Mixing Pyro and Lasers

[Wirralguy]

I was talking to a mate in the pub this weekend and the conversation got around to his hobby (pyrotechnics) and adding lasers to the show (why waste all that smoke when you can fire beams and fans through it!! )

His question set me thinking but I have no idea of the possible answer:

Would it be possible to light the touchpaper/fuse with a laser from some distance away?

His thinking was that, as a highlight/finale it would be pretty neat to have a laserbeam cut through the smoke to the centrepiece pyro, setting it off and finishing the show!

Granted, this was after (ahem) several pints so probably not economically possible in reality, but would anyone like to hazard a theoretical power that would be required to achieve this? Assume that the laser would be a stationary beam, be between 10 and 20m away(for dramatic effect) and need to ignite after a few seconds.

All suggestions gratefully accepted.

Dave

BTW - we know we could cheat and remote fire after the beam hits the target but where's the fun in that

[Murudai]

Lasers from about 300mW up can light fuses without much trouble. Of course, at that range you'd want a more powerful unit

But if you get a beam expander and bolt it on the front, you should be able to focus it around that distance, which means you could burn at even 100m if you could aim it right!

[imobscure]

Don't light it with the laser. just get the timing right...

[platinum]

Don't light it with the laser. just get the timing right...

This is the right idea.

[Things]

Yeah dont try lighting it with a laser from any kind of distance. Can you imagine the amount of time it would take to align it??

As ^^ said, just time the show right and your good

[Hemlock Mike]

Stay with the electric match to light the quick match. Reliability equals safety in pyro display. Smoke from the display will blur the focus.
I never have time to run my CL-16RGY scanner during our pyro shows.

Mike

[Wirralguy]

Dammit - you are all far too sensible

I know you guys are right - and that is the way we would be looking to set it up ( he has the show set-up using USB-analogue triggers that means he gets pretty good timings). He's also looking at RFID triggered shells for really accurate bursts as he currently has to add the millisecond launch delays into the music timing which can be very time consuming!!

It wasn't ever likely to be something we would actually do, for reasons stated above, including the alignment hassle (think - middle of a field, lots of groundshaking explosions etc etc) but.......... from a theoretical point of view I thought it was an interesting thing to try and work out.

Dave