Can a "pyrotechnic" explosive be set off using model rocket electronic igniter?

JoeB · #1 (**permalink**) 09-27-2009, 04:49 PM

Please discuss, I am curious as to whether model rocket launch controllers such as the one below can be used to rig or be used as a makeshift charge or booster by using their current? Personally I doubt it but questioned whether it was similar to a RF charge. I was just wondering. Thanks.

X-ray Cat · #2 (**permalink**) 09-28-2009, 08:52 AM

Nah, need to go supersonic my bro. Pretty sure you haven't got a primary explosive in there.

spunone69 · #3 (**permalink**) 09-28-2009, 03:25 PM

If you have the other part of the system, called a "solar igniter" then it will work, but I Prefer the remote detonation systems at pyrocreations.com, they are used for fireworks displays, and they aren't really expensive at all!

JoeB · #4 (**permalink**) 09-29-2009, 06:19 PM

Thanks for the help. I have experience in delayed detonation, anyone know very much about remote detonation? I can make using cell phone but it is hard to find old phones that still work as most old phones at cell companies are broken in the first place. Other than that, a digital clock I can use but that is still just a delayed detonation. Anyone have experience they could enlighten unto me?

X-ray Cat · #5 (**permalink**) 09-29-2009, 06:42 PM

Hang on you guys. Are you talking about delayed "detonation" in model rockets and firework displays?? If so I think you're horribly mistaking. Doing a detonation inside your model rocket or firework mortar will make it go BOOM and blast the fuck out of your rocket/mortar. It won't light and it certainly won't fly, it'll just explode.

spunone69 · #6 (**permalink**) 09-29-2009, 08:01 PM

The kits they sell at pyrocreations are wireless ignition systems for fireworks displays. They have two kits, one has 150 ft. range, the other is 1000 ft. range. Check them out, they may be what you need...

spunone69 · #7 (**permalink**) 09-29-2009, 08:03 PM

The device shown in the first post is not "remote" or wireless in any way, the red/black wires in the upper right corner of the picture extend 100 feet to ignite the model rocket...nothing special or remote about it

X-ray Cat · #8 (**permalink**) 09-30-2009, 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spunone69

The kits they sell at pyrocreations are wireless ignition systems for fireworks displays. They have two kits, one has 150 ft. range, the other is 1000 ft. range. Check them out, they may be what you need...

These are indeed IGNITION systems.. NOT DETONATION systems.

spunone69 · #9 (**permalink**) 09-30-2009, 11:26 PM

Wire it to some sort of electronic blasting cap (Like an M-80 with a solar igniter in place of a fuse)...then it's a detonation system!!

X-ray Cat · #10 (**permalink**) 10-01-2009, 07:47 AM

No, it's not. M-80 is still a low-order explosive. This is NOT a detonation system.

If you wire it to a blasting cap, YES then it's an explosive.

JoeB · #11 (**permalink**) 10-02-2009, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by X-ray Cat

Hang on you guys. Are you talking about delayed "detonation" in model rockets and firework displays?? If so I think you're horribly mistaking. Doing a detonation inside your model rocket or firework mortar will make it go BOOM and blast the fuck out of your rocket/mortar. It won't light and it certainly won't fly, it'll just explode.

I was actually thinking about homemade concoction , nothing to do with the actual model rocket itself. In all reality , I will be using an explosive requiring a higher grade of detonation such as.. ANFO 200mL NM/HN03. But I am having trouble acquiring a cap. I don't think M-80 would be anywhere near the required detonation needed , way too low of a grade in my opinion. Any ideas for homemade detonation or another way of obtaining blast cap? Also I am having an incredibly hard time obtaining a pure grade form of nitric acid.. simple liquid fertilizer will not work? The only available chemicals without driving one hundred miles are either already water soluble or need to be mixed in dry form with water.. Is this crap even worth anything? No one seems to know what it is, even at our biggest agri-supply store in my city. Should I even ask if its possible to vaporize some of the H2O out?

X-ray Cat · #12 (**permalink**) 10-05-2009, 05:20 PM

Let me for once clear this out: Detonation refers to an explosive reaction that occurs with a speed (reactionfront propagation) higher than the speed of sound (343 m/s). Deflagration is an explosive reaction that goes slower than the speed of sound. It will still create a boom put it won't be a detonation. An M-80 deflagrates and does not detonate.
Substances that are capable of shifting between these two reactions (going from deflagration to detonation, hense called DDT, deflagration detonation transition) are called primary explosive. Secondary explosives do not do this. They are only capable of detonation and can only be put into a detonating state by receiving a "punch" from a nearby primary explosive that pushes it's supersonic reaction into the secondary explosive. If you put a deflagrating explosive charge into a secondary explosive charge, you won't get a detonation. In some cases though you'll get a big deflagration, and in other cases (for instance when you put an M-80 into an oil drum filled with ANFO) nothing will happen.

Forget that liquid fertilizer thing. Go read on nitric acid production in the nitric thread.