The firebox is the unit that fires the individual cues. Each firebox will be
able to fire a total of 32 cues.
The fireboxes can be built in several different configurations, but the controller
board will be the same for all fireboxes.
After considering all the configurations, the most favorable one seems to be
dividing the cues into 4 banks of 8 and having all tie down points external
from the firebox. This options makes smaller rails that can more easily be positioned
independent of each other. This also means that a broken rail only effects 8
cues and would be easier to swap out. The connectors, where the rails attach
to the firebox, would be 9 pin and we could use the readily available DB-9 connectors.
The firebox will have a 2 digit address number that is set by 2 thumbwheel switches.
Depending on the range of the wheel switches used, each box can have either
a number between 01-99 or 01-FF, 00 will be reserved. (01-FF would give a total
of 255 different box numbers).
(The circuit board will have an expansion header on it that could used to expand
the fireboxes capabilities to 256 cues)
Any combination of rails or boxes could be used. The cue number would depend
on the port it's plugged into.
We could also include a single port that has all cues on it and be able to plug
in a single board that has all 32 tie down points on it. (ie.- like at PGI)
The LEDs on the box show the status of what's going on inside.
Green - power is on the the microcontroller is running.
Yellow - There is power to the firing system (the firing system is powered up
while testing)
Red - The firing system is in fire mode
These are other options that were considered and are still being included in this section since they could be easily implemented with the current board.
One configuration of the firebox can have 16 tie down points for cues 1-16, with an extension for cues 17-32. The extension boxes can be build in different configurations and won't contain any electronics.
Two possible extensions are shown below, one as a box and the other as a rail.
(it would also be possible to build a box with all 32 tie downs on the fire
box, but it might not be practical to bring all 32 cues to one point)
Another configuration of the fire box would be to have no tie down points on
the box.
Both banks of tiedown points (cues 1-16 and 17-32) would be brought out to extension
boxes. (or rails)
Some of the advatages of this setup is that the firebox is smaller and it doesn't
contain any tie down clips that can be broken and would have to be fixed before
using the box again.
