[ARC5] ARC5 CW Question

[w4thq at cox.net]

Mike - That's interesting.

We had relay contacts in series strings for complex permissive circuits such as "propellant loading complete - commit to launch" some of which had so many dry contacts that for them we jacked up the voltage to offset the drops.  We thought that was better than using different relays with mercury wetted contacts.  All of our relays were the plug-in type with ears for screws into the socket.  There were literally thousands of those relays used at complexes 34, 37, and 39.  It was rare to have failures, however.

Our logic circuits were supplied by fused sensors and any interface with the launch vehicle was also fused.  These were mainly for testing prior to the launch countdown.  Before the countdown we had "slug parties" where we put copper slugs into the fuse clips so a fuse failure would not impact launch preps.  There were hundreds of fuses so the need for a group effort was required.

John W4THQ