T Minus 6 Days

The heat is on. Focus must now be spread among a number of items on the to-do list, particularly anything needing testing / verification.

All bugs are worked out of the ignition panel. Instead of spending hours trying to figure out how the CAT5 dual receptacles mangle the electrical signals, they are yanked out and disposed of unceremoniously. Taking a closer look, the two jacks are tied in together on the internal PCB. Surprised I didn't see smoke in hindsight...

The jack is replaced with E-Z snap receptacles in both the jx box and the ignition panel. This has added $26 to the cost, almost doubling the original $60 budget, not to mention the painful waste of time.

The 20 speaker terminals ordered in were picked up yesterday afternoon; the salesperson asked "are they for fireworks". Interesting that others in the area not only build stuff like this, but obtain parts from the same supplier!

Attention is turned to creating the cue set slats, so more scrap wood is needed. 4 x 4 blocks will do the trick since they are reasonably heavy and will stand up to some mild abuse in the field. Five are cut to ~8" lengths.

Channels are routed out almost the full length of one side of each block. The channels will contain the cabling.

Diodes are soldered to the negative lead of each speaker jack. In a DC circuit diodes allow power to travel only one way (in the direction of the marking). In this case they will ensure the LEDs go out after each cue ignites, and better yet prevent leakage current from accidentally igniting other cues.

Each speaker terminal is installed in ascending order, keeping with the colour protocol on the RJ45 cable leading to the positive, and tying in to each diode with a single wire on the negative side.

Time to test when the first cue set slat is complete.

Testing goes well enough that four more slats will be built the same as the first, and the system will be ready for a full, 20-cue live field test this coming Saturday. I could not find the Predator e-clips at the local fireworks retail trailer, but they had Launch Kontrol ones that look very similar at the same price. These seem to work just as well.

The whole kit, minus four more 4-cue slats that must be made.

The final schematic, showing the changes in build drifting from original plan.

Apart from the upcoming field test, this will be all posting about the Schwartzvolcker before the big show. Barring some catastrophe, it will be charged up and ready to deliver a zap to the place I want when I want!

Tomorrow we'll turn our attention to loading up pallet racks and securing items prior to wiring.