10-04-2007, 12:32 PM
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Launching since 1970.
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Southern California
Posts: 2,188
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by kurtschachner
Sorry, my point was subtle and only found if you read the document (or hear it from Vern which was my case). The Astron igniters have a thinned-down section under the pyrogen which localizes the heating area. Vern somewhere (NARCON??) discussed the machine that was made to create this thinned area.
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They were 30 ga with a thinned area and then sometime in the mid 1970's they stopped making them that way and switched to straight 31 guage with the pyrogen on it. They worked about as well, but the thin section was neat-o since it formed a nice bend easier.
I used them with a wadding ball crammed in (Proto-plug) with nearly 100% success rate in thousands of launches.
I now use bare nichrome wire with the loop formed around a straightened paper clip and hold them in with a plug and a small square of wadding to prevent melting of the plug. Again: nearly 100% success rate and far more reliable than the breakable standard igniters. I use a car battery most of the time, but they work fine with a 6 volt alkaline lantern battery, so if anyone has a Quest controller with a "EBC" give it a try. For clustering, hook up 2 lantern batteries in parallel for the same voltage and more amps. The Quest controller will handle 12 volts, so batteries in series will work as well. |