Collaborate Disseminate
If you’re worried that [Roman Dvořák]’s spectroscopic analysis of fireworks is going to ruin New Year’s Eve or the Fourth of July, relax — the science of this build only …read more Continue reading Seeing Fireworks in a Different Light
Maybe you do it out of respect for the dogs and parents of young children in the neighborhood. Or maybe you do it because they’re harmful to the environment, or …read more Continue reading 1D Fireworks Are Nice and Quiet
If you have multiple microphones in known locations, and can determine the time a sound arrives at each one, you can actually determine the location that sound is coming from. …read more Continue reading Localizing Fireworks Launches With A Raspberry Pi
Good news this week from Mars, where Ingenuity finally managed to check in with its controllers after a long silence. The plucky helicopter went silent just after nailing the landing …read more Continue reading Hackaday Links: July 9, 2023
The LAPD seized 5,000 pounds of illegal fireworks for routine disposal. The subsequent explosion destroyed homes and sent residents to the hospital. Continue reading The LAPD Exploded a Stash of Illegal Fireworks in the Middle of the City
It’s that time of year again in the United States, and the skies will soon be alight with pyrotechnic displays, both professional and amateur. Amazing fireworks are freely available, sometimes legally, sometimes not. For the enthusiasts that put on homebrew displays, though, the choice between watching your handiwork or paying attention to what you’re doing while running the show is a tough one. This Raspberry Pi fireworks show controller aims to fix that problem.
[netmagi] claims his yearly display is a modest affair, but this controller can address 24 channels, which would be a pretty big show in any neighborhood. …read more
Continue reading Launching Fireworks with Raspberry Pi this Fourth of July
How’s about a blitzed butt, a beachfront assault, and a lost-and-found hand, just to name a few. Continue reading A Collection of Dumb, Dangerous, and Avoidable Fireworks Accidents
[visualkev]’s friend was putting on his own fireworks show by lighting each one in turn, then running away. It occurred to [visualkev] that his friend wasn’t really enjoying the show himself because he was ducking for cover instead of watching the fun. Plus, it was kind of dangerous. Accordingly, he applied his hacker skills to the challenge by creating a custom fireworks sequencer.
He used a custom PCB from OSH Park with an ATMega328P controlling eight TPIC6C595 8-bit shift registers, which in turn trip the 64 relays connecting to the fireworks. A 5V regulator supplies the project from 5 5AA …read more
Continue reading Hackaday Prize Entry: Pyrotechnics Sequencer with Wireless Control
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at a big fireworks show? Last year [Kenneth] was asked to help manually ignite a fireworks show, and this consisted of him running down a row of shells with a road flare, lighting each one in turn. He apparently did so well that this year worked another show, this one with a more complicated setup.
The show [Kenneth] helped run consisted of 950 three-inch shells, wired in series into small groups, plus another 150 in 25-shell clusters used for the finale. The fireworks were organized in racks consisting of five …read more
Continue reading Behind the Scenes at a Professional Fireworks Show
In the summer of 1987, the Atari magazine ST-Log caried a piece entitled “Atari Sets Off Fireworks!”, a profile of the use of Atari computers in professional firework displays by Astro Pyrotechnics, a now-defunct California company. Antic podcast host [Kevin Savetz] tracked down the fireworks expert interviewed in 1987, [Robert Veline], and secured not only an interview, but a priceless trove of photographs and software. These he has put online, allowing us a fascinating glimpse into the formative years of computerized pyrotechnics.
The system uses not one, but two Ataris. An ST has all the display data and scheduling set …read more
