DIY Firework Ignition System

Want to impress some people at your next big event? You could make your own fireworks controller and put on a big show for them! This looks like a fun but potentially dangerous project…

"At the heart of my firework ignition system is an SX48 running at 50 MHz. I was able to make full use of the SX’s 36 IO pins. Thirty lines are dedicated to the 30 channels. Two lines connect to a MAX233 chip for serial port control. Another line is connected to a 7805 (TO-92) which monitors the state of the arming key. The remaining 3 lines are used to communicate with the PIC A/D converter via an SPI interface. The system was built with cost as an important factor. At $10 the SX48 Proto board was an easy choice with its incorporated 5V regulator, led and all the difficult surface mount soldering already done for me. I also designed 2 pc boards using the freeware version of Cadsoft’s Eagle. The interface board connects the SX48 Proto board and contains the MAX233 chip, A/D converter and 30 LEDs to represent the state of each of the 30 channels. The driver board contains the transistor circuits for 10 channels. There are 3 driver boards in the system. Once the boards were designed I printed the design onto glossy magazine paper. I then transferred the toner from the paper to the 1 oz copper clad boards using an iron and etched the boards using ferric chloride. I drilled out the through holes and vias on my drill press and mounted all the components."