Project Lava - Control Panel

[CoryBee]

I am going to build a control panel, of complete uselessness (aside from my enjoyment) with a bunch of switches, potentiometers, LEDs, relays, voltage regulators and all other sorts of things I can fit into it. Not quite sure how it will look in the end but I am going for something a little like a movie prop.

Here is a picture of something I am talking about. Won't be nearly as big or stationary though. Probably only consist of 20 - 30 items.



Haven't decided on if it will be handheld or a pedestal type thing.

Will have one or two of these fellas to enable sections of the panel



As well as one or two of the keylock switches to be able to engage the system at all



Best of all I am going to have terminals that the panel will port 6v, 12v and\or 18v DC to whatever the panel will engage

I already have a few of these, but might order some different ones



Also haven't decided on whether it will be run off of a laptop power brick, or battery powered. If battery powered than I need to decided on rechargeable batteries (re-purposed from old electronics) or a few D batteries in series, probably just 2 9-volts though.

I have plans for other useful things to use the panel with but for now it will ignite (hopefully) some home-made thermite. Raw materials are in route as I type this.  I have had a little bit of experience with this stuff through a friend and my lame attempt at a DIY approach to these materials.

The igniter will be a low ohm resistor connected to the 12v\18v line coming from the panel which should set the resistor a blaze (see video). This will definitely ignite the Thermite mixture.



Will update again once I get some plans made up for the Control Panel and finish acquiring the rest of the items needed. Should be fun, might have to build some things just to watch them BURN! 

[PL1]

Since you're planning on playing with fire, you'll probably want to go with a battery powered setup for at least that part of the panel since indoor thermite ignition = fail IMHO. 

Also look into model rocket igniters like this or this if the battery doesn't work well with the resistor ignition system. (You can probably find them in a local store for less.)

You could also use the panel to provide different voltages (5v, 12v, variable) for an electronic breadboard and include volt/amp meters and adjustment potentiometers.

You can design circuits that trigger the desired fireworks based on motion, light, or sound.



Who knows, you might design a next-generation Clapper.   




Scott