Cheap and dirty igniter testing

[wwattles]

I've got some home-dipped igniters (Igniterman brand) and I'm looking to do some home testing. My launch site typically uses car batteries with relay control, so that's not a worry.

For home bench-testing, however, how much battery power do I really need? The kit says to use a 12V source, but should 2 6V lantern batteries in parallel do it, or even 2 9V Alkaline in parallel?

I'd rather not go out and spend the money on a huge car battery just for testing a handful of igniters, but I don't want to have to wait until launch day to test them only to discover they aren't going to work.

WW

 

[Stymye]

mabey work your way up ,, see if a 9v will do it

I tested some a couple weeks ago starting with an electron beam
the electron beam took a second or two to ignite one.
the 9v went right away , do you have a car nearby?

 

[limd21]

If 12v is your target goal, then two 6-volt lantern batteries in *series* (pos-neg-pos-neg), not parallel, will give you a good 12volt source. 9v batteries are pretty puny, current wise, so I wouldn't suggest that. If you can string together 8 D-cell alkalines, that'll do pretty good too. Is there a cordless drill around? Most of those have packs that are in the 12-18v range, and that's what I use to launch.