New Estes STARTECH Starters reliability?

[markg]

I'm prepping for a launch next weekend by augmenting the old clear igniters with Aleene's Tacky Glue + BP. In pic below, I've got augmented igniter, naked 'clear' igniter and new STARTECH starter. The newest motor pack I bought has these new starters in it, and this will be my first use with them.

I'm wondering if I need to bother augmenting these new ones or if they are reliable enough in their stock format?

 

[mh9162013]

I can't directly address your concerns, but I can say this: once I figured out how to properly seat the starter in the Estes BP engines, I've never had an issue, whether it's an igniter that's got that semi-clear tip, grey tip or black tip.

 

[Art Upton]

I'm prepping for a launch next weekend by augmenting the old clear igniters with Aleene's Tacky Glue + BP. In pic below, I've got augmented igniter, naked 'clear' igniter and new STARTECH starter. The newest motor pack I bought has these new starters in it, and this will be my first use with them.

I'm wondering if I need to bother augmenting these new ones or if they are reliable enough in their stock format?
View attachment 581799

Used correctly the Star Tech will be just fine , no need to do anything with it like you need to with the clear ones.

 

[Back_at_it]

I've only used three of them in their stock form. I am so accustomed to dipping my ignitors in silver paint that I do it out of habit. I don't even look at the igniters when they come out of the pack. They immediately get dipped in Testors Silver paint and left to dry for a day. I've had one failure with my dipped igniters in well over 100 launches.

 

[Antares JS]

What the augmentation really does is make it so that you don't have to be overly precise with your igniter placement. The white tipped igniters get some use out of augmentation, but for the new gray-tipped igniters, the new pyrogen gives you sufficient leeway for sloppiness that I have never felt the need to augment them.

 

[Rob Campbell]

I used about 30 of them helping elementary school students launch their rockets. Only three failed out of 30 launches. That's excellent reliability.

 

[bjphoenix]

I used about 30 of them helping elementary school students launch their rockets. Only three failed out of 30 launches. That's excellent reliability.

I think I had that much or better reliability with the white ones. I don't recall any failures from the new ones. If it's easy enough to do I don't think there is any harm in augmenting them.

 

[dvdsnyd]

I've never augmented any Estes igniters. Been flying them for 25 years. Easily less than 5% failure rates. That's with small kids now. As long as you have the nozzle up, and place the igniter in the nozzle so it bottoms out. THEN, and only then push the plastic keeper in and let it bend the leads of the igniter as it's inserted.

 

[mh9162013]

I've never augmented any Estes igniters. Been flying them for 25 years. Easily less than 5% failure rates. That's with small kids now. As long as you have the nozzle up, and place the igniter in the nozzle so it bottoms out. THEN, and only then push the plastic keeper in and let it bend the leads of the igniter as it's inserted.

You're leaving out a VERY critical step. Before pushing in the plastic plug, you have the make sure the wires are far enough apart so that when you push in the plastic plug, it doesn't force the two wires together.

I normally pull apart the wires, just below the tip, so they look slightly "bow-legged." Then, when I push in the plug, I make sure it's pushing apart the two wires. Here's a great video demonstrating this.

Until I learned the above trick, I probably had a launch ignition success rate of less than 10%. And that's why I became a BAR, instead of a RFL (rocketeer for life). In other words, I originally quit the hobby because of the piss poor Estes instructions.

 

[Sooner Boomer]

I've also noticed something at big launches. I don't want to name and shame (because we might do it, too). The clips are sometime very dirty from all the use they get. Additionally, some sites use really heavy leads going to the clips, which tend to make it hard to position the clips (or pull the plug/ignitor out). What I've learned to do is to pick up a piece of wire, like is used for high power motors, and twist a piece to each lead on the Estes ignitor. Then you can clip the other ends to the alligator clips and wrap the leads around the clips a couple of times.

 

[dvdsnyd]

You're leaving out a VERY critical step. Before pushing in the plastic plug, you have the make sure the wires are far enough apart so that when you push in the plastic plug, it doesn't force the two wires together.

I normally pull apart the wires, just below the tip, so they look slightly "bow-legged." Then, when I push in the plug, I make sure it's pushing apart the two wires. Here's a great video demonstrating this.

Until I learned the above trick, I probably had a launch ignition success rate of less than 10%. And that's why I became a BAR, instead of a RFL (rocketeer for life). In other words, I originally quit the hobby because of the piss poor Estes instructions.

I'll be honest, I don't do spread the leads apart like you talk about. However, I have seen this being the likely culprit of a misfire, especially if the rocket wasn't handled very carefully. I may have to give it a try.

Here's a good video showing how to spread the leads apart near the pyrogen and install an igniter. I generally don't pre bend the before inserting the plastic plug, but one can do that as shown. I believe this video was done by @James Duffy

 

[bjphoenix]

I'll be honest, I don't do spread the leads apart like you talk about.

I've not done that either. I would think that bending the wires around would risk damaging the bridge wire. My igniters come out of the package with the wires fairly parallel and sufficiently far apart. I hold the motor in my hand with the nozzle pointing up, drop the igniter in and put my first finger on the tips of one or both of the leads to push the igniter against the fuel grain. Then I put the plastic plug in with the other hand and push it in. The 2 wires seem to stay the same distance apart. I don't recall ever having a problem with wires touching inside the nozzle.
I've also gotten into doing the "bunny ear" trick with the igniter leads to help with contact with the big alligator clips that we use although if I was careful when I put the clips on they would work well enough with straight igniter leads.
I've had one or two failures with the white igniters, I think it is a challenge for the burning bridge wire to burn through the white coating and ignite the fuel. I've had I think one failure where I think the bridge wire broke or was broken. I'm not in the habit of checking continuity like I should.
If I had more problems I would be augmenting igniters. However even with the success rate I've had I wouldn't want to attempt a cluster of more than 2 motors.

 

[dpower]

StarTech (2303) for me has been far better than the Solar Starter (2302), but not as reliable as original Solar Igniters (2301). The only failure I've had with StarTech is sometimes the bridge wire burns so fast the energetic tip doesn't get started. I do use a 12v system, though with that same system, I rarely have this failure mode with Solar Igniters.