Phillip, I have designed and built a dozen different rocket launchers for the entire range of sport rocketry from low power to high power and experimental. My "go to" battery is a small 12v sealed lead acid battery (like a 12v motorcycle battery). The reality is that almost any battery with a bit of juice (even a 9v battery) will light up a low power Estes igniter, but they do fail and/or you get bigger and more reliable igniters and they can require more current -- those little Estes igniters are very cheap and unreliable. I have tried using unprotected Lipos (make sure they have no over-current protection) and they work just fine. I use those to fire eMatches in flight computers reliably.

While you are at it... if you are building a launcher you should consider using low cost automotive SSRs to drive the switching. Something like a Rohm BV1HD090FJ-CE2 has over current protection, but it also gives you a Stus line out letting you know you have continuity on the igniter before you fire. Good luck!

 

From a googling, I see the "All-Fire" current of the Estes igniters is listed as 2 amps. These being relatively inexpensive devices, that value is not guaranteed, but should be in the ballpark. But 2 amps will not necessarily burn the bridgewire. It takes about 6 amps to insure the bridgewire opens. After that, if the igniter is still in the exhaust stream, there will be a current due to the plasma bridging the wires.

From the data collected by my launcher, it takes more like 3A to ignite the igniter., that is after some preheating with lower current. Starting cold, it takes about 6 A to get them to ignite.

 

Phillip, I have designed and built a dozen different rocket launchers for the entire range of sport rocketry from low power to high power and experimental. My "go to" battery is a small 12v sealed lead acid battery (like a 12v motorcycle battery). The reality is that almost any battery with a bit of juice (even a 9v battery) will light up a low power Estes igniter, but they do fail and/or you get bigger and more reliable igniters and they can require more current -- those little Estes igniters are very cheap and unreliable. I have tried using unprotected Lipos (make sure they have no over-current protection) and they work just fine. I use those to fire eMatches in flight computers reliably.

While you are at it... if you are building a launcher you should consider using low cost automotive SSRs to drive the switching. Something like a Rohm BV1HD090FJ-CE2 has over current protection, but it also gives you a Stus line out letting you know you have continuity on the igniter before you fire. Good luck!

Thanks for the recommendation. I have already built the launcher using a Raspberry PI, DAC, and MOSFET to light the igniter. In addition, a relay to disconnect the igniter circuit when connecting a new igniter, and a ADC to measure the current and system voltages. It works very well. As I said earlier, just looking to replace the FlashFish.