[martyn]

digger, on 07 November 2011 - 09:03 PM, said:

.... Hope to have a video of our display this year (about 1 tonne of pyro, 600 ish mortars etc), when I get a copy of some video from some friends that filmed it.

It was the first outing of my new home brew firing system, which was developed and built in the two weeks before bonfire night. That was hard work. I may even share the code for it and the circuit board designs so you guys out there can make cheap pro systems (after a thorough shake down)

Any progress on either of these (video and circuit) yet Gareth.
Itching to see both.
Hope all is well.

[digger]

Yep sorry for the lack off comms, it may be intermittent for a while too. I approached burn out toward the end of the year with everything going on (not just the pyro stuff, had to actually do some work as well). I had to have a holiday (well forced to go to a desert island where I could not do anything other than relax (read drink)).

The systems are progressing nicely at the mo. The original version I built for Nov 5th has now been superceded and development has moved on to the next level.

I hope to produce a number of systems ranging from basic to all singing and dancing touchscreen units. The core communication protocol will be based on MODBUS (would have used PROFIBUS but they want too much money to join the club).

The beauty is it's an open standard that anyone can get access to for programming given the memory address structure of the units.

I hope to have pre production units available sometime after April. I hope to offer a solder it yourself kit with professionally made circuit boards for the hobbyist (including pre programmed CPU), it will clearly have some limitations to differentiate it from the production units. However it will work with the same communication protocols and be completely compatible with all other systems we will produce and have no in built cue limitations (other than a basic address limitation of 1.3 million cues ish).

The issue for us is the PC software as we do not have time to do everything. Currently we are just driving and programming the system from microsoft excel because it is easy and quick. We have some basic ideas on this front but no firm commitments.

So watch this space, well not too closely as it will still be a while.

D

This post has been edited by digger: 05 January 2012 - 12:00 AM

[martyn]

Thanks for the update.
And when you've done all that, if you could just knock up a cheap version of the WASP (the GASP) that'd be geat!!!!! :-)

digger, on 04 January 2012 - 11:59 PM, said:

Yep sorry for the lack off comms, it may be intermittent for a while too. I approached burn out toward the end of the year with everything going on (not just the pyro stuff, had to actually do some work as well). I had to have a holiday (well forced to go to a desert island where I could not do anything other than relax (read drink)).

The systems are progressing nicely at the mo. The original version I built for Nov 5th has now been superceded and development has moved on to the next level.

I hope to produce a number of systems ranging from basic to all singing and dancing touchscreen units. The core communication protocol will be based on MODBUS (would have used PROFIBUS but they want too much money to join the club).

The beauty is it's an open standard that anyone can get access to for programming given the memory address structure of the units.

I hope to have pre production units available sometime after April. I hope to offer a solder it yourself kit with professionally made circuit boards for the hobbyist (including pre programmed CPU), it will clearly have some limitations to differentiate it from the production units. However it will work with the same communication protocols and be completely compatible with all other systems we will produce and have no in built cue limitations (other than a basic address limitation of 1.3 million cues ish).

The issue for us is the PC software as we do not have time to do everything. Currently we are just driving and programming the system from microsoft excel because it is easy and quick. We have some basic ideas on this front but no firm commitments.

So watch this space, well not too closely as it will still be a while.

D