I got some of the first Chinese C6-5 motors sold by Quest at NARAM-50 and I had the extremely weak ejection charge (and I mentioned it to Bill Stine). This was many years ago and AFAIK, all of the newer Chinese motors have better ejection charges.
Just because something happened years ago, does not mean it is still occurring or an ongoing problem. When we inform a manufacturer of a problem, they almost always address it to resolve the problem.
I still have about 100 Q2G2 on hand and a few hundred packs of Estes pyrogen tipped Solar igniters. I also have well over a mile of 30, 31 and 32 ga nichrome wire which is what i use for most of my motor starting. I can make the little loop using a straightened paperclip and install them in advance and they can be safely stored for any length of time. The newbies at our launches love when I do the nichrome wire demo and it turns into red hot molten metal before their eyes.
Give them to me! I fly them all the time!
They have a bit more soot... sure.. but they are louder and have more smoke as well. At our local launches I like to see all the newbies jump after a couple of dozen "woosh-pops" of Estes motors going off the pads and the little roar the Quest motors give, gets their attention!
You should have some paper towels and/or baby wipes in your range geart anyways. The soot cleans off. lol
Keep your B & C birds under 4 oz and you'll be fine. In fact, I think that's the Estes limit as well... yup.. B6-4, C6-0, C6-3 and C6-5 are all maxed out at 4.0-oz. Estes and Quest.
Flea fart ejection??! Haven't seen that happen. The kids and I have launched a few dozen this past year.... no issues!
Seems like you may have had a bad batch. When was it that this all occurred?
Jerome
BTW, I like the nichrome wire for single motors but have clustered with it with a car battery, but I use the Estes Igniters for small clusters and Quest Q2G2 for large clusters.
Many years ago, Estes sent 50 bare Solar igniters to every NAR Section to test out to see if average folks and beginners could use them without problems. We were also encouraged to try them in clusters. We had ZERO misfires, including clusters. All were installed with the normal plugs.
Modern motors are slightly different. The centerbore in the current B6 Estes motors is amazingly shallow, so installing the starter and the plug can result is a bit of a 'crunch' to the tip. As long as it is not twisted, it should still work fine. If it is installed sloppily, the larger wires can be crunched together and short, preventing the bridge wire from heating up.
has anyone testes a new Starter in a vacuum to see if the coating will burn (which would indicate it has some sort of oxidizer)? I tested one in plain air and the bridge wire heated up and the coating slowly smoked and caught fire, but that couold have been because of the atmospheric oxygen - inside a motor nozzle with the plug in place it might just smolder.
If anyone test this, post the results in a new thread. I would ask Estes but I will assume it is a trade secret formula....but my assumption could be wrong.
