Fireworks Controller

Step 14: Finished board

To operate the board:

• make sure battery is disconnected and all switches are on the off position
• connect all of the ignition wires, one per channel:

1- Plug in each ignition wire pair to one black and one red speaker terminal. Use the side that is stripped, but doesn't have an alligator clip.
2- On the other side connect an igniter using the alligator clips, one on each wire.

• connect the battery
• insert key into the main on/off keyswitch and turn to on
• turn toggle switch to test, make sure green lights are turned on for each channel that you have something connected to, if not check your connections and make sure the ignitor is securely attached to the launch wires.
• clear the area around the fireworks and make sure you are at a safe distance from people, animals, cars, houses, trees, dry grass, etc. (the normal precautions)
• once all connected channels have green lights, flip the toggle switch to arm
• the red LEDs will turn on, and at this point pressing a pushbutton will supply full power to the ignitor, setting off the firework.
• once a firework is detonated, if the ignitor burned completely, the red light will turn off and you will know that that firework has already been used.

Shutting down:

• Turn the toggle switch to the off position
• Turn the keyswitch to the off position and remove the key (put it in your pocket)
• Disconnect the battery
• Unplug each of the long wires from each channel that lead to the fireworks
• Dispose of burned ignitors

Comments

[Mr.KC]

I built a 15 channel controller last year based on this design. It worked beautifully! However, this year it's not working. The lights light up but when I press the button, nothing happens. There's enough juice in the battery because if I bypass the controller and connect the lead to the battery, it works. I looked and I can't seem to find any loose connections. Any help?

[pdionne]

Have you changed the battery? Also, if you are going to test the battery with a voltmeter, make sure you either load it down with a resistor in series with the battery or leave the battery in circuit and test it with the load applied. Sometimes batteries will test fine without a load, but when you put it under load it fails because the charge is not good enough to maintain the voltage under load.

[the mechanical engineer]

using a voltmeter can help you determine your problem. just start at the output and work backwards until you find where your losing the voltage.

[IcedZ]

Great instructable, but you definitely needed to be more clear on what the ignitors were. I wouldn't have known without the other commenter asking.

[KaydenST]

What are the ignitors? Are they the ones you use in model rockets? And if they are, how would you attach it to the fuse?

[systemf92]

The ignitors I use with my controller are home-made ones as described here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Fireworks-Igniter/
The ones I explain how to make have two wires on them. Clip one alligator clip from the firing channel cable onto each wire on the ignitor. Described in Step 5 of the instructable I linked to in this comment.

[KaydenST]

Oh, and when I say fuse, I mean the wick on the firework that you light.

[Arduino Guy]

you can reuse the wire in the ignitor, just sand off the black stuff. and rewind on another match.

[Arirox]

wait so do we put the fuse in or not??

[systemf92]

No, bypass the fuse and fuse holder, they are not necessary.

[cowen]

Bypassing a fuse is really not a good idea. At the least put a 3 to 5 Amp fuse on the battery positive terminal. If you are like me you will want to put a fuse on every channel. 1 Amp should be sufficient. In the event you have a dead short on a channel then just that one fuse blows and the others are still viable for the show. If you have only the one fuse then you will have to locate the short fix it then replace the fuse. If you do not use a fuse then there is potential to short heat the wires to the point of burning up the ground and or the control and possibly bursting the battery. The fuse on each channel should be one to two size(s) higher then what it takes to "short" the ignition device to launch the firework. So if you blow the fuse at 1A then use a 2A and it holds either use that or make it a 3 or 4 Amp some devices will tell you the volt/amp required to burn the ignition device. if the device is a .5 I would just round up. .5 = 1 and 1.5 = 2 and so forth. You should test this to be sure the fuse size works with your project since there are to be varying size and type of ignitors being used. To do this connect your wire and the ignition device and start with the smallest fuse and launch until the fuse can hold the (short) ignition of the fire work. Then go one or two (next size up) for a small safety margin. Then main fuse should be no more then 10 Amp. Batteries do not harry a lot of amperage so you do no need a 30 or 80 amp you just want to protect the wires, switches, and the case from a potential fire if they heat up enough. Fuses are a good thing and any project should have at the least one when dealing with power. I have been tinkering with my truck adding lights, pumps, radios, and other sorts of things to it and from trial and error I now have a huge fuse block with every thing labeled and fuse. If a light goes out I look at the fuses and if they are fine I replace the bulb. It gets expensive to add fuses to this degree but I no long have to re wire the whole bundle of cables. In that Bundle I have 50 circuits now and I have only had 5 shorts that needed to be re ran. Past projects I melted down the entire bundle.

[systemf92]

Cowen, this is the answer I have been looking for for a long time. Thank you. To everyone else who has asked about fuses in the past, please refer to the above. I figured, "well, it still works so why bother," but the safety issue still bothered me.

[cowen]

You are welcome. It is not the most scientific approach but with all the differing kinds of ignitors that could be used it really is hard to put a value on it. So protection would be a must working with fireworks and long remote lengths of wires. Mis-wires could blow a show (figuratively and literally). The best way as I mentioned was to start with a small fuse and experiment with your ignition devices until you do not blow a fuse. 1A is probably going to be your common value. A 3 or 5 A for Mains fusing in case you want to launch multiples that way the main power can handle the current draw. A ) standing for Amps You just do not really need much of a fuse for the ignotors. It would be a good thing to hear what others are using for an ignition device and what fuse worked for them to help others narrow down their builds.

[Arirox]

So, we just put a wire to where the fuse would be but we dont put the fuse it then solder the wires to the battery to it then just clip it on/off the battery?

[systemf92]

yes.

[mesmes]

Hi,

You wrote once a firework is detonated, if the ignitor burned completely, the red light will turn off and you will know that that firework has already been used.

I make the circuit to one channel and it works properly. The think i want to know is that when you press the push button, the red light  will turn off only for the second that you press the button or it will stay off once it is already been used?

[muadeeb]

The red light will go out when you push the button, and will remain out provided the ignitor completely burned.

[Arirox]

So, we just put a wire to where the fuse would be but we dont put the fuse it then solder the wires to the battery to it then just clip it on/off the battery?

[hemmikarl]

"turn toggle switch to test, make sure green lights are turned on for each channel that you have something connected to, if not check your connections and look for a short" If there is a short in the speaker wires the green light will still turn on, so it only tests that something is connected and if the battery works (at least like I see the schematic) otherwise it is a great project

[systemf92]

thank you, I'll change the wording in that sentence right now.