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Old 09-05-2010, 11:34 AM
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Doug Sams Doug Sams is offline
Old Far...er...Rocketeer
 
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.
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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