E-match and other electronics help

[G2Rockets]

I need a little help deciding what products to use for my dual deploy.
1. What is a good supplier of Electric matches?
2. What is the criteria for Match selection?
3. Where can I get a very small switch?
Thanks
John

 

[SSenesy]

John;

I'm sure there are many great vendors out there, but my personal experience has been with Quickburst for my ematch and igniter needs. I have been very satisfied with their products and quality of service. You will need a LEUP however.

I generally look to see if someone has used/tested a particular ematch in my altimeter. I always test on the ground to make sure that the altimeter can fire the match and that the charge is sufficient to deploy the laundry.

I get a lot of my electronic parts from Aerocon (www.aeroconsystems.com). They have a number of different types of switches (and the cool 'remove before flight' tags).

Best of luck with your dual deploy.

 

[Handeman]

As SSenesy said, Quickburst is a good source. If you don't have the LEUP you may need to buy the parts and assemble them yourself. You can also make them yourself. You can use the xmas tree bulbs method, which has been 100% successful for me, or make your own ematches with a small 42 - 44 ga Nichrome wire bridge about 1/16 long between two wires. A search of this and other forums will come up with more methods.

The bottom line is, what ever method or type of charge you decide to use, test, test, test, and test some more. I found that with homemade ematches I could fire 2 at a time and fire more then 40 of them before the voltage on the 9VDC battery running my HiAlt45 dropped 0.1 volts. I had 100% success rate firing the ematches. The same ematches used on a MAWD with it's capacitive discharge only fired 50% of the time. TEST, TEST, and TEST!

Good luck and have fun.

 

[ben_ullman]

I use nothing but commercial Ematches and all of them from MJG. www.electricmatch.com

Ben

 

[r1dermon]

i can vouch for MJG...they're fantastic, super high success rate and extremely consistent.

 

[Mike Di Venti]

I use J-teks from MJG in all of my altimeters.
Perfect Flight MAWD, Hi-Alt 45, Minitimer,
ARTS 1 &2,

You do need a LEUP and storage though.

 

[new2hpr]

Try your altimeter with the Quest Q2-G2. You'll need to stretch the leads a bit, but that's pretty easy. If it works ok, as it does with most, you don't need to bother with the LEUP.

-Ken

 

[Pantherjon]

Or you could always use Christmas light bulbs.. It's what I use for all my ejection charges..Well, then plus a couple of grams of BP..

 

[Adrian A]

1: Quest Q2G2 ignitor is my favorite
2. Compatibility with your battery/altimeter, reliability, availability, and cost/ease of acquisition. The Quest ignitors are very sensitive, so they work with all batteries used in rocketry, including tiny single-cell Li-poly batteries, fresh A23 12V batteries, 9V, etc. They may be compatible with capacitive-discharge altimeters like the MAWD but I'm not sure about that. They're much more robust than the Estes ignitors, and available for less than $1 each without a LEUP. An easy choice, in my opinion.
3. The smallest switch I know of, very simple and reliable, can be found here: https://www.featherweightaltimeters.com/Av-Bay_Components.php

 

[sylvie369]

One of our club members has ground tested Q2G2s with the MAWD, successfully. I haven't flown them myself, and I'd certainly suggest ground testing on your own setup, but I think you can expect that they will work with the MAWD.

 

[Crazyrocket]

Adrian, how do you extend the leads on the quest igniters. Do you solder them or do you used some sort of connection? Thanks.

 

[Adrian A]

Adrian, how do you extend the leads on the quest igniters. Do you solder them or do you used some sort of connection? Thanks.

With the av-bay setups I use, the only time I need to extend the leads is for an airstart. You can extend the leads by twisting some stripped wire onto the stripped ends of the ignitor, folding over the twisted part, and then taping around each wire to prevent shorts. I like to fold over the twisted part of the two wires in opposite directions so that the lumpy part is more spread out. With a good twist, soldering is optional, but adds a bit more reliability.

 

[rocketsmith]

1: Quest Q2G2 ignitor is my favorite
2. Compatibility with your battery/altimeter, reliability, availability, and cost/ease of acquisition. The Quest ignitors are very sensitive, so they work with all batteries used in rocketry, including tiny single-cell Li-poly batteries, fresh A23 12V batteries, 9V, etc. They may be compatible with capacitive-discharge altimeters like the MAWD but I'm not sure about that. They're much more robust than the Estes ignitors, and available for less than $1 each without a LEUP. An easy choice, in my opinion.
3. The smallest switch I know of, very simple and reliable, can be found here: https://www.featherweightaltimeters.com/Av-Bay_Components.php

Aerocon Systems sells screw switches that are even smaller.

 

[Adrian A]

Aerocon Systems sells screw switches that are even smaller.

I'm sure the Aerocon switches are a fine product (and $1.33 cheaper, too), but looking at the dimensions on their site (.312" diameter and 0.462" deep), it's not obvious to me that they are smaller, since the shapes are pretty different. The featherweight switches are .21" wide x .7" long by .23" deep, and weigh 0.66 grams each. Most of the length is the "ears" with mounting holes which allow a solder-free installation. In the places in my av-bays where I have Featherweight switches installed, the Aerocon ones would not fit. It's possible there could be av-bay configurations where the Aerocon ones fit and the Featherweight ones don't, but I haven't seen an example of that.

 

[jderimig]

The Aerocon switches are not as robust as the Featherweight sites.

The have two pins that are molded in plastic which is electrically connected with a pan head screw. A failure mode is the pins can be pressed further into the plastic eventually causing questionable contact with the screw.