Igniting a HPR Cluster

[new2hprParticipant]

I've always been concerned that the starter (ematch, igniter, or whatever) would open upon firing, like every Estes igniter I've used, so parallel is what I will continue to use.

As an EE, I have to question whoever wrote up the description that MikeS pasted in.  That would only be the case if one had a Constant Current source to fire the matches.  We use car batteries, which are a (relatively) constant voltage.

Example:

12 volt battery, 1 ohm ematches, 3 in parallel: each ematch has 12V across it, thus I=V/R=12/1=12Amps each

12 volt battery, 1 ohm ematches, 3 in series: voltage is across 3 ohms, so I=12/3=4Amps.

With standard igniters, more amps = go.  Ematches don't take much of either volts or amps, so a non-issue.  If ematches go short upon burning, series would be just fine, as Joe stated that's how he and the pyro crowd do it.  

I'm still 100% on cluster ignitions (as long as you exclude that launch that I didn't arm my timer!), so I'll keep doing what I'm doing until it no workie no more.

-Ken

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