From the Launch Pad of...

Red crumbly "Solar" igniters tend to break apart at the bridge wire. The pyrogen corroded - possibly in combination with moisture from the air and the iron in the heavy wires that lead up to the bridge.

If you're launching without time constraints, try them out. If they fail, use some nichrome wire (I wonder who's selling that these days???) or other igniters. Continuity tests before and after installation in the motor are always a good idea with old igniters.

The BOFP must have 1/2A6-2 motors, A8-3, B6-4 and C6-5. They later switched to A8-3, B6-4, C6-5 and C6-7. Fnally (with the coming of the heavy plastic rockets and a suggestion letter from me after seeing too many people crash rockets) they switched the C6-7 motors for C6-3 motors.

The Big Foot was great - only flaw was the internal battery contacts not being springs or heat treated. They bent flat and lost contact too easily.

-Fred Shecter NAR 20117

Ugghhhh....I always had that problem, even with *fresh* ones.

Very nice design, and stable. But that battery configuration! Quite annoying to have a rocket set up, and wired up...only to find you need to "jiggle" the batteries back into contact....

I've used nichrome matchhead igniters exclusively for 12 years now and never had one fail, I got a roll for $6 at an online surplus shop, and lots left.

Matchheads spit out while still burning and are a serious fire hazard (unless you launch on a dry lake bed or a concrete pad).

Bare nichrome with a loop at the tip is almost 100% sucessful with good clips and a good battery.

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MAJOR cool, Tod! Is your monitor green? Mine is ; )

I'd think the red is rust, I've had quite a few do that still sealed in the package, I assume from humidity packed in at the factory.

Nice find!

Randy

Out of the hundreds, and hundreds of flights I've had with Solar ignitors, I'll bet I've had less than 10 misfires. Plus, since as of late I've been tending toward multistage flights, I've got oodles of spare Solars lying around.

I'll keep that nichrome in mind, though, Fred...

tah

LOL! Wow, being the quntessential non-conformist, my first monitor (for my PC XT-286) was an Amdek amber colored one....

Always have to be a little different...

Well, after a closer look, you're partially right. The pyrogen is most definitely a brownish-red, but there *is* what appears to be rust coming down the leads from the bridgewire... funny, I don't remember those... The Astron ignitors, yeah, but I can't seem to remember when those were superceded...

The reddish ones are in white baggies with a fluorescent pink label, while the black ones are in grey baggies with a black/orange label... both the same part number...

I'll have to pop off a few in a test, and see what they do...

tah

Double drop-stage clusters and have sagans of them.

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I still use the ones that appear rusted as you describe, BUT only with a single engine rocket. I get really picky when it comes to clustering. Sometimes while installing an igniter that's seemingly perfect, if it doesn't "feel right" when the plug seats, I remove it and toss it in my maybe compartment.

Randy

Not like the rockets exhaust is a fire hazard ;)

Ironically it is low.

The rocket is propelled directly into the air rapidly and part of fire ignition and spread factors are temperature vs time.

That's why you can wave your finger through a candle flame.

Keep it moving! Be the rocket :)

No. The rocket exhaust does not hit the ground. there is a deflector. Chunks of flaming bits do not hit the ground.

If you have match heads in your igniter, the match head will still be a flaming chunk as it is spit out of the nozzle and it will be able to start a ground fire.

Hey Jerry I'll drag out my test stand and light a motor so you can prove this is true with rocket motors.