Basic Ethernet Firing System

[SephYuyX]

Hey all,
Looking to dip my toes in to some remote firing, and thought i'd try to step it up a bit from a simple nail board, but not by much more.
No resistors or diodes, just a simple little system, but I want to make sure my little theory would work before going any further.

There are a few Ethernet firing systems out there, so I thought I would dumb those down a bit and make a cheap one. Using 24AWG UTP 8Wire Cat6 under 300ft should be fine with a 24V/3000mA battery.

Using the eight wires, I would make one a ground and run that to a selector to make one out of the four rails active at a time. Each of the seven push buttons would then be wired to one of the same color across all four rails. So button one would be all purple, and when pressing it, it would simply try to throw current down all four rails on the purple wire, but with the selector only on rail one, only channel one on rail one would fire as that is a complete circuit.

Make sense? It's a bit of a mess, but hopefully it came out sort of clear. I'm pretty sure I can get away with this without any sort of resistors or diodes, so this is super simple. My one concern is that can anyone see a chance of a missfire with this? With a common ground there shouldnt be any stray current going anywhere else, but idk. My EE is a bit rusty.

Also, I am curious if anyone knows the answer to this but, how do some of these pro ethernet systems get 12 channels on one rail with only eight wires?

Thanks, dont be too rough on me.

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=2892&stc=1

[Mattp]

Im totally not an expert on this.. and im not sure what you mean by an ethernet system.. do you mean that they use ethernet cable?? My recomemdation would be to forget about all that wire running and wires altogether.. and get yourself a wireless firing system.. not sure about your budget.. but they have great ones that are a little pricey..like 300$ and up.. but there are also ones out there that are super cheap and work pretty well for the price. Like 30$ and up

[Mattp]

Hey.. looks like that was your first post!!! Welcome to pyrotalk too!!!

[jamisonlm3]

Your system looks like one I'm planning. I plan on using Cat5, but be careful when sourcing it. You can buy solid/stranded copper and copper coated aluminum (CCA) Cat5 cable. Do not buy the copper coated aluminum cable.

My guess for how systems on the market can get 12 cues from eight wires is how they're arranged. Instead of single row or colum of indivdual circuits, they're arrianged in an array. Think of a spreadsheet where you can call a particuar cell with correct number and letter.

How many cues do you want? Do you want to be 300ft away when you shoot or just use a total of 300ft for the system? Your system looks like it would work to me. Try DigiKey's Schem-It. You have to be a member to save projects, but DigiKey is DigiKey and it doesn't cost you anything.

[SephYuyX]

Im totally not an expert on this.. and im not sure what you mean by an ethernet system.. do you mean that they use ethernet cable?? My recomemdation would be to forget about all that wire running and wires altogether.. and get yourself a wireless firing system.. not sure about your budget.. but they have great ones that are a little pricey..like 300$ and up.. but there are also ones out there that are super cheap and work pretty well for the price. Like 30$ and up

Hey.. looks like that was your first post!!! Welcome to pyrotalk too!!!

Thanks Matt!
PyroTek is an example of an ethernet system, and yes you would be right, it's just using ethernet for the wiring. There are a lot of inexpensive/cheap wireless systems out there, but my trust in wireless is meh at best, especially the cheap ones. The time and parts for this would be pretty cheap, so it would be a good first step in to this stuff.


Your system looks like one I'm planning. I plan on using Cat5, but be careful when sourcing it. You can buy solid/stranded copper and copper coated aluminum (CCA) Cat5 cable. Do not buy the copper coated aluminum cable.

My guess for how systems on the market can get 12 cues from eight wires is how they're arranged. Instead of single row or colum of indivdual circuits, they're arrianged in an array. Think of a spreadsheet where you can call a particuar cell with correct number and letter.

How many cues do you want? Do you want to be 300ft away when you shoot or just use a total of 300ft for the system? Your system looks like it would work to me. Try DigiKey's Schem-It. You have to be a member to save projects, but DigiKey is DigiKey and it doesn't cost you anything.

I figured there was a way to get more queues, but it's probably more effort than I care to put in. The 300ft would be just for one run, if need be, I dont think i'd ever need to be that far though lol. Are you planning to use any diodes? Another site had mentioned "current sneak paths" to where the current could trigger other matches. Thanks.

[jamisonlm3]

I figured there was a way to get more queues, but it's probably more effort than I care to put in. The 300ft would be just for one run, if need be, I dont think i'd ever need to be that far though lol. Are you planning to use any diodes? Another site had mentioned "current sneak paths" to where the current could trigger other matches. Thanks.I don't think it's more difficult. I think it's actually a bit cheaper. Thinking of it like a spreadsheet, you only need switches for your rows and colums. I do think if you want to have a switch and LED for each cue, you'd need to get into coding. That's beyond me.

For my system, I planned on using 4 100ft Cat5 cables for a total of 24 cues. 6 wires from each cable for cues and the last two for a common. I'd power it off of two 9v batteries. I don't plan on using diodes for my system since each cue will have it's own switch and be on it's own curcuit paralell to the others.

[Kenny East]

Most pro Ethernet systems are based on sending and receiving electrical signals at different frequency... Each cue would be programmed to fire when a specific frequency signal is received. A friend of mine wanted to build a system that used two raspberry Pi's, one to send and one to receive. Said he should be able to handle a crazy amount of cues... Only using 4 strand thermostat wire. 2 for power to the field pi and 2 for data transmission.
I'm not sure if he ever did get the system built... We kinda fell out of contact after he moved away.

Your system should work, as long as it is all wired the way it's laid out in the picture. Be prepared for the fact that that's going to be a lot of wires and it will be a mess while building and if you ever have to take it apart due to an issue... It's going to suck. I've built a few firing systems but never tried anything that complex, my 30 cue nail board uses 4 lengths of cat5 out to firing positions. It was simple but kinda a pain with all the striping and soldering my connections... It was fun, and a great way to pass time in the off season

[SephYuyX]

I had a duh moment. Someone suggested just using an off the shelf RJ45 selector (https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=1374&gclid=). This would reduce any sort of missfire on common return lines, and be pretty simple to use.
https://i.imgur.com/tr8SohP.png

[Kenny East]

Looks like a lot simpler way to go about it, fewer chances for a wiring mistake and would take away some of the chance for a misfire.

[displayfireworks1]

Before the import firing systems hit the market I remember they were many homemade firing systems. A few people tried to sell them. Now it just seem easier to buy a fireworks firing system. I'm curious , did you ever see the video I posted of the man that made this very large fireworks firing system? I was great and very organized. I heard he eventually purchase a Cobra system.

[Kenny East]

The analogue man in the digital world, his system was very nice for a home built system. I usually do most of my builds out of boredom, to pass time in the off season... Now I spend it making stars, building shells, and other fireworks projects.
I haven't taken the cobra plunge yet, I almost bought in the other day... Opted for more racks.. Next purchase may be a cobra