Battery Next to Launchpad?

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dedleytedley

dedleytedley

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I use a scabbed together launching rig with a 12 volt car battery located near the launcher. Two wires come from the connection for the original 9 volt power source ofan old Estes black box launcher to the battery to provide power. Since I'd like to launch some AT clusters I'm thinking of moving the battery adjacent to the launchpad and place it between the ignition cable and the cluster clip whip and join together the two wires formerly connected to the battery. Essentially placing the battery at a different locale in the circuit. Does anyone see a problem with this? Ted
 
dedleytedley said:
I use a scabbed together launching rig with a 12 volt car battery located near the launcher. Two wires come from the connection for the original 9 volt power source ofan old Estes black box launcher to the battery to provide power. Since I'd like to launch some AT clusters I'm thinking of moving the battery adjacent to the launchpad and place it between the ignition cable and the cluster clip whip and join together the two wires formerly connected to the battery. Essentially placing the battery at a different locale in the circuit. Does anyone see a problem with this? Ted
Click to expand...

No not really. A circuit is a circuit.

On the other hand it may not be that difficult to rig up a relay system. I'm sure if you do a search here or in the archives you will find a simple relay setup.

This way you could leave the battery right next to the launcher and the relay system would use only milliamps of power with no loss at the pad.
 
Pratt Hobbies already makes a relay system that does what you want

https://www.pratthobbies.com/proddetail.asp?prod=PRM-12

and @ $24.00 it beats having to make your own. Doug is a great guy, and he makes good stuff. Check it out

(disclaimer .. I have no affiliation with Doug, or Pratt Hobbies, nor do I get any compensation for recommending any of his products; just a happy customer ... end disclaimer)
 
Unless you use a relay system, there is really no advantage to locating the battery next to the pad. The circuit will still include all of the lead wire back to your launch controller. The idea of locating the power source right near the pad is to keep the power circuit to the igniter as short as possible. One short positive lead to the igniters and another short negative lead back to the power source. Somewhere on one of those leadss, of course, you need to have a momentary switch. You operate that switch remotely from back at launch control by using a relay.

MK
 
Thanks for the input. It appears that there is no real advantage to moving the power source without using a relay. So for today I'll do things like usual and look into getting a relay system for future flights. Thanks again Ted
 
If you "think outside the box," one advantage to putting the battery at the launch pad is to use its weight to anchor the pad. The typical car battery is pretty heavy.
 

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