k-rad du0d
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I just burned through an entire pack of new Estes Pro Series II igniters on an F22. 0/4 success rate.
Do not buy.
Do not buy.
I have yet to have one fail. What kind of launcher are you using? Use a 12V launch system, like a motorcycle battery.
Are you putting the igniter all the way up into the motor? Are you holding the button down long enough? Sometimes it takes a bit to fire off composite motors.
Might be an oddity, but I seen one work at our last launch. For some reason the ignitor type was on the flight card and read by the LCO.
We do not do that. Is that common with your club?
Negative posts help no one. The only way a vendor knows if they have a problem is when the affected user notifies them.I just burned through an entire pack of new Estes Pro Series II igniters on an F22. 0/4 success rate.
Do not buy.
The F22 is original Black Jack. Notoriously difficult to ignite. The Estes igniters are marginal for the Estes composite motors.I just burned through an entire pack of new Estes Pro Series II igniters on an F22. 0/4 success rate.
The F22 is original Black Jack. Notoriously difficult to ignite. The Estes igniters are marginal for the Estes composite motors.
Golly gee, thanks for all the instruction. I guess if I weren't so retarded it would have worked great.
Negative posts help no one. The only way a vendor knows if they have a problem is when the affected user notifies them.
Have you contacted Estes? If not, please call them. Estes has top notch qualtity control and tests 3% of their production which is above the NFPA 1125 requirements. Even so it's possilbe to get a few bad items that don't work properly and they want to know about it, since failures are bad for business.
Estes is one of the best companies at customer services. At the very least they will replace those igniters for you.
Again, please let them know.
Bob
AFAIK Estes does not have local employees at the distributor level. I'm guessing the well meaning store manager is dealing with the distributor's sales person, but I could be wrong.I took my burnt up igniters back to the hobby store where I bought them. The very nice manager there was going to bring it to the attention of the Estes representative last month when he was up.
I still have not heard anything back from the hobby store as to why they misfired and did not get any replacement igniters either.
I know that Estes is pretty good at quality control and testing, after all I have never had a black powder motor fail to ignite with the good ol reliable solar igniters. That being said the store manager had several other customers that have had failures with the new igniters that we all had to buy separate from the engines, and I think that is why everybody is a little miffed about it.
For me right now, I might just stick with the Aerotech SU's and Copperhead igniters that come with them.
I just burned through an entire pack of new Estes Pro Series II igniters on an F22. 0/4 success rate.
Do not buy.
...as I've stated elsewhere, we tested a huge number (thousands - all off of our E Launcher) of these before releasing them to the public...and considering our production history with our standard igniters, we have a pretty good handle on how to make them and make them work. I know this will sound very CYA, but we have been using them with the PSII composite motors here at the rocket ranch, launched off our E Pad (and new PSII pad) with the Estes 2230 E Launcher with an excellent success rate. Do we get a failure?...sure, every once in a while we get motor that doesn't light up...but we can usually say that it was operator error and while the igniter flashed, it didn't get the AP going...but those test flights have been rare. We formulated these igniters to work off of our E Launcher with 4 AA batteries and as long as they are fairly fresh, the igniter will light and has enough flash to get the PSII motors going if its in contact with the propellent in the motor case.
I'm not sure what happened with your 0/4 experience, but contacting Estes would have been a good first move. Without information from the user, we cannot determine if there is a problem or not. I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't express yourself, but we have had very good success with these new igniters and your experience is the exception. I'd suggest contacting us through the website and we'll replace your igniters as warranty replacement.
Mike
I appreciate hearing all experiences with all rocketry related products, both good and bad. I can make up my own mind on how much to rely on such posts.
In this case I can only take the OP at his word that he is an experienced AP user and that the motor ignited right away with a Copperhead after 4 failures with the PS2 ignitors. I've had my own issues getting BlackJack motors to light using a variety of ignitors. I'll admit that some of the time it has been my fault. Other times I was very careful about sanding the grain and placing the ignitor and I still had problems, eventually they all lit. I've never had one fail to light when using thermalite, I sure miss that stuff.
I do trust Estes and the results that they have obtained in their own testing with the PS2 motors and the E controller. I have several packs of the PS2 ignitors that I have yet to use. I expect that they will perform well.
Golly gee, thanks for all the instruction. I guess if I weren't so retarded it would have worked great.
Oh wait, I'm not retarded. I use a 12V launch system and have fired hundreds of composite motors in my lifetime, so I know what I am doing. The simple fact is that these igniters do not perform well. After burning through 4 Estes Pro Series igniters, I threw a Copperhead in and, what do you know, it fired perfectly.
Estes needs to scrap the whole line.
AFAIK Estes does not have local employees at the distributor level. I'm guessing the well meaning store manager is dealing with the distributor's sales person, but I could be wrong.
Again. Hobby rocketry is a very small enterprise. Please contact Estes directly, either by calling (best) or by e-mail to customer service. They really appreciate first person information far more than third person information from a distributor's sales persons. You can provide far more information on what happened than the sales person can. Estes traditionally sends replacement items directly to the individual who experienced the loss.
Bob
Bob
If you think you know what you are doing, why did you ask a question?
With ignitors in general, I find 2 kinds of failures.
1) Failure for the pyrogen to get lit. Breaking the nicrome circuit without lighting, or shorting out, or needing more current.
2)The second type is the pyrogen burns, but the motor does not light.
I have the first happen with copperheads and with old ignitors where the dry pyrogen pops and gets blown off the nichrome without lighting. The ones I make fail if the pyrogen cracks (even a hairline) or age too much.
The second is usually not a hot enough formula, not enough pyro, or an oxidized motor core.
Just a thought. What is the amperes on the launch system?
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