Remote Electronic Ignition System

Setting of pyrotechnics with fuses was getting too old school, so I decided to make a remote electronic ignition system. This system uses electronic fuses made with christmas tree lights. Rather than make the wireless comms myself (and I was rather young when I made this, I probably wouldn’t of known how to do that back then), I hacked an RC car unit. Instead of the throttle normally turning on the motor of the RC car, I made the circuit turn on a relay to dump current into the electronic fuse. O.K., so the comms aren’t that secure (another RC operating could set it off, as could stray interference), but it was good enough for me.

The guts of the RC car was placed in the main box, which then connected to the electronic igniter through a suitably long length of sacrificial wire so that the electronics didn’t get damaged during the explosion.

The control box featured an on/off switch, a remote switch (to enable/disable firing from the remote controller, incase it was safe enough to set-off while being next to the control box), an arm key switch, and a manual fire button (as a ‘missile switch’) if not using the remote controller.

The control box ran of a 12V battery (I normally used a sealed lead acid so that I didn’t risk not giving the electronic igniter enough current).

I made this along time before I wrote about the project, so sadly I can’t give that much more detailed info on it.

Check out the photos below…