ST1DinOH Posted December 1, 2007 Share Posted December 1, 2007 for anyone interested in building thier own firing system i've made a basic diagram of one for everyone to use. this first one is a basic 48 cue (uses a 14 conduit cable from the buttons to the slat). http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/4605/completesystemsmallnp0.jpg this second diagram is how to add LED's and continuity to the button side of things. notice the use of the SPDT switches to isolate the LED runs. this one is a 16 cue setup (4x4) using a 8 conduit cable. http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/9708/pannelwcontinuityiy9.jpg now i'm no electrical engineer so i have no clue what the proper/universal way to label or draw certian parts/components and thier representations...but seing as how most of thoes who want to build one won't either...it's probably better i don't know the right way. if anyone sees a way to simplify this or change it for the better speak up. especially if anyone see's a crucial error in the setup...let me know ASAP and i'll make it right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraafVaag Posted December 16, 2007 Share Posted December 16, 2007 Believe it or not, but I have NEVER thought of using that cross-switched mechanism! Its brilliant! Imagine, 30 high-current switches for a nice new-years eve show, or 5 + 6 = 11 switches for the same thing.. Saves bucks, saves space. Damn I really like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ST1DinOH Posted December 17, 2007 Author Share Posted December 17, 2007 Believe it or not, but I have NEVER thought of using that cross-switched mechanism! Its brilliant! Imagine, 30 high-current switches for a nice new-years eve show, or 5 + 6 = 11 switches for the same thing.. Saves bucks, saves space. Damn I really like it. yeah the nice thing about the selectable ground is it allows you to fire off seperate banks one at a time, or multiple banks at once... lets say you have a 4x4 box 4 push buttons, 4 on off switches for the grounds you'd need a 8 conduit cable to connect the firing pannel to the slats, and with 8 wires (4 hot, 4 ground) you've got a 16 cue system made from a 8 conduit cable... so that gives you 4 banks of 4 so lets say that you for some reason wanted to fire the first 8 cues one at a time, and then 4 more cues...but 2 at a time bank A and B you'd hit inthe normal fashion...turn on bank A fire 1-4, turn off bank A, turn on bank B, ect... but when you get done with bank B you turn it off, then you could turn on banks C and D now when you press button #1 you'll send power to cue #1 on both the C and the D slat it's nice to have the flexability. the other nice thing about the slectable grounds is you can basicly just square 1/2 the total # of the conduit to give you the cue's in other words if you have a 16 conduit cable...you divide it in 1/2 and square it and you have a total of 64 cues a 20 conduit cable gives you 100 cues also keep in mind you can make multiple runs with 4 conduit cable and just tape it all together into one larger cable... you aren't stuck shelling out big $ on some special order multiple conduit cable. many guys just use 2 or 3 runs of thermostat cable from home depot or lowes... you can use as many as you want, and split it any way you want...but the igger and more complex it gets the more time and money you'll be investing. a simple 4x4 with 16 cues is quick and easy to make, and if you use it to light different boards or segments of the show rather than single effects you can do a 2 hour show with just thoes 16 cues... not that i want to sit through a 2 hour show...i'm just sayin it's possible. fireworks neck is bad enough after a hour long demo...can't imagine the retna burn and neck strain after looking skyward for 2 hours straight. glad you like it, hope it helps people enjoy more pyro from a safe distance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonny Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Great tutorial. Looks a little complicated for me though as I lack any real electronic knowledge. I am building a box right now that will have 20 cues. Each cue will have a toggle switch on (+) line and share a common firing switch on (-). When toggle is turned on an LED will indicate that cue is armed. It is very simple and should work as a good start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ST1DinOH Posted January 29, 2008 Author Share Posted January 29, 2008 Great tutorial. Looks a little complicated for me though as I lack any real electronic knowledge. I am building a box right now that will have 20 cues. Each cue will have a toggle switch on (+) line and share a common firing switch on (-). When toggle is turned on an LED will indicate that cue is armed. It is very simple and should work as a good start. trust me i'm absolutley clueless on this stuff too...thats the beauty of this design...it's very simple. the whole idea is you are using selectable grounds and re-using the firing buttons for each ground. so a cat-5 cable would give you 4 grounds and 4 fire buttons... so thats 4x4=16 cues total using 4 buttons, and 4 switches. the extra LED diagram isn't that bad either. i made it big like that to show you can make this design as big as you want, or as small as you want. but TBH there isn't a ton of bennifit in doing less than 16 cues. more than that you get the bennifit of the cue multiplication. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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