Perfect Flight Mini Timer 3

[War Bird]

Does anyone have any experience with the Perfect Flight miniTimer3 digital staging/airstart/ejection timer? I've flown mine two times now with no luck getting airstart ignition. The last time was with two Davyfire M28F e-matches. Do they draw too much current for this timer? I'm thinking I may have a bad g-switch??? Could I test the g-switch by setting it up in a smaller rocket, arming it and perform a swing test. Would I get 2.1 G's in a swing test? Anyway, let me know if you guys have used one successfully.

Thanks

Kevin Trueblood

 

[AlexM]

I have the same thing. It is not a bad G-Switch. One problem may be a heavy slow moving rocket that is not pulling 2.1 g's for the required time. It sucks since you spent that extra 20 bucks on the g-switch, but you gotta go with a breakwire if that is the case. If not, is it facing the right way? It is labeled. I would use a breakwire for redundancyh anyway.

 

[War Bird]

Can I use a break wire with the g-switch installed? If the timer senses a closed circuit at start-up and the g-switch closes the circuit after 0.5 seconds...??? Have you done this with yours?

Thanks for the input

Kevin

 

[AlexM]

It should work fine. Just get some nichrome and wrap around the ends of the gswitch.

 

[Stymye]

mine has a G switch also , can you clarify about the nichrome trick? do you mean to short it out?

 

[AlexM]

THE G-Switch has two little contacts that are soldered to the circut board. What you do is tie the nichrome around those, and thie something to the nichrome, then tie that to the pad. When it takes off, it will open the circut, and the timer will activate. Make sure you test on the ground.

 

[Austin]

The Timer in question is very reliable and has been known to light three full blown Aerotech Firstfire HPR ignitors in parallel very consistantly. This timer is definitely worth the coin.

I use one exclusively in my HPR Tres upscale for staged ignition and also use it for nosecone deployment on the Cluster Bomb upscale. The unit is feature rich with the capability of using either "normally open" or "normally closed" breakwire switching or the use of a Gswitch. It autosenses which one you are using at the time...a really nice feature. The switch has worked flawlessly, even with a slower takeoff, so I don't see any issues there.

Carl

 

[War Bird]

Thanks for the comments guys,

Carl, what battery do you use to light 3 firstfires? I am using a NiCad rechargable high output Sanyo. I am still thinking I may have a bad G-switch??? I'll try the break wire next flight to find out.

Kevin

 

[Austin]

Same battery...the Sanyo Nicad 9volt that Perfectflite sells. I like the way it is constructed internally and Nicads are notorious for holding up well to high current applications. FYI, it did light 3 ignitors without a problem, bur we added a bit of insurance, using a 1000-5000uf cap to store some additional charge. It is the best single event timer for the money to date, imho.

Carl

 

[Manwithbeers]

I'd like to hear more about the charge storage set-up Carl.

 

[War Bird]

Hi Carl,

I would like to hear about the additional capacitor also. Did you just replace the existing one or add another?

Thanks

Kevin