Staging timer

[thobin]

Looking for a good reliable staging timer with a fail safe. Its got to be small, inexpensive is good too
I also have heard of something called break wire or pull pin activated? How does that work? I have some ideas, just would like to be sure.
I know how the G switch works.

Thanks TA

 

[Adrian A]

A fail safe is important for a staged project, so I'm glad you mentioned that. If the booster has a CATO or some other problem, you don't want your air start timer to keep counting down like a time bomb, when the next stage could be pointed in any direction. One type of fail safe is to check for a minimum altitude before firing. Several brands of altimeters have this capability. The Raven altimeter also lets you put a time limit on the altitude do that if something is going wrong that's making it take too long to get to the altitude (like a major flight angle), ignition will be prevented.

 

[thobin]

YA that would be bad last thing I want to have happen is a land shark.
I'm also looking in to a 2 event timer all in one, stage and apogee.

TA

 

[fyrwrxz]

Thobin- check out Adrian's site-this guy is a genius with compact flexible avionics-you absolutely can't go wrong. Yeah, you could say I'm a 'raven' lunatic for his stuff.

 

[peter_stanley]

Looking for a good reliable staging timer with a fail safe. Its got to be small, inexpensive is good too
I also have heard of something called break wire or pull pin activated? How does that work? I have some ideas, just would like to be sure.
I know how the G switch works.

Thanks TA

I used a PerfectFlite miniTimer3G for my Nike Herc, and had good success with it. It was my first experience using a timer for staging. I had my delay a little short, but that was my fault. It worked as programmed. It has false trigger filtering for safety. Basically the trigger condition has to be met for .5 second to start the timer.

I'm interested in an electronic stager that Adept sells. It detects liftoff, then fires the next stage after detecting deceleration from motor burnout. This would be especially useful for EX motors, where you might not know the burn time.