Here you have speculated on three different things of which you clearly do not have first-hand knowledge. Please don't. I left the relevant part in.
A Featherweight mag switch could "technically" be an issue because it defaults to "on" when power is applied. Soooooo....... One can get around that by disconnecting one of the power out wires to ones device, plug that battery in, swipe it off with the magnet,
hand the magnet to someone else to hold and then attach the wire to ones device and seal up the ebay. With a large rocket that would be very easy to do.
Is that what I do? Naaaaahhhhhhh, but I have to qualify I use it for single stage deployment and not a multi-staged rocket. In a small rocket, can be hard to disconnect and reconnect wires. In my instance I bench tested with contained ematches connecting
the battery and rapidly swiping the switch off. It works fine but again it's not wired to an M motor but just two less than one gram charges. I use a full welder's helmet with a clear face shield and prep in an isolated area onsite. If anyone has a line on magnetic switches that default to "off" with power connection give a shout out.
Steve Shannon et al. I am not suggesting that electronic activation is the only way to deal with staging safety but has the potential to alleviate a lot of guess work for the simpleton I profess myself to be.
How does one test a shunt? Easy. Get one's ignition device, plug it into the battery (Lipo or whatever), plug the ignition device into a computer so you can activate the channel you are using or it will be much easier if you can activate it wirelessly without a computer if your device allows. Then wire up your live staging igniter whatever that may be and stick in your proposed parallel shunt. Oh BTW use the parameters you're going to be using to "fire" your igniter on your
device (ie. the time of circuit activation 1 sec, 2 second or whathaveyou) Now step back, clear the area and push the button to activate the igniter. So, it didn't ignite? Great. The shunt did what it was supposed to do.
Is your electronic deployment/ignition device still operable or is this a one time test? Did your deployment/ignition device smoke instead of your igniter? Well, now you can go out buy a new one and show the RSO your burned out one and truthfully say your shunt worked.
If your igniter lit with your shunt in place you have two problems. One, it lit when it wasn't supposed to meaning your device/battery was able to shove a lot of current out and number two have the output circuits been damaged or
life shortened by the test?
If your device can turn on after the test, now the only unknown is what is your devices' resiliency after such a rigorous test? Good question.
I hope a reader realizes if they comprehensively test a shunt with their electronics as stated above there is a good chance you could "kill" them and I am not suggesting they do so. But how else will one know if that shunt
will "save them"?
Using a Quantum or a WiFi activated power switch (so one can use any electronic device they want to allow for staging) that has a reliable mechanical switch in place to "make ready" the wireless switch is something that would alleviate some guesswork for me. Knowing that connecting a battery to a wireless switch that defaults to "off" kinda makes me feel good. (If one is only using their wireless electronics to fire deployment charges I don't think a mechanical switch is needed but for me I don't want to be standing next to that M upper stage when power is applied to the electronics even though I know it will be all right. I'd rather be "all right" from 25 to 50 feet away or more.)
What "saves" people from staging accidents is shunts or no shunts the modern devices function reliably nearly 100% of the time. The worst case scenario is when power is applied to a "defective" device that activates the ignition
circuit as soon as it's turned on. Very rare? By God yes but with a wireless switch that defaults to off, one can apply power to the deployment/staging device
"from a safer distance away". A shunt? Sure if it does it's job and the deployment/ignition device goes into default mode or shuts down
AND the flier recognizes that, the launch can be aborted.
I am not making a rule suggestion here. Whatever one does they need to be careful, thoughful and nonetheless need to be aware of any local venue rules that a prefecture has in place. No timers allowed? They can do that. No two stage flights allowed without tilt testing? That's a big swallow one but a group could mandate that too. All two stage flights need to be approved in advance? I've seen that posted on a prefecture club site.
Cripes there's a group that mandates that aluminum nosecone tips have to be painted in order to fly on their site. You darned tooting if I was going there to fly, I'd prime and paint my Al nosecone tips. (No, painting them with a
Sharpie is not acceptable!)
Now back to HEI. I really like what I'm seeing though for gosh sakes CJ, Boron! What surplus sale did you get that from? The rest of us mortals can only lust after that stuff. Kurt