jimzcatz
Boss, Carolina Rocket Mafia
Yep
Anyone still use flash bulbs?
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jimzcatz
Boss, Carolina Rocket Mafia
Will they ever get used again?
I found three 10 packs of flash bulbs at a yard sale this weekend. I picked them up, looked them over, and dropped them right back, thinking, NO WAY am I going to try that!
yes sir
I sure did for 5 years.
I am pretty sure I put that label on those .
I have a couple packs with the cardboards glued on by Robbie's rocket.
Tom Flint
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I used to use flashbulbs to light clusters of black powder motors all the time, until Thermalite became impossible to find. I also used the pre wired flashbulbs that came with an aluminum tube that you would add black powder to, to make ejection charges. Luckily I always used doubly redundant ejection charges, because I found out that the flashbulbs would fail under acceleration on rockets with fast burning motors. At that point I started using electric matches to ignite the ejection charges.
Tom Flint
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I still have a box of loadable ejection charges, flashbulbs that I got off of Robby's Rockets back in the 90's? I think that he drove an older white dodge van back then to the launches. I don't use them anymore, just kinda of a keep sake. 
Someone probably will for their own purposes (nostalgia? Ignorance?), but there’s no good reason for them to be used by many fliers.
I remember using flashbulbs to take pictures back when I was a kid. That's what they were originally meant to do.
I remember going to Al's Hobby Shop in Elmhurst, Illinois back in the day as a kid. Could take the train from Wheaton to Elmhurst and the train station was very close to Al's. Make my purchases and take the train back to Wheaton and walk home. Station was close to home too.
When I became interested in flying rockets again, I explored using flashbulbs as we had a few AG-1's lying around the house. It was about the time ematches were starting to be used and someone told me about them. Bought a pile of them and gave up on the flashbulb thing luckily. I know many used them back in the day and many rocketry books detailed how to use them but I think ematches are more reliable. Kurt
I remember going to Al's Hobby Shop in Elmhurst, Illinois back in the day as a kid. Could take the train from Wheaton to Elmhurst and the train station was very close to Al's. Make my purchases and take the train back to Wheaton and walk home. Station was close to home too.When I became interested in flying rockets again, I explored using flashbulbs as we had a few AG-1's lying around the house. It was about the time ematches were starting to be used and someone told me about them. Bought a pile of them and gave up on the flashbulb thing luckily. I know many used them back in the day and many rocketry books detailed how to use them but I think ematches are more reliable. Kurt
I used to work in the OS engine warranty department years ago and did OS warranty and non warranty work for Al's from time to time. Never been to the hobby shop.
Some of the old Rocketflite BP motors (H-220 and the like) had cores that were large enough for a small flashbulb to fit. Wire the bulb to the alligator clips, slide it in place. No pyrogen or anything else needed, the flash gave off enough radiant energy to ignite the BP.
green dragon
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we still use flashbulbs for ejection charges, or e-matches, both work fine, if in doubt use redundancy.
It was a nice suburban shop. Not massive but mostly catered of course to the R/C flier. I'd go there every now and then but it was easier to get to Scott Godron's innocuous Glen Ellyn Toy & Card shop. Not very far from Wheaton, Illinois. Sold all sorts of stuff besides gift cards. Did a bunch of hobby things which I guess was part of the "Toy" name. In the back of the shop, carried Estes kits and motors. Mr. Godron sponsored the Glen Ellyn Rocketry Club back in the day in the 60's of which I was a member and an earlier member of NAR. Got the NAR number #11583. Later I'm told the club became NIRA. Though I think Mr. Godron might have been retired/dead by then. He was "old as the hills" when I was a kid.
No HPR back then. Had monthly meetings in the basement meeting room of the Glen Ellyn Savings and Loan building and flew out of North Park in Glen Ellyn. Showed 16mm NASA films of the early days of rocketry as part of the meetings that captivated me.
I remember a guy with a boost glider that landed on the grounds of the sewage treatment plant during a club launch. It didn't land in a settling pond mind you but just inside the fence on the grass. My Dad used to design septic systems in the 50's and was a "Registered Sanitarian" (whatever that is) I asked him if he knew anybody who could get inside there and pickup the rocket. He smiled and said, "I know a lot of people." Well he called and someone from the water department picked up the rocket and my Dad had a pickup and delivery service for his blueprint shop go get it. Diverted the driver one time when he was in the area and he picked up the rocket. It got back to me and I think it was an Estes Falcon or a clone thereof. I only knew the flier from what he looked like and he attended the meetings regularly. Was a little older than me but when I presented his boost glider back to him before a meeting started, boy did his face light up! I was only 11 or 12, am 65 now. The workmanship on the glider was immaculate as I recall. It landed nominally inside the fence of the sewage treatment plant and was perfectly flyable again.
I think there was a NAR sponsored launch one time in Glen Ellyn at South Park and the local T.V. station WBKB now WLS channel 7 sent a team to video record it for the nightly news. There was a shot of me in a crowd looking up in the air at a flying rocket. Boy did that make me glad at that time. I was on T.V. even for a few seconds. Kurt
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I have a good number of these as well, just as in your photo, and also a LOT of individual flashbulbs. They were essentially the best technology in the 90s for cluster ignition. They also did well for single motor ignition. I'll also keep them in memory of Bob.
Your post brought back long-ago memories of Robby, whom I always called Bob. We became well-acquainted friends in the early 90s at the then Team 1 launches at Three Oaks MI. He had such a huge heart for we rocketeers, and often I'd have to argue (not physical or loud!) to get him to take my money for things that I wanted to buy from him, and he wanted to give them to me. He knew that as a Canadian, and with the monetary exchange rate during those times, it was costing me twice his asking price for his things, and he felt badly for me for that reason. I miss him...
I have a packet of AG-1 bulbs sitting in a drawer. That is where they will stay. Ematches are so much better. Christmas tree bulbs and flashbulbs are historical items for me now.
Man O.T.T. I forgot about Christmas tree bulbs! Holee shoot! Trying to break the glass to get at the filament was not for me! Besides, the filament could be dorked by acceleration. I remember reading a blurb about using them for deployments but thought that would a a roll of the dice! Agree Ematches are way so much better now.
Kurt
I used to sand the end of the bulb with a belt sander till I got a hole in it. You also had to be careful as some had a shorting link that shorted the bulb out if the filament broke.
I also used grain-of-wheat bulbs for a short time. Easier than Xmas tree lamps.
I used Xmas bulbs for deployment for a while. I would break the bulbs and then use a tweezers to pull the shorting link out. That was usually two or three wraps of wire around the base of the filament holding wires. I then ohmed each one and throw out the ones with open filaments, about 25%. I then rolled heavy paper round two bulbs to make the powder tube and hot glued the bulbs in one end. Ohmed them out again and threw away any where both bulbs didn't have the filaments working. From there I soldered on a wires to put the bulbs in parallel. When I added powder, I folded the paper tube down and taped it. I always Ohmed it again just before connecting to the HiAlt45.
I never had deployment failures with those charges. With the time and work involved prepping them, I soon moved to just an ematch and powder in the middle of a piece of duct tape folded up around it all. That worked well when I did a couple 80G flights with I1299N motors. I'm not sure the xmas tree bulbs, even the redundant ones I used, would have held up to that.
jimzcatz
Boss, Carolina Rocket Mafia
Isn't the diameter too big to go inside a motor?
jimzcatz
Boss, Carolina Rocket Mafia
1" masking tape around bottom of the motor, I pour 4f bp into the nozzle and pinch tape around flashbulbs. Works every time.
Ahhh, learned something new today, thanks.
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