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View Full Version : Initiator vs e-match reliability?



schmidlapp
09-12-2022, 10:22 AM
I shoot only 2 or 3 shows a year, the biggest is a 20 minute 4th show on our lake. This is on a 24' pontoon converted to a "barge"
Completed display operator course in May,
I've now purchased a good quantity of AP product to use in next 4th show.
I've also been e firing my shows for the past few years. I have both MJG initiators and the Chinese e-matches that are supposed to be regulated but seem to be available pretty much anywhere. My question is is there a reliability difference between the 2?
In the past I did a lot of poking, looking forward to connecting to ports.
The only ignition issues I've experienced is when trying to light a fuse directly from the initiator. I usually do about a 2 minute finale and much of it is in 30 second segments using quick fuse.
I have used the plastic fuse connectors and have had a couple failures. I'm pretty anal about cutting the fuse at an angle and making sure its inserted properly I'm the initiator/match shroud. I'm shooting for 100 % in my planning even to the point of having segments "cross fused" to give me multiple points of ignition.
I'm open to suggestions to hit that 100% goal.
Thanks in advance...

displayfireworks1
09-12-2022, 11:07 AM
It sounds like the errors you are getting are from the improvising techniques that are used to attach the match to the fuse. Try placing the match directly into the lift where the fuse goes in. As far as getting any electric match to light a long piece of Visco fuse used on a string of artillery shells , I add a piece of quick match to the Visco and then place the match into the small piece of quick match. Remember, some of these Consumer Fireworks do not always have the best quality fuse on them.
One of the display companies I work for moved to using all MJG Initiators because of the regulatory issues of using real E-Match. They seem to trust them on all of their displays.

BMoore
09-14-2022, 08:50 AM
I would say the initiator reliability is identical to MJG's regulated e-match which is regarded as one of the highest quality in the industry. One thing I've noticed is that the initiators seem to produce a little less spark for some reason. It still works fine, but might cause an issue with some of the initiator to visco techniques. I've been using initiators the last several years for both 1.4 and 1.3 since there are no storage issues and the shipping costs are much cheaper.