Don't blow your fingers off with this PIC idea

[bartman]

Stop being a party pooper! :-)

I'm not planning on putting on any shows outside of my own yard in a rural area. This is just a fun little device to think about.

The only long wire is the one from the CD player to the controller. The controller would only be a couple feet away from the fireworks. Emergency off is stopping the CD I think. No tone going to the controller.

I actually think it is safer this way than someone standing within 10 feet lighting fuses one by one or getting bold and trying to light 3 or 4 at once and having one go off in their face. This system has everyone 100 feet away or more.

Bart

[Madscientist]

If you are looking for a way of decoding touch tones, I suggest using the 8870 chip available from BG micro in Texas. It is a very simple to use 18 pin DIP chip and converts touch tones from a telephone or receiving radio into a 4 bit binary code. I use it for remote control projects. It works flawlessly every time! It only needs about 5 extra components such as resistors, a crystal oscillator and a few capacitors. Speaking of which, I need help on another project. Please see my posted question I left on 7-15-2006 under the user name "Madscientist". I am brand new to this site.

Darren

[bartman]

Testing of remote igniton was a success. A model rocket igniter easily sparks a fuse using 4 AA batteries and 20 feet of wire.

The next step in fuse regard is making repeat and reliable connections between the igniter and the fuse itself.

A little Google search finds that I am not so crazy after all. I've found sites where people are making fuses and gadgets to both hold and lauch various consumer fireworks. I haven't found anyone using a computer and PIC controller to make it all automated, but many manual controllers are out there.

Anyone else have any ideas on possible components? I'm thinking now that 16 lines is not enough. Thirty-two would be more reasonable for a good show. Also, one line may need to ignite 5 or 6 fuses at once so the current needs to be enough on those lines not to fry the contoller, but send enough juice down the wire to spark all those fuses at once.

An ability to link 16 line system together may be a better solution. In this case using different tones to talk to each 16 line system might work well.

Bart

[mister_e]

Relays or MOSFET could be a good choice to drive the igniter. Look at your local part supplier if you could find some overstock relay. I found some in here 10Amp rated, 5V coils for less than 2$.

32 outputs... why not. Many 40Pins device gives you 33 i/o. 1 left for the audio input... just perfect. OR, using a smaller one with an i/o expander... in this case you don't just add extra part... but also a little bit of delay... but few ms will never ruine the show. In another hand, if one day you decide to add other outputs, you just need to add extra i/o expander.

Let's say a PCF8574, give you 8 i/o and you can use 8 of them on the same I2C bus... 64 outputs.. not bad.

A pic 12F would do the job, leaving few i/o for audio and stuff.