Post-show e-fire failure troubleshooting

[CozmicRooster]

I had 3 fused racks that were supposed to be wired in series, but in my haste what I ended up doing is wiring the 2nd and 3rd racks in parallel then wiring them in series with the 1st rack (see pics). The first initiator fired but the other 2 did not.

I?m thinking there are 2 possible scenarios here:
1. The combination of series/parallel on the same circuit caused the firing anomaly
2. The paralleled wires ended up touching causing a short to the other 2 racks and only firing the 1st

I didn?t notice that they were touching but that seems to be the most likely explanation to me. I wanted to get some feedback from the more experienced electronic firing crowd though about how different circuit configuration can affect firing reliability. I would think that all initiators should have fired even with the series parallel combination.

Firetek 16x64
MJG FireWire (primary was 10ft and the secondaries were 3ft)
All other initiators fired, including several 5-shots in series and 2-shots in parallel


http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5830&stc=1
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5831&stc=1

[ssmith512]

My guess, guess only, is it happens sometimes in series circuits. A match in a series circuit will go off so fast that it interrupts the circuit and the remaining matches down the line do not get enough current, long enough to ignite. I dont think it particularly has anything to do with you combining a series and parallel circuit.