E-matches (DIY)

Well, had a little (well not so little) production session yesterday ending up with a couple hundred e-matches. For those of you that make your own e-matches, I would highly recommend the kits from American Pyro Supply. I buy some research chems from American Pyro, but this is the first time I have tried their e-matches. Decided to buy a kit to go with some heads I got at Firefox along with extra pre-prepped blanks (BTW, the base kit provides enough for, I would say, 500+ e-matches). Even though I have always been pleased with product and service from American Pyro, I was a bit worried on the e-matches as a couple years ago I had trouble with an e-match kit from a well-known supplier of dips, etc. that produced nothing more than "duds." But, I am happy to say I am very pleased these! They burn long and hot--would recommend!

[video=youtube_share;ni-TRWkUnR8]https://youtu.be/ni-TRWkUnR8[/video]

Thanks for the quick review, Tim! I bought some blanks from American Pyro as well; though they're not yet dipped. Have you tested the resistance?

Side note on American Pyro...I've been to their warehouse, as it isn't far away from a place I stay from time to time. I do find Bob's company a bit humorous; used to be Jumpin Jack, Northstar Pyro, US Pyro, American Pyro, Rolling Thunder, and finally(currently) Science for you. I've purchased from them for about as long as they've been selling to the public, and it seems every time I get a package, it comes from a "different" company!

-Eric-

Eric, yes, a quick sampling yesterday of finished matches (well, less the fingernail polish dip which I'm doing today) yielded 1.5 to 2.5 ohms.

ECayemberg said:

Thanks for the quick review, Tim! I bought some blanks from American Pyro as well; though they're not yet dipped. Have you tested the resistance?

Side note on American Pyro...I've been to their warehouse, as it isn't far away from a place I stay from time to time. I do find Bob's company a bit humorous; used to be Jumpin Jack, Northstar Pyro, US Pyro, American Pyro, Rolling Thunder, and finally(currently) Science for you. I've purchased from them for about as long as they've been selling to the public, and it seems every time I get a package, it comes from a "different" company!

-Eric-

Click to expand...

That's a great deal on the Ematches, thanks for the tip. Right in the back yard and I didn't even know.

My dip kit came from AmerPyro. I have not had failures yet. I use mine on the main (not apogee) of smaller rockets as I have not fired enough to be fully comfortable. I'd rather be safe with a commercial where it counts most to prevent lawn darts.

I bought my leads soldered and ready to dip from skylighter on one of their 50% off sales.

I did not test the resistence. I know my perfectflites had no issues firing them.

They work. I have also tried a few other companies. Skylighter to be one.

I've tried a several ematches. The commercial heads seem to always work, but the dips don't seem to be dependable. Of course I had one flight, with a fresh battery, where both the apogee and the main ematch burned the bridge wires but didn't light the dip. They were two different brands of commercial matches, so I guess dependability is relative.

I had my best luck using 34 ga. nichrome wire and making about 1/16" bridges and dipping them in powdered BP and nitrocellulose lacquer. That is with PerfectFlite altimeters. YMMV with other brands.

I have found them dependible but I am not willing to risk a major rocket on a saving of 50 cents to a buck. I use them to test or cheap rockets.

cwbullet said:

I have found them dependible but I am not willing to risk a major rocket on a saving of 50 cents to a buck. I use them to test or cheap rockets.

Click to expand...

The e-matches pictured on their site appear to be the exact same product I've previously bought from a vendor, and have never experienced a failure. For less than a buck apiece shipped to my door, I'll give them a shot.

chadrog said:

The e-matches pictured on their site appear to be the exact same product I've previously bought from a vendor, and have never experienced a failure. For less than a buck apiece shipped to my door, I'll give them a shot.

Click to expand...

I am not saying you will. I am just saying I am not willing to risk it on an expensive rocket. I will still make them for my cheaper EX rockets that I an more afford to loose. I keep making them because I like to have the skill in case the BATFE starts again.

Loss of a $500-1000 rocket to save a few on matches is something I am not willing to do.

cwbullet said:

I am not saying you will. I am just saying I am not willing to risk it on an expensive rocket. I will still make them for my cheaper EX rockets that I an more afford to loose. I keep making them because I like to have the skill in case the BATFE starts again.

Loss of a $500-1000 rocket to save a few on matches is something I am not willing to do.

Click to expand...

I wasn't saying you were saying I would. I was just pointing out that these are the lighters the vendors are selling, and there's no reason they should be thought of as unreliable. Paying half as much for them isn't "cutting corners" to save fifty cents, it's cutting out the middle-man markup on the same product.

I encourage other to try I think it is fun to make them and test them. I too have found them reliable within 1-2 per 1000 would be my estimate. I have made about 4-500 hundred and have had 2 fail. Both were on ground tests.

I don't know about that, I don't like cutting into my building time.

Handeman said:

I've tried a several ematches. The commercial heads seem to always work, but the dips don't seem to be dependable.

Click to expand...

This was the reason for my post -- (Buyer beware) there is at least one vendor out there selling inferior kits. But, I have no qualms recommending American Pyro/Rolling Thunder kits and will use them in "live" flights.

dixontj93060 said:

This was the reason for my post -- (Buyer beware) there is at least one vendor out there selling inferior kits. But, I havr no qualms recommending American Pyro kits and will use them in "live" flights.

Click to expand...

I agree. I might have been too harsh. I am really recommending that you be careful. The failure rate is typically higher on the self dip kits than the manufactured matches.

Quest Q2G2 igniters -- why not use them? They're price-competitive, and Quest seems to like to send out 25% and 40% off coupons.

Buy them in bulk from the website, and get them even cheaper!

-Kevin

troj said:

Quest Q2G2 igniters -- why not use them? They're price-competitive, and Quest seems to like to send out 25% and 40% off coupons.

Buy them in bulk from the website, and get them even cheaper!

-Kevin

Click to expand...

The cheap ones are too short, and I don't think any coupon or sale wll get the long ones to my door for sixty cents each.

I use the short Q2G2. I just extend the wires by soldering a piece of the scrap wire from the AT igniters left at the pad.

I made a batch of Skylighters about 3 years for my L2 flight, one for each of the four charge wells and all four worked.

Same rocket at MWP9 I used the same set-up but paralleled TWO in each charge well for a total of EIGHT randomly selected ohmed out DYI initiators(plenty of battery BTW). Anyways, when I got back I found one of the apogee charge wells un-detonated. Both had open bridge wires but unburned pyrogen. I was able to ignite them easily with lighter just for laughs.

Moral of the story here is that out of a batch of 80 I put TWO defective initiators in the same charge well. What about the other six initiators? Did one or more of those fail as well? We'll never know because a least one of them obviously worked.

This last little moral REALLY got my attention so I used eight Q2G2's at ECOF...at least four of them worked that I know of (I found them indeed on the short side but not something I can't design around in the future)

Not trying to discredit one and endorse another but I DO know that I had eight righteous "looking" initiators/bridge wires on the pad at MWP9. Maybe 300% redundancy since cost low to begin with?

Or am I just just yammering on about more or less the same set of duds Tim spoke of in his original post? If so, my apologies.:kill:

-S

Handeman said:

I had my best luck using 34 ga. nichrome wire and making about 1/16" bridges and dipping them in powdered BP and nitrocellulose lacquer. That is with PerfectFlite altimeters. YMMV with other brands.

Click to expand...

the true test is with a ARTS2. it has the shortest latch time to date of all the altimeters on the market. with the new altimeters being released all the time YMMV, TEST TEST TEST.
when ever i make up a set i take at least 4 to 6 of them hook up the Arts to my computer and "test boomer". i get great results using the quickburst supplies i carry on my site. i also go a step farther and test resistance before i dip them, like to try and stay in the same ohm range as close as i can. 1ohm being the best IMO. I get around 1.5 to 1.7 most of the time

cwbullet said:

I use the short Q2G2. I just extend the wires by soldering a piece of the scrap wife from the AT igniters left at the pad.

Click to expand...

scrap WIFE LOL!

I have Q2G2s just in case. I use JTEK primarily. I used the dipped on small rockets or for one of 2 in redundancy. With ignitors I make, I find they do not age well. I worry the same with ematches I dip. I ground tested some recently - all fired. They are about 6-8 months old.

Commercial ones I trust more. Whether that is well placed, I do not know. Just the warm and fuzzy of believing it is as reliable as one can expect for a given sized rocket. Never flew one over 20 lbs loaded.

cavecentral said:

With ignitors I make, I find they do not age well.

Click to expand...

I find a final dip of fingernail polish goes a long way to protect from long-term moisture and handling issues.

dixontj93060 said:

I find a final dip of fingernail polish goes a long way to protect from long-term moisture and handling issues.

Click to expand...

I'll have to try that. Thanks. ematches have a final dip of NC, so they may be ok.

cavecentral said:

scrap WIFE LOL!

Click to expand...

Freudian slip? Actually just a typo.

cwbullet said:

Freudian slip? Actually just a typo.

Click to expand...

I realize that, but funny.

Scott Evil said:

Same rocket at MWP9 I used the same set-up but paralleled TWO in each charge well for a total of EIGHT randomly selected ohmed out DYI initiators(plenty of battery BTW). Anyways, when I got back I found one of the apogee charge wells un-detonated. Both had open bridge wires but unburned pyrogen. I was able to ignite them easily with lighter just for laughs.
-S

Click to expand...

That is sort of what happened to me, except I used two commercial matches, one for apogee and one for main. Both did the same thing, bridge wire was open, but they never fired. They were not from the same batch either, they were from two different ematch manufactures. I figured the odds of having two commercial matchs fail on the same flight would be like winning the lottery. The really amazing thing about the whole flight was that once the rocket hit apogee at 4407 feet, it fell flat the whole way and landed behind a hill, and a couple hundred yards into a corn field. Must have really been my lucky day because when I walked straight through the corn field, I almost stepped on the rocket. No damage, other then some paint scrapes.

We have a kit for launching only. you can check it out here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z6GA3EFWrE . we will soon have one for deployment.

electricmatch said:

We have a kit for launching only. you can check it out here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z6GA3EFWrE . we will soon have one for deployment.

Click to expand...

Stupid question, how do we order, do you have a website??

T-Rex said:

Stupid question, how do we order, do you have a website??

Click to expand...

email me at [email protected], but there should have been some text at the end of the video for our site electricmatch.com