Has anyone successfully used Firefox "Davey-clones"?

I bought some "Davey-clone" igniter chips, "Extra Low Voltage" non-conductive primer (black), and "Pyromag" pyrogen (reddish) from Firefox recently. Put together about 35 igniters, and can't get them to fire. They show continuity but won't ignite on a 9v battery. I soldered them correctly, used a thin coat of primer and a thicker coat of pyrogen.

Has anyone else used these, and gotten them to work? Is there some trick I'm missing here? (There was very little instruction included with the materials.)

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Reply to
raydunakin
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I've tried them, I could see the wire glow faintly and then burn through - but like you, I've never gotten the chips to actually ignite the pyrogen. I gave up, and bought the conductive pyrogen. All you need to do is strip the wires and put them parallel and close to each other, then dip in the conductive and then dip in something stronger like pyromag. Those work great, and are easier to make too. You can also adjust the resistance to suite your needs by changing the width of the gap and the length of the stripped section. I've got a pretty reliable way of making 8-10 ohm igniters that I use for clusters.

Reply to
David

resistance to

Unfortunately, I need low-current igniters that are reliable enough for staging.

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Reply to
raydunakin

wrote

Have you put any thought into making your own? I make a nice conductive primer that consistently lights on a single AA. And with 50gauge nichrome meal primer can get two to light of a single AA. I've never had a failure on a tested igniter.

-cat

Reply to
cat

Have you tried them with a PP3 or a '23A' 12v lighter battery? AA's are quite good for current, but people don't tend to use them as much as PP3's.

Be interesting to see anyway,

Reply to
Niall Oswald

Do you prep the "50gauge nichrome meal primer" yourself or buy it in that condition?

Reply to
Jerry Irvine

"Jerry Irvine" wrote

I had no idea that pre-primed material existed?

Actually what I was referring to is a NC meal primer dip. This would then be coated by a hot burning pyrogen. 50gauge will burn through pretty fast even with just a AA; without the primer it wouldn't light what I would consider a

*safe* pyrogen.

-cat

Reply to
cat

"Niall Oswald" wrote

If a pp3 is a normal 9 volt battery, yes both work well with them if it's fresh. I don't have a 23A (like this?

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it may work.. I have a 12Gel-cell at 20Ah and most of the time they will not light the nichrome, as it just bursts the wire before getting hot enough to light the meal. On the other hand it will almost always ignite the conductive primer. Again, design your primer/pyrogen for your needs.. I wouldn't change my battery/electronics I'll just play with the formula until I get something that works.

-cat

Reply to
cat

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