What?
Well, simply put, a smoke-cartridge launcher activated via LogicSwitch. Simple as that.
Why not just buy one?
Now, what would the fun be in that? :) Well, honestly there is a reason. I do not like to launch the smoke-cartridge with same power that is powering my receiver. After all, the smoke-ignition is done by shorting positive to negative to create heat to start the smoke. And the available solutions are expensive.
So I dug into my scrap-boxes and did this.
Schematic
Schematic is really simple, get the signal from LogicSwitch, operate a relay that activates the output-current from 1S LiPo. Output is routed via “Remove Before Flight”-plug to eliminate the risk of accidental smoking of pit-area. Idea is to take the plug out after carrying the heli to launch-area. I do like safety :)
How does it look like?
Ready unit looks like this, measurements are 50 x 38 x 20 mm so it’s not that big.
Connection to smoke-cartridge is with screw terminals. These are located so that the unit does not need to be removed from heli when replacing the used cartridge with new if I want to run several smoke-runs.
Size allows the unit to fit to the perfect place in my 800 Xxtreme:
So there you have it, literally smoking fun :) Now all I need to do is to make some sort of quick-release system to the actual smoke-cartridges.
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