"bit eimer" wrote in news:nU1Pa.72$OP.70@fed1read04:
Replying to your later message:
>
> No, there is nothing wrong with your idea per se. In fact, I believe
> that some of the commercially (garage-shop) available launchers use
> just this approach.
>
> Unfortunately, while this may work for sending the "launch" signal, it
> doesn't support additional communications (especially back from the
> pad), like "igniter shorted", "FET shorted", "igniter open", etc. >
> Also in my case, the controller will manage 8 pads/pad unit and "n"
> pad units, so the 2-3 channels you mention would be insufficient. >
I don't know how complicated you want to make this, but you could use a microcontroller at each end - something like a PIC
formatting link
or a Rabbit2000 based system, and use an 802.11 communications link (wireless ethernet). Most of this stuff is plug-n-chug, but is not the cheapest way to go , and does require some computer/electronics savvy. The advantage is that you could make it almost endlessly expandable, you could have all sorts of status signals, and it could be made jam-proof.