qwezxc12 Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 One of my current projects is an upgrade to my 16 channel shot box. It's made from a standard Rat-Shack project box has the following features: A) Keyed Arm switch and armed status indicater light (12V) Momentary Fire ButtonC) Light Switch and Lights (two 6V in series)D) 8 Double-Pole / Double-Throw / Center-off TogglesE) 16 Fire Circuits (Speaker spring terminals)F) 4 Common Grounds for fire circuits (Speaker spring terminal)G) Three 9V in series (~28v @ 240mA)H) 12V Voltage Regulator and Heatsink (to drive the lights at 12V) It looks like this: Outsidehttp://i3.tinypic.com/2liyc10.jpg Insidehttp://i10.tinypic.com/40253y1.jpg It's pretty nice - the work lights let you see what circuit your firing in the dark:http://i18.tinypic.com/2ynhu8k.jpg And when your done, the Pelican case locks up clean and secure:http://i11.tinypic.com/4d3tglj.jpg The box can shoot up to four low voltage igniters (Christmas Tree Light and small gauge NiChrome) simultainously through over 100m of Cat5E...I haven't tried farther, yet. I can get 7 circuits out of one Cat5E cable (hint, don't use each twisted pair as a circuit, use each wire as a hot and reserve the White/Brown as a common ground) My upgrade plans are the following: 1) Use hi-output LEDs for the work lights (will require more voltage regulation, I think, but drain less power) 2) Create a test power circuit (voltage and/or current regulation + a test light) 3) The toggles are DP/DT/Center off, but I am only using them as SP/DT...If I have an A/B power circuit selector, I can use the same toggles to fire four circuits each rather than two as it's currently wired. That way I can have a 32 channel box...Problem is, each Cat5E only can run 7 circuits. Maybe I'll boost it to a 48 channel (2 banks of 6 switches firing 4 circuits each) and have only one dead wire in the Cat5E leaders (7 x 7 = 49) Hmmm...gotta think on that one. 4) Remove the spring terminals from the control box and replace them with RJ-45 jacks. My plan is to run terminated Cat5E cables from the control box to small individual field boxes. The field boxes will have an RJ-45 input and an 8 spring terminal output for 7 circuits per field box. Then I can run shorter leads to individual effects, set pieces, or fuse trains from the field box using standard 24-28AWG twisted pair phone wire...much neater, I think. 5) *Possibly* add an external power input jack if I want to use a higher amperage battery pack for different igniters. I'm not sold on this idea, though. It has the potential to really complicate my voltage regulation and lighting / test circuits. This is a longer term project...I want this done and tested before the 4th of July, but I'm in no rush. I welcome any and all ideas for improvement. If you have a suggestion, please post it! I'll keep this thread updated as I upgrade the box. Wish me luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50caliber Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Very nice, the layout is great. I want to make one like yours but I have no idea where to start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbcpyrotechnics Posted January 26, 2007 Share Posted January 26, 2007 Excellent layout! Do you have a schematic for it? If you need software to draw schematics let me know, I have an excellent proggie that was free on the net. I'll have to find the link or e-mail me and I will reply with it attached (virus free). As for the remote firing slats, Skylighter has a great photo of a cool slat (see photo) that you could build yourself and modify to be RJ-45 compatible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwezxc12 Posted January 26, 2007 Author Share Posted January 26, 2007 Excellent layout! Do you have a schematic for it? If you need software to draw schematics let me know, I have an excellent proggie that was free on the net. I'll have to find the link or e-mail me and I will reply with it attached (virus free). As for the remote firing slats, Skylighter has a great photo of a cool slat (see photo) that you could build yourself and modify to be RJ-45 compatible.Thank you...no schematic of the current box...I just sketched it out on paper, bought the parts and started soldering...must be why I screwed up the circuits and needed to rework it The new box circuit diagram is being drawn in Visio...it's an easy to use technical drawing program. I'll post the circuit layout when I'm finished. As for the Skylighter slat...$49.95? Holy Shit Batman! It doesn't even have an enclosure for that price, and I'm not into the DB-25 serial connector...stripping and crimping 25 conductors for 10 circuits...nope. This is what I'm building for field boxes: Cat5e Modular connector - the wires punch in with 66/110 punch-down tool.http://www.partsexpress.com/images/150-540m.jpg$4.75 ea in qtys of 10+ (Partsexpress.com) 4 pos. Speaker Output Terminal - same as on my current box.http://www.partsexpress.com/images/260-305m.jpg$1.15 ea in qtys of 10+ (Partsexpress.com)2 required / field box 4"x2"x1" Project enclosurehttp://rsk.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pRS1C-2160188w345.jpg$2.69 at Radio shack Total: $9.92 (including tax in the Project box) for 7 circuits...vs. $50 for 10 circuits. Cat5e is basically free for me...If you need to buy it, BlackBox sells 4-pair Cat3 for $104/1000ft. By comparison, the cheapest 25 strand RS-232 bulk cable BlackBox carries is $.66/ft...even needing 4x Cat5e cables to equal the same number of circuits, you're still paying 63% less per foot...big difference. Terminating Cat5e is way easier (and cheaper, too). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M-80Saber Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 yours is gorgeous mine looks like a five year old playing with tape and circuts very good job I can't wait to see the scematic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richtee Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 Excellent layout! Do you have a schematic for it? If you need software to draw schematics let me know, I have an excellent proggie that was free on the net. I'll have to find the link or e-mail me and I will reply with it attached (virus free). As for the remote firing slats, Skylighter has a great photo of a cool slat (see photo) that you could build yourself and modify to be RJ-45 compatible. Interesting that you can get enough current thru a 45 connector. What is the firing current for your ignitors? Can't be much, if you can go 100 foot on 28Ga wire. Hopefully no one plugs their laptop into it heh! I have an old Amphenol round 24 pin socket/plug lying around somewhere. just might have found a use for it. Was earmarked for a audio snake for a studio...but... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marks265 Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Nice piece of hardware qwezxc12!!!!! I know you have a momentery firing button. But if it were me I would use a momentary toggle switch for each firing channel as well. If not that at least have a push to test pilot light that would show if a switch is failed closed. It may be a pain to fire but the ramifications would make me think twice. I am sure you may want to fire more than 1 channel at a time (configurable) so the pilot light idea may be best so that you and the electronics are on the same page. I work with controls on a regular basis and have seen some pretty weird things with industrial hardware. I too am interested in your final outcome because I will be wanting one myself. Maybe it's overkill but at least I feel better now. Reverse engineering in advance! Good luck but don't think ya need it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwezxc12 Posted April 7, 2008 Author Share Posted April 7, 2008 Interesting that you can get enough current thru a 45 connector. What is the firing current for your ignitors? Can't be much, if you can go 100 foot on 28Ga wire.Richtee, marks, Embarrassing as it is, I haven't touched the box since last spring...it works just fine in it's current config and I've got too many projects laying around to finish...I still have two starplates to press pins into, and that's killing me because I have an immediate use for those. Anyway, a single Christmas tree bulb will fire from 9v @ 200-220mA. Putting three batteries in series gets me longer legs or allows firing of multiple bulbs in parallel. I recently acquired some 12v/5A batteries from a equipment rack PCU/UPS. They'll fire home-made ignitors made from OFC speaker wire strands (~36AWG maybe?), so I may ditch the 9V batteries and trade up so I can use the easier to make ignitors and be rid of the voltage regulations for the lights. A test circuit would be easier for those as well - a couple of AA's will light a LED, but not fire the heavier filament. Maybe I'll get to it this year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
26shot Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Nice box . I know you didn't like the db25 but you can use a db9. A little more durable than rg45 but you would have to solder them. (parts express 28 cents hoods 30 cents). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toby Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 Very nice box, i'm working on a simple 10 shot box with a 25m cable and slat at the moment, what current can a db25 connector handle? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handymanherb Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 You can do a nail board, I did that last year and fired 28 cakes off it using the same cat 5 fire and a common neutral, I had every wire tied to a different nail,and had the negative tied to the 9 volt neg, then all I had to do was touch the positive to the nail and off it went. Not pretty, but was cheap to make and you can add as many wires as you want, then you can wrap the wire around the board and save it or just throw it away. That's the way they fired a lot if the old movie shots in war scenes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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