are sport-scale, but with Pete Alway's drawing and access to a couple of display Lances around here, I think mine now looks pretty good. I reshaped the fins and eliminated a conduit. Some white paint and it'll look just like the one at the museum!

I highly recommend these. I had a lot of fun building them. My only quibble was that the ones I bought all had the paper cone glued on the front of a too-short plastic cone. A good 4:1 BT-80 plastic nose cone would be something TLP should invest in.

cas2047
11-08-2008, 12:17 PM
I've got two TLP rockets, the AMRAAM (a 24mm two engine cluster) and the HARM AGM-88A (a 24mm single engine).

The HARM is one of my absolute best fliers. It has had countless flights. It flies slow and fairly low on a D12-3, but it always gives a great performance.

The AMRAAM flies very well on two D12-3's. However I did have a bad experience with it once when I was attending a CMASS launch here in MA. I wired it up as usual and as soon as it took off I knew that only one engine lit. It was moving extremely slowly trying to gain altitude. I think it only made a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet or so when it healed over towards the spectators area and it hung there for a moment at a 45 degree angle to the ground before it took off like a bat out of you know where directly towards one of the folks who was wiring up a multi cluster bird for flight. It buried itself a good ways into the ground nearby.

It was surmised that one engine had lit but that when that engines ejection charge blew it somehow lit the other engine. Now I don't know if a spark got into the business end as the ejection charge blew (maybe blowing sparks out the nozzle which got back into the nozzle of the unlit engine, or if it lit from the back end). I'd never seen anything like it.

The point being that the TLP kits with clustered engines don't use stuffer tubes, and a couple of people at the launch told me that you need to take precautions as a result. Aside from using beefier igniters than the Estes type to guarantee ignition, I was told that there are a couple of things you can do to; 1. put tape on the ends of each of the clustered engines to prevent any possibility of a back-light. 2. Build in stuffer tubes to make sure sparks don't pass from one engine to the next.

Anyone ever hear of something like this happening?

cas2047
11-08-2008, 12:30 PM
I've since fixed the rocket. I haven't finished the paint yet.

Anyway here's some pictures pre and post. I took pics of the engines hoping that someone might be able to confirm the cause based on the burn patterns. Not sure if that's possible but I figured what the heck you never know...

Doug Sams
11-08-2008, 03:49 PM
...and it hung there for a moment at a 45 degree angle to the ground before it took off like a bat out of you know where directly towards one of the folks who was wiring up a multi cluster bird for flight. It buried itself a good ways into the ground nearby.If it suddenly "took off like a bat out of you know where ", then it had to have lit from the nozzle end. If it lit from the ejection end and burnt backwards, only a bit of thrust would have come out the nozzle as the fuel grain burned thru. Also, the order of events would have been:

motor 1 burns
motor 1 ejects
motor 2 ejects
motor 2 burns

Did the second thrust burn occur after the laundry was out? Or before?

I hear lots of guys talk about guarding against ignition of unlit motors during ejection, and it makes sense. I haven't used that, and haven't needed it, knock wood, but probably should use it. Frankly, I haven't thought about it. As far as technique, a bit of wadding in the end of the motor should do the trick.

That said, what I don't see enough talk of is getting them all lit. I always scrape all the nozzles, use ignitors with longer leads (and no clip whips), and a relayer or beefy controller with 12V battery. If you get them all lit at launch, it becomes a moot point :)

BTW, sorry about your rocket.

Doug

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cas2047
11-08-2008, 07:32 PM
If it suddenly "took off like a bat out of you know where ", then it had to have lit from the nozzle end.

That's what I think too just by the way that thing took off for the ground. But read the answer below to your second question...


Did the second thrust burn occur after the laundry was out? Or before?

That depends on who you talk to. It seems like different people saw different things. Here is what I do know. The main BT tube was burried six inches into the ground right up to the chute compartment spacer. The nose cone was laying beside the tube on the ground.


I hear lots of guys talk about guarding against ignition of unlit motors during ejection, and it makes sense. I haven't used that, and haven't needed it, knock wood, but probably should use it. Frankly, I haven't thought about it. As far as technique, a bit of wadding in the end of the motor should do the trick.

I forgot to mention the wadding in the end of the motor method. Some of the people at the launch mentioned that also.


That said, what I don't see enough talk of is getting them all lit. I always scrape all the nozzles, use ignitors with longer leads (and no clip whips), and a relayer or beefy controller with 12V battery. If you get them all lit at launch, it becomes a moot point :)

Since you focus on getting them all lit in the first place you will get a kick out of "the rest of the story".

The guy who the rocket tried to take out just happend to be one of the best cluster guys in these parts, Boris Katan. He was sitting there minding his own business wiring up his Scratch Toginator Upscale. You can see a review here: http://www.rocketreviews.com/reviews/all/scratch_toginator.shtml

Anyway after the crash he and I talked a bit. Boris told me that he uses pyrogen dipped igniters on his clusters to ensure ignition. I can't argue with his success rate but that does get a bit expensive.

Oh, his Toginator is a 26 engine cluster and yes all of them lit and the flight was great. The Toginator did crash, but only after a great flight. The crash was due to a chute problem and I belive he is rebuilding. I got a great video of the flight. Man that thing looked great going up.

Indiana
11-08-2008, 08:54 PM
Here's TLP's site:

http://www.the-launch-pad.com/

PaulK
11-08-2008, 09:45 PM
...I forgot to mention the wadding in the end of the motor method. Some of the people at the launch mentioned that also....FWIW, I do this on all my cluster flights (unless the motor tubes are plugged), using a small piece of masking tape to hold the wadding in. Also, if the engine *had* lit from the top, the inside of the rocket above the motor mount would have been burnt to a crisp.

cas2047
11-09-2008, 05:22 AM
Also, if the engine *had* lit from the top, the inside of the rocket above the motor mount would have been burnt to a crisp.

I can confirm that the inside of the rocket looks great. Nothing more than the typical grey residue.

Jeff Walther
11-13-2008, 10:54 AM
I always scrape all the nozzles, use ignitors with longer leads (and no clip whips),.

What are clip whips and why do you avoid them? Is that a group of clips hanging off wires all going to a common connection point?

Doug Sams
11-13-2008, 11:23 AM
What are clip whips and why do you avoid them? Is that a group of clips hanging off wires all going to a common connection point?Yes, clip whips are pairs of wire bundles - eg, a red bundle and a black bundle - wherein the 3 (or 4 or more) wires in each bundle are joined at one end for connecting to the launch controller, and at the other end have alligator clips on each lead.

In use, several bad things can - and often do - happen. With 6 or 8 or 10 clips, the likelihood of one falling off goes way up, so getting all the motors lit is unlikely. And it gets crowded with all those clips clustered together, so the likelihood of a short is way up, too. And, depending on the quality of each clip's connection - ie, how much resistive crud and/or lack of spring grip - the resistance will vary thus causing some motors to light later than the others - or not at all should the rocket pull away first.

Basically, it only took me a few attempts before moving on to lead extensions. They're much more consistent and reliable.

Usually, clusters will still fly OK with one motor out, but in some cases, it can be catastrophic. Here's a pic showing a rocket with only two of three lit. OUCH! It was going horizontal when the (2/3) sustainers lit. It ended up doing a combo power-prang / landshark. But I salvaged it to fly again :) Doug

http://home.flash.net/~samily/thridget70/3-to-3-drag3p.jpg

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Jeff Walther
11-13-2008, 01:52 PM
Basically, it only took me a few attempts before moving on to lead extensions. They're much more consistent and reliable.

Thank you, Doug. But one thing leads to another. .. What are lead extensions? Is there a web resource where I can read up on this, in the event that you tire of typing out explanations?

tbzep
11-13-2008, 02:45 PM
Thank you, Doug. But one thing leads to another. .. What are lead extensions? Is there a web resource where I can read up on this, in the event that you tire of typing out explanations?

Soldered wire extensions to the ignitors.

Doug Sams
11-13-2008, 03:57 PM
Thank you, Doug. But one thing leads to another. .. What are lead extensions? Is there a web resource where I can read up on this, in the event that you tire of typing out explanations?Tim answered it best - soldered wires. I use phone wire. It's 26 guage IIRC, and strips quite easily. Twisting would work, but the bridge wires are easily broken, so soldering is less likely to damage the ignitor. A wrap of masking tape over the joints will prevent shorting and maintain the spacing of the ignitor leads.

Like prepping for staging, it's time consuming and a PITA, but it's still easier than rebuilding wrecked rockets :) Here's a pic of one I recently made. Doug.

http://home.flash.net/~samily/stuff/cluster-ign-p.jpg

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tbzep
11-13-2008, 04:28 PM
Tim answered it best - soldered wires.

I learned it on this forum from the cluster expert (http://forums.rocketshoppe.com/showpost.php?p=42738&postcount=6). :cool:

Jeff Walther
11-13-2008, 04:37 PM
Thanks guys. Well that's interesting. So really the whole difference here is using a soldered joint to interface to the igniter vs. using clips to interface with the igniter. Presumably, if your clips were clean and springy, the clips would be an acceptable method.

Anyone know what kind of current goes through the igniter at launch?

Actually, I'm a little curious about the whole V, I, R profile. The igniters are very low resistance, so the current draw should be huge (relatively speaking) so most voltage sources are going to drop to a lower voltage rather than live up to Ohm's Law and deliver super huge current--although a sealed lead acid (as we discussed in another thread) can probably make a pretty good showing...

But R should increase as the igniter heats up. So there would probably be an initially huge current flow, a largish voltage drop, quickly followed by an increase in resistance leading to lowered current flow and increased voltage (thus somewhat compensating for the lowered current flow) for the milliseconds it takes the igniter to burn through.

Thinking about it, the current may not drop. It may simply behave like a constant current system, with the battery voltage varying to make it's maximum current correspond to whatever resistance the igniter happens to have. Of course, the battery voltage won't go over its rating so if the resistance increases enough to let the voltage back up to nominal, at that point the current will drop.

All of which is my stream of consciousness wondering if wire wrap would work for lead extensions. Wire wrap is usually very small guage so it does not have the current capacity of bulkier wires, but it is also much easier to do wire wrapping in the field than it is to do soldering. I'm also not sure that igniter wires are stiff enough to wire wrap around. I may have to do some experiments tonight.

Jeff Walther
11-13-2008, 04:41 PM
I learned it on this forum from the cluster expert (http://forums.rocketshoppe.com/showpost.php?p=42738&postcount=6). :cool:

And reading that post leads to the next question. What is a burn string?

tbzep
11-13-2008, 04:50 PM
And reading that post leads to the next question. What is a burn string?

Holds it down until the ignited motor burns it and lets the model go.

They are also sometimes used to deploy wings and other stuff in contest models.

tbzep
11-13-2008, 04:54 PM
Thanks guys. Well that's interesting. So really the whole difference here is using a soldered joint to interface to the igniter vs. using clips to interface with the igniter. Presumably, if your clips were clean and springy, the clips would be an acceptable method.

Anyone know what kind of current goes through the igniter at launch?

Actually, I'm a little curious about the whole V, I, R profile. The igniters are very low resistance, so the current draw should be huge (relatively speaking) so most voltage sources are going to drop to a lower voltage rather than live up to Ohm's Law and deliver super huge current--although a sealed lead acid (as we discussed in another thread) can probably make a pretty good showing...

But R should increase as the igniter heats up. So there would probably be an initially huge current flow, a largish voltage drop, quickly followed by an increase in resistance leading to lowered current flow and increased voltage (thus somewhat compensating for the lowered current flow) for the milliseconds it takes the igniter to burn through.

Thinking about it, the current may not drop. It may simply behave like a constant current system, with the battery voltage varying to make it's maximum current correspond to whatever resistance the igniter happens to have. Of course, the battery voltage won't go over its rating so if the resistance increases enough to let the voltage back up to nominal, at that point the current will drop.

All of which is my stream of consciousness wondering if wire wrap would work for lead extensions. Wire wrap is usually very small guage so it does not have the current capacity of bulkier wires, but it is also much easier to do wire wrapping in the field than it is to do soldering. I'm also not sure that igniter wires are stiff enough to wire wrap around. I may have to do some experiments tonight.

The whole point of soldered wires is so you can put them all together to make a single pos and single neg connection with only one pair of clips, without damaging the igniter. This also eliminates the possibility that a clip will come off before ignition of the motor because the current is going to go through all of the motors, or none of them at all.

As for resistance, Estes igniters and most aftermarket igniters use high resistance thin nichrome wire as a bridge between two more robust lead wires. Even if it was a more conductive metal, the wire is so thin that it has considerable resistence anyway.

Doug Sams
11-13-2008, 04:58 PM
And reading that post leads to the next question. What is a burn string?Here's a drawing and some pics:
http://home.flash.net/~samily/burn-string/

Doug

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Doug Sams
11-13-2008, 05:08 PM
But R should increase as the igniter heats up. So there would probably be an initially huge current flow, a largish voltage drop, quickly followed by an increase in resistance leading to lowered current flow and increased voltage (thus somewhat compensating for the lowered current flow) for the milliseconds it takes the igniter to burn through. (snip) Will ignitors current share? Maybe. But I woudn't count on it.

All of which is my stream of consciousness wondering if wire wrap would work for lead extensions. Wire wrap is usually very small guage so it does not have the current capacity of bulkier wires, but it is also much easier to do wire wrapping in the field than it is to do soldering. I'm also not sure that igniter wires are stiff enough to wire wrap around. I may have to do some experiments tonight.I've used wire wrap, too. With short leads, the guage isn't too important. But with wire wrap, two things to consider. One, it's easy to nick it while you're stripping leaving a possible break spot. That's not common, but it is one of the better known failure mechanisms of the technology. Don't let the DoD inspector catch you not using your no-nicks :)

And two, wire wrap prefers square posts. Going around round wires, it can slide off. So when I've used it, I still ended up putting a dab of solder on it.

Overall, it was comparable in difficulty to using telephone wire.

Doug

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A Fish Named Wallyum
11-13-2008, 09:14 PM
And reading that post leads to the next question. What is a burn string?

Something that never caught on in strip clubs? :eek:

Jeff Walther
11-14-2008, 09:24 AM
Something that never caught on in strip clubs? :eek:

Ouch.

Jeff Walther
11-14-2008, 09:35 AM
Will ignitors current share? Maybe. But I woudn't count on it.

I am unclear on what you mean by current share. Any time you have the igniters connected in parallel they are sharing the available current amongst them. It gets divided up in inverse proportion to their resistances. If all the igniters are about the same resistance, then they all get about the same current. That is, for a current limited situation. If the supply has sufficient current capacity, then each igniter just gets its V/Rn where Rn is the resistance of any given igniter 'n'.

Or did you think I meant to hook them up in series? Everything I've read says that's a bad idea.

I've used wire wrap, too. With short leads, the guage isn't too important. But with wire wrap, two things to consider. One, it's easy to nick it while you're stripping leaving a possible break spot. That's not common, but it is one of the better known failure mechanisms of the technology. Don't let the DoD inspector catch you not using your no-nicks :)

What is no-nicks? :-) See, it just keeps leading to more questions. But I am enjoying the education I am receiving. I haven't had any trouble with nicks in my wire-wrapping of electronics as long as I am using the stripper tool included with the wire wrap tool.

And two, wire wrap prefers square posts. Going around round wires, it can slide off. So when I've used it, I still ended up putting a dab of solder on it.

Overall, it was comparable in difficulty to using telephone wire.

Yep, the square post issue is a problem. And if it's not possible or at least convenient to fold the end of the igniter wire over after wrapping a wire onto it, then you'll need the solder. Hmmm. Another beautiful idea slayed by a harsh reality.

Do you have a method of soldering in the field or do you do all your prep at home? The only reason I was thinking about wire wrap was my assumption that you wouldn't be able to do launch prep in the field if it requires soldering. On the other hand, I have a 12V powered soldering pencil (cigarette lighter connector) in my car's tool box, so I guess field soldering should be possible. There are also those little butane powered jobs.

Hmmm. Igniter wires are round, so they are not good for wrapping other wire around. What happens if you attempt to wire wrap an Estes igniter lead around a square post? I'm thinking about the header strips which are cheap and are just a line of .1" spaced square posts in a plastic matrix. If one wrapped each lead of an igniter to one of the posts of such a header, then all the connecting could be done to the other ends of posts. And the rigid spacing of the header posts would naturally prevent shorts in the igniter leads.

Doug Sams
11-14-2008, 10:42 AM
I am unclear on what you mean by current share. Some electronic components have resistances with positive temperature coefficients - the resistance goes up with temp. Thus, as you postulated, the lower impedance part will get the most current and heat up faster resulting in more even distribution of the current - ie, current sharing. OTOH, other parts have their resistances go down with temp and thus, if they start out hogging an unfair share, it only gets worse over time.

All that said, I prefer not to count on any particular change in resistance of the ignitor, and instead try to pick them to be within ±0.1Ω of each other at the start.


What is no-nicks? :-) These are specially designed wire strippers just for wire-wrap wire that minimize the chances of nicking the wire.


Do you have a method of soldering in the field or do you do all your prep at home? In my experience, there's just way too much going on at the field for me to be able to do such tedious stuff. Maybe somebody like the late Gordon Cooper could keep his cool during highly stressful moments, but for me, fighting the wind, heat and dripping sweat while watching the flight line and entertaining three impromptu passers-by, I struggle greatly to do any sort of complex prep at the range. I much prefer do it at home ahead of time.


What happens if you attempt to wire wrap an Estes igniter lead around a square post? I'm thinking about the header strips which are cheap and are just a line of .1" spaced square posts in a plastic matrix. If one wrapped each lead of an igniter to one of the posts of such a header, then all the connecting could be done to the other ends of posts. And the rigid spacing of the header posts would naturally prevent shorts in the igniter leads.Those square posts are in fact the same as wire wrap posts. The only diff is that wire wrap posts tend to be longer.

In all likelihood, if you tried to wrap the stiff, steel wire of the ignitor around the post, you'd end up destroying the ignitor by breaking the bridge wire.

It's good you're thinking about it - that's how better techniques evolve. For me, the ideal connector would be some sort of insulated, slide-on sleeve that, like Chinese handcuffs, slides easily onto the ignitor lead, then remains securely attached. I was thinking something along the lines of a 20 gauge socket as found in famale D-sub connectors.

But, even if such an animal existed, it would suffer from the same problems as the alligator clips in a clip whip - after a couple flights, it would likely be so cruddy as to need replacement, which brings us back to lead extensions - ie, disposables instead of re-usables.

Doug

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Jeff Walther
11-14-2008, 11:39 AM
But, even if such an animal existed, it would suffer from the same problems as the alligator clips in a clip whip - after a couple flights, it would likely be so cruddy as to need replacement, which brings us back to lead extensions - ie, disposables instead of re-usables.

Yes, the more I learn about this, the more it looks like having some soldered-lead-extended igniters on hand is the soundest solution.

There are pin receptacles for very small gauge wire which might be usable. However, I think the smallest I've seen are about 26 or 28 gauge and I bet the igniter leads are smaller than that. And the crud problem you mention would make it kind of pointless anyway.

Of course, one could keep some steel wool and maybe flux cleaner (nasty solvents) on hand and keep the clips clean, maybe. Part of the problem there is that the igniter leads are so narrow that they can fit across a tiny uncleaned portion of the clip and cause a problem.

Gus
11-14-2008, 01:59 PM
Doug,

Wouldn't the simplest solution be to have igniters just like the current Estes or Quest ones, but with leads 3 times as long?

In other words, "Cluster Igniters".

At the manufacturing stage they would be no more complex to make than current igniters, require just a smidge more wire, and could be sold for even more :eek: than the ridiculously high priced 6 packs of regular igniters.

Sounds like a good product for Bill Stine, or an Estes lurker to suggest to the boss.

Doug Sams
11-14-2008, 02:19 PM
Wouldn't the simplest solution be to have igniters just like the current Estes or Quest ones, but with leads 3 times as long?Steve,

In brief, yes. For example, compared to 2-wire ignitors from Road Runner or AT's new ones, all you have to do is strip and twist the ends, and you're ready to go. They already have the added length necessary for clustering. (Dave Schaefer did a 7-motor cluster of RoadRunner G80's at LDRS2006, using stock ignitors, and got all 7 lit, IIRC.)

In the case of the Estes ignitors, here are some things to consider. I've never bought a pack of Estes ignitors. (Because of all the staging I do, I have a surplus.) And I can't imagine paying for them above and beyond what I pay for motors with ignitors included. So, given that paradigm, I would anticipate lots of reluctance in the user base, even with longer leads. It already takes me lots of self-arm-twisting to buy a $4.59 pack of toilet pap...er...ejection wadding :) so ponying up for a pack of Estes ignitors would probably require days of agonizing fretting beforehand :D

If they simply extended the lead length, there's the issue of insulation. With a couple more inches of wire, insulation is a must to avoid shorting.

And if they use the same stiff, steel wire, there's still the likelihood of damaging the bridge wire when you twist the leads.

So, in brief, yes, but upon further reflection, I see several obstacles to overcome before it's truly workable.

Doug

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jbuscaglia
11-14-2008, 03:05 PM
Doug,

Wouldn't the simplest solution be to have igniters just like the current Estes or Quest ones, but with leads 3 times as long?

In other words, "Cluster Igniters".

At the manufacturing stage they would be no more complex to make than current igniters, require just a smidge more wire, and could be sold for even more :eek: than the ridiculously high priced 6 packs of regular igniters.

Sounds like a good product for Bill Stine, or an Estes lurker to suggest to the boss.

The leads on the new Quest igniters are quite long. Clustering with them shouldn't require any extensions, unless the motors are spaced very far apart.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that the leads are insulated, too.

Doug Sams
11-14-2008, 08:08 PM
The leads on the new Quest igniters are quite long. Clustering with them shouldn't require any extensions, unless the motors are spaced very far apart.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that the leads are insulated, too.I just got a closer look at those, and yes, they do look much more cluster friendly. The leads look long enough for clusters of three or four motors. I'd prefer them a couple inches longer. That makes larger clusters easier.

But I look forward to trying these. If they're reliable, they'll certainly make things easier.

Doug

[Edit]I got a shipment of Quest motors in this week but tonight was the first chance I had to look at the ignitors that came with.

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