I agree, this is certainly nontrivial, and the safety concerns would keep me away from it entirely - however - In the past I had a project where I needed to light a candle electrically (inside a sealed chamber). I settled on a small piece of nichrome wrapped in spiral around the wick - worked just fine. And for what it's worth many portable kerosene heaters have electronic ignition, basically a small light bulb with no glass and a pair of D-cells. I'm not sure, but I'd expect those igniters would be available as spare parts for less than $5. -Denny ----- Original Message ----- From: "the madscientist" To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2004 11:44 AM Subject: Re: [OT]: Fire Starters and PICs > if these are the old type with a wick, i'd suggest a hot piece of > nichrome wire, rather than a spark as the oil isn't that volatile. > you'll also have to control the wick height somehow, i.e. it will have > to be turned up occasionally. i'm not sure how safe old time oil lamps > sitting on the ground with electric ignition would be however, or how > safe they'd be on poles as some are. i think you'd at least want a fire > alarm, an extinguishing system would be nice but not trivial (CO2 is > rather pathetic for oil fires, you really need dry chem like potassium > or sodium bicarbonate, with the proper anti-cacking agents as in a fire > extinguisher meant for oil fires). > > Ian Hooper wrote: > > > > Here's a rather strange one: I've had the clever notion that I'd like to > > operate my garden lights by means of a PIC-based timer. The catch is that I > > wish to use oil lamps, not the usual 12V bulbs. My dillema occurs in trying > > to devise a method of electronic ignition for an oil lamp; so far my > > experiments have produced unimpressive results by using a simple spark > > ignitor. Has anyone else toyed with such a system and have any ideas of what > > I might try to safely, and consitently light an oil lantern? > ------ > > -- > "Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: > is it politic? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience > asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must > take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular- but one > must take it simply because it is right." : Martin Luther King Jr. > 1929-1968 > > _______________________________________________ > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist _______________________________________________ http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist