Unregulated ematches coming from electricmatch.com

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daveyfire said:
"Other thermite formulations"... hmm. See, e.g., this paper by Puszynski (my advisor's advisor). I think I know what's going on here :)
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Very static sensitive. That is very similar to the Oxral. The owner of Oxral was severely burned in an accident involving dry powder and static discharge. He had to go to the UK for reconstructive surgery, IIRC.
 
FWIW, I recall it is unlawful to claim "patented" when it is in patent pending status. "Proprietary information omitted" might have been a better call on that.
 
Binder Design said:
Very static sensitive. That is very similar to the Oxral. The owner of Oxral was severely burned in an accident involving dry powder and static discharge. He had to go to the UK for reconstructive surgery, IIRC.
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That is interesting as the matches come with the leads individually shrouded. Also, from observation, the amount of pyrogen dip on the head is smaller than normal--less than the size of a BB.
 
dixontj93060 said:
That is interesting as the matches come with the leads individually shrouded. Also, from observation, the amount of pyrogen dip on the head is smaller than normal--less than the size of a BB.
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The static danger is not for the finished product, just the dry powder.
 
Fdog said:
Just curious - when did you folks submit your pre-order? Mine was placed 21 May, and I haven't heard a peep yet.
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I preordered matches with 3 foot wires on 5/22, and received them on 6/24. On 6/12 PyroDirect sent a note indicating a longer production wait (1st week of July) for 7' and 10' lengths, and offered substitutions for those who needed them more quickly. (excellent service and communication, by the way)

What length did you order?

Mark
 
markjos said:
I preordered matches with 3 foot wires on 5/22, and received them on 6/24. On 6/12 PyroDirect sent a note indicating a longer production wait (1st week of July) for 7' and 10' lengths, and offered substitutions for those who needed them more quickly. (excellent service and communication, by the way)

What length did you order?

Mark
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Thanks for the feedback - I ordered a box of 80, length 3'.

I sent an email to Jeff to see if I was lost in the shuffle.

All the best, James
 
Has anyone used these for recovery? What's your experience? Are they reliable for recovery?
 
mrwalsh85 said:
Has anyone used these for recovery? What's your experience? Are they reliable for recovery?
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I received a box of 80 MJG Firewire's a few weeks ago. I've tried to set it off twice with an Eggtimer TRS and nothing happened, the impedance was unchanged after multiple deployment tests on both channels on both initiators. After the TRS failed to light either one I tried connecting the leads directly to the terminals on the 2s 950mAh Turnigy LiPo I was using for the TRS deployment channel (7.6V at the time), and again neither match lit, though after connecting directly to the battery now each e-match is open, infinite resistance across the leads. But I still haven't seen one burn, 2 down, 78 to go.

I'll be trying again in a week or so with a StragoLogger CF to see if it has any better luck. Seems like the TRS is too weak and a direct connection to 7.6V too strong (I guess it blew the connection open before it could get ignition), not sure if I'll get anything different from the SLCF.
 
woferry said:
I received a box of 80 MJG Firewire's a few weeks ago. I've tried to set it off twice with an Eggtimer TRS and nothing happened, the impedance was unchanged after multiple deployment tests on both channels on both initiators. After the TRS failed to light either one I tried connecting the leads directly to the terminals on the 2s 950mAh Turnigy LiPo I was using for the TRS deployment channel (7.6V at the time), and again neither match lit, though after connecting directly to the battery now each e-match is open, infinite resistance across the leads. But I still haven't seen one burn, 2 down, 78 to go.

I'll be trying again in a week or so with a StragoLogger CF to see if it has any better luck. Seems like the TRS is too weak and a direct connection to 7.6V too strong (I guess it blew the connection open before it could get ignition), not sure if I'll get anything different from the SLCF.
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Geez, I dont want to hear that - I just bought a box of 80 also.

I too have a TRS , eGGtimer, and just starting to use the 1s batts instead of 9v .

Purchased these because i thought the MJG set the standard for low voltage e-matches..and like star wars wanted to avoid any imperial entanglements.

Will not test with my 9v based sleds, but will try to test with 1s and stratologger cf first.

Kenny
 
Will, contact Jeff Genzel at MJG. I had the same problem and he told me that there was an issue with a supplier. Don't know if this is the same as you are experiencing, but Jeff replaced my order in its entirety and initial tests show no issues. He is great to deal with!
 
Wow, that is HUGE. I was about to place an order for these. Should I hold off until this gets resolved? Though it sounds like it may have been already.

Mike
 
Mike, issues should be resolved; email Jeff to be sure. I bought 200+ from MJG initially, so I freaked-out when testing showed issues. Jeff has been super to deal with thru all of this, with updates and even some freebies.

I hope that this does not start a HUGE forum dissertation regarding with these issues, but I wanted to share my experiences, both good and bad, with the new 'initiators'. As far as I am concerned, the issues have been resolved and I would purchase from MJG again if I need supplies.
 
Gary,

When did you order? I ordered from pyro direct when they first came out.
 
FYI, I have re-checked the TRS with the standard MJG matches and the recommended 2S LiPo... mine lit fine. Note that the TRS isn't designed to put out as much current as the original Eggtimer, it's got smaller transistors will a lower power dissipation figure, but it should fire ematches with up to 2A all-fire current. The Eggtimer will light Estes igniters with a 2S LiPo... that was a design criteria, since it can be programmed for airstarts.
 
Just wanted to chime in on this. I got an 'earlier' batch of 40 Firewire Initiators from PyroDirect (sorry, I can't find the date I purchased). I had similar frustrations as woferry. I was using them to ground test deployment charges straight off a 9v battery. Had several 'no fires' even when resistance testing prior to BP charge assembly looked normal. Got to the point where I was testing resistance after I had constructed my charges (huddled behind my 4'x4' plywood 'blast shield') thinking somehow I might have been damaging the bridgewire during my assembly. Had several still test 'normal' then not fire when attempting ground test. I finally reached out to MJG. Jeff responded immediately that they had issues with the first batch from their supplier as pondman noted above. Jeff immediately offered to replace my order as well. Haven't received it yet, but should be soon.
 
I emailed electricmatch on 2/17 and haven't heard anything back yet. I'll ping them again. I recalled that I didn't just have the box of 80 I received in January, but also 3 individual initiators I bought from BayAreaRocketry at XPRS 9/2014. I tried one of those also, and had the same results as my box of 80, so I'm 0/3 so far, from what I'd think would be two different batches (ordered 4 months apart from two different sources, of course maybe they were all made at the same time). So I'm hoping I'll be able to get functional replacements as well.
 
I just sent out a safety warning about possible issues with some of these matches to TRA TAPs and Prefects.

Thanks for posting your troubles so that others may learn from it.

Tony Alcocer
AeroPac
 
Weird,

I ordered mine on 21 May and 1 Aug 2014. One failed today, but the prior 20 worked fine. I am not sure which batch they are from. I will test a few our and wee what happens next weekend.
 
I ~was~ thinking about using the Firewire Initiators to fire the DD charges. Now I'm looking at Plan B as a failure to ignite at altitude is far more significant than a failure to ignite on the pad.

Bought my 25 Initiators from the onsite vendor at LUNAR in December 2014 and January 2015.
 
I will use my 160 to light motors. I emailed and he said he will replace them.
 

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