I've been drafted by an organization I belong to to take over our annual fireworks display in 9 days and have spent the last week or more trying to get it all together....

This thing is almost a professional event... $5,000 in consumer fireworks... They are assembled on a 8x14 ft barge and also another smaller one and set off in a lake... with a wireless system... I had no problem ordering the basic system off of Amazon... 36 channels but the wireless matches were confusing... I found a place in New Jersey that appeared to sell quality ones and I ordered from them and got a package of 80 in two days... but covering my basics I ordered some off of eBay... to be mailed to me here in S.C. this was on August 30th... it seems they sat in Ga until Sept 6th and are now in Los Angles...
In the mean time I found the company that makes the transmitter and receivers (Bilusocn.com) and they claim to have three warehouses here in the US ... I placed two separate orders with them on Sept. 3rd, both items they claimed were in stock here in the US... 6 more receivers and another pack of electric matches... well it seems the receivers are being shipped from main land china via DHL (last notice said they did make it through customs) the matches I checked with USPS tracking and a label has been printed but they have not been picked up 4 days later... in the mean time I've ordered another pack of the matches yesterday from the place in New Jersey MJG Tech and they will be here tomorrow, 2 days...

Have fun! I did that stuff in New Mexico for around 13 years. We did shows from the 5-25k range with up to 12" commercial-grade shells. Shows included Balloon Fiesta and other shows around the state.

It was only a 2nd/hobby job and didn't pay jack for LOTS of really hard work, so I 'retired' from it. The two rotator cuff tears from all the manual labor encouraged me, also.

Do you need a pyrotechnician license in SC? We didn't need one in NM.

Be careful with Chinese E-match; the quality can be all over the place. Towards the end, we tended to switch over to the Mexican made ones: https://electricmatch.com/

Even the larger Mexican made shells tended to be of better quality than the Chinese ones.

I have no idea what your experience or training level is, but I hope you have some with E-match! Improper use has gotten people setting up shows killed before.

I'll take what ever advise you can give I'm going to use the E-matches from the company you mentioned for the show... if either of the packs of Chinese ones show up I plan to just use those for test.

I had to write new instructions for the wireless system. The ones that came with it were written by someone in china who thinks they know English. I'll give you an example, heck... I'll do better here is the whole thing:



It is really sad that they did this... but here is the interesting part and I suppose some bragging. I sent them an email about how bad these instruction were and because I was buying the unit for my group and someone else might use it I spent the better part of a day writing new instructions. They are now going to use mine, for free, and are putting them in all their units... I'm pretty sure even in the ones in stock.

^^ That's hilarious (and sad), but the response you got was awesome.

One of the biggest no-no's for using ematch concerns the shroud- the plastic cup that covers the match head. Please do NOT ever retract the shroud and shove the bare ematch down into a fuse well or into a quick match tube. The match heads can be more friction sensitive than people realize, and they can ignite when being rubbed like that. Even if you install one like this gently, imagine if someone then tripped on the wire and ripped it out.

Plus, the quality of the construction and the composition of the pyrogen in the match head can be all over the place. From that company I linked to, we typically were using the J-Tek ones that had yellow wires. I think they may have been color coded to length, but I'm not 100%.



I've been actively discouraging LE bomb techs from using them like this. I have a section in one of my lectures on these and learn from many of the bomb techs that they've been pulling back the shrouds to use them for various shots because they were told that it would be "more reliable".

Good luck!

In the video from the company they actually show the fuse needs to be aproimwtly 1/4" away from the match head and then taped this way... I sent them an email and they said it was because of expanding gases .... but your explanation sounds much more reasonable... this helps a lot... I've actually written a specific sequence for setting this all up... which I think is the safest method... but I'm going to study on it some more.

Don't forget the most important step: "Hold my beer."

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
In the video from the company they actually show the fuse needs to be aproimwtly 1/4" away from the match head and then taped this way... I sent them an email and they said it was because of expanding gases .... but your explanation sounds much more reasonable... this helps a lot... I've actually written a specific sequence for setting this all up... which I think is the safest method... but I'm going to study on it some more.

If I'm reading how you relayed their explanation correctly, it makes sense. It gives the flame time to build and shoot out of the end of the shroud. The shroud doesn't just protect the match from friction, it also helps to create a flame jet that has greater distance and velocity than just a bare ematch going off.

Many receptacles (called buckets) on commercial shells are made this way. If you look into the bucket, you can see the fuse or black match that leads to the shell's lift charge, but it is usually a small distance down into the paper sleeve. That way, it isn't in direct contact with the match or shroud.

Here's a shorty video showing one. If you looked down inside the plastic bucket, you won't always see the black match/fuse, but that doesn't matter with the directional function of the shroud.



The bucket is attached to the quickmatch lead, shown below. This one has both a bucket (for ematch) and a bare blackmatch lead (for hand fire). Quickmatch is just blackmatch covered in a paper sheathe. The paper provides enough confinement to the burning blackmatch (once the Ematch ignites it) to accelerate the velocity dramatically. This is what ties most commercial shells together.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
I'll take what ever advise you can give I'm going to use the E-matches from the company you mentioned for the show... if either of the packs of Chinese ones show up I plan to just use those for test.

I had to write new instructions for the wireless system. The ones that came with it were written by someone in china who thinks they know English. I'll give you an example, heck... I'll do better here is the whole thing:

It is really sad that they did this... but here is the interesting part and I suppose some bragging. I sent them an email about how bad these instruction were and because I was buying the unit for my group and someone else might use it I spent the better part of a day writing new instructions. They are now going to use mine, for free, and are putting them in all their units... I'm pretty sure even in the ones in stock.

It was most likely a literal Chinese to English translation using Google or MS Translate.

But the entire issue with all of this is that these Chinese companies are shipping direct and bypassing normal importation, distribution, and REGULATORY channels. Amazon is the biggest enabler of this. You have no idea if any of this stuff is safe, meets any kind of safety code, etc.

I had less than two weeks to get the electric matches and so while on line went to eBay 8/30 and ordered some of the cheap Chinese ones...
These sat in Georgia for 6 days waiting to be picked up by USPS? then it went to Los Angelous and now is back in Atlanta to be delivered next week to here in S.C.. In the mean time I ordered some of the semi-domestic ones, made in Mexico, and sold by a New Jersey Company ( MJG Tech, Electricmatch.com). Shipped the same day and arrived two days later... but during this time I also ordered some from the Chinese company that makes the transmitter and receivers... these sat also for several days before being shipped... they arrived yesterday with a second batch I had ordered from MJG again two days. I got way too many now... will use the cheap Chinese ones just to practice with and might even throw away now after I've learned about how they get here.

I would contract the work out to a professional outfit. They would know other required stuff like permits and arranging for a fire truck to be on standby.

I'm pushing for we stop doing the fireworks display and hire out the final festivities to one of these new drone display companies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G1KBu6H6BM&t=5s