#6 - How to celebrate Diwali like a Nerd?!

00:29 - But I am all for celebrating it in a nerdy way.

00:32 - How about firing the Diwali rockets wirelessly? Interesting Right? Diwali falls in three days. So I have only 48 hours left to build a launch system and another 24 hours to edit the videos.

00:42 - So I am going to take a dirty way to do this.

00:45 - No pyrotechnics, no chemicals, just a frugal method! Let the timer start.

00:50 - First of all, we need an ignition system to fire the rockets.

00:54 - There are a lot of ways to do this. Initially, I tried with a 24 Gauge nichrome wire which we could use it as a heater filament using electricity.

01:02 - But it took a hell lot of current to even barely heat it up.

01:05 - I thought a 38 or 40 gauge nichrome would help.

01:08 - So I ripped it off my Iron box and took few millimetres of it.

01:12 - But again it needs a huge amount of current.

01:17 - I want to fire up the rocket from my 11. 1V Lithium-Ion battery.

01:21 - Other makers have found some nerdy ways to do this.

01:24 - GreatScott used a low wattage resistor to burn and create fire.

01:30 - Though it works, a new resistor has to be used in every single launch.

01:38 - I am going to make an even simpler ignition system.

01:40 - I brought a BBQ gas lighter. This requires at least 10N force to put the flame on the tip.

01:46 - Let’s see if we can build an ignition system using this lighter.

01:51 - We can use a solenoid to do this. But still, it requires a lot of current.

01:54 - I tried with Solenoids of various forces. Though it worked, it took a lot of current that my batteries can’t cope up with.

02:01 - So let’s build a linear actuator to press the trigger.

02:05 - I am going to use a NEMA 17 stepper motor. Originally I bought this for my 3D printer and a step-down DC-DC converter module to reduced the battery voltage to 5V.

02:17 - The pendulum stand is going to be our launch tower.

02:19 - So I made some drills on the stand to hold our motor.

02:22 - Let’s design and 3D print a holder to attach our motor with the stand.

02:29 - Let’s attach the motor and screw it. All right, we have fixed our stepper motor.

02:41 - Let’s attach our BBQ Gas lighter with a ball head clamp.

02:43 - Now, we need to figure out a way to press the trigger.

02:46 - I don’t have a lead screw rod. With that, we could have just attached a screw to press the trigger.

02:51 - But for the time being, I am going to try if the belt mechanism works.

02:58 - Right now I have only two ball head clamps.

03:00 - I have already used one clamp to hold the lighter, and I am going to use another clamp to hold the rockets.

03:04 - I am going to 3d print a clamp to hold the lighter properly.

03:08 - Alright, the lighter is now placed in a stable manner.

03:12 - We can attach the belt with the lighter and connect it to the motor pulley.

03:17 - Fine. Now we have to use the microcontroller to program the time it takes to properly press and release the trigger.

03:24 - I am going to use the ESP8266 Development board.

03:27 - This board has WiFi functionality. So I can use two of this board to wirelessly control the ignition.

03:33 - The stepper motor has to be driven by the microcontroller using a specialised driver interface.

03:39 - I am going to A4988 Stepper motor driver controller module.

03:44 - I have already assembled and programmed the circuit.

03:45 - So let’s check if we could press the trigger using the stepper motor.

03:50 - Oh no. The belt is not stable enough to press the trigger.

03:58 - Let’s try to fix it with an L-Clamp which I was planning to use in another project.

04:03 - I have very less time to make it work professionally.

04:05 - This is the crude method. Let’s wrap it with the motor pulley.

04:11 - Let’s try it again. Woohoo! It works.

04:27 - It’s time to build the transmitter circuit.

04:30 - This circuit has another ESP8266 controller.

04:34 - A lithium polymer battery. A battery charge controller module.

04:37 - A voltage booster module that converts the battery voltage to 5V.

04:42 - An On-Off switch. An 8 digit segmental LED Display module and a trigger switch to start the countdown timer.

04:50 - Alright. Now let’s design an enclosure for this transmitter and quickly 3D print it.

04:57 - Let’s put the electronics inside it. I have attached a tripod mount screw to it.

05:05 - Let’s attach the display module and glue it.

05:08 - Let’s attach the battery and other electronics using double-sided tape.

05:12 - Alright, we have completed the assembly. I have already programmed the microcontrollers.

05:19 - Let’s check if it works. The WiFi transmitter is trying to establish a WiFi connection.

05:24 - Ah, the connection is successful. Let’s press the trigger button to start the 15 Second countdown timer.

05:30 - Actually, the transmitter circuit is configured as a WiFi client, and the ignition system hosts a web server.

05:36 - When the countdown timer reaches 0 seconds, our transmitter will send an HTTP GET request to the server.

05:41 - The server interprets it and starts the ignition process.

05:44 - Actually, we will send the ignition command when the timer reaches 2 seconds.

05:48 - In order to compensate for the slow rotation of the motor.

05:56 - OK. Everything looks fine to me. It’s time to test it.

06:11 - Pinku, Press the button. Ok. Countdown starts.

06:17 - 10… 9… 8. . 7. . 6. . 5. . 4. . 3. . 2. . 1. . Ignition.

06:30 - What happened? Oh no. This launch is a failure.

06:37 - Let’s try one more time. Pinku press the green button one more time.

06:50 - Pinku sit down. Sit down. 5… 4. . 3. . 2. . 1 Ignition.

07:06 - What’s happening? Ahah! It works!! Fine.

07:31 - That’s it for this week. There is a professional way of doing this.

07:33 - I will make a video of it when I find the time.

07:35 - I will see you next week with another interesting video.

07:37 - Thanks for watching this video. Happy Diwali.

07:40 - See you again. .