Estes Electron Beam Controller Troubleshooting

As a test, connect the two alligator clips together and insert the safety key. The small light should now come on, nice and bright with no flickering.

If the light didn't come on, or it was dim or flickering

• Make sure the metal clips inside the controller are holding the batteries tightly. Every last time our controller gets dropped, I have to open it and re-spring those clips.

• A few of the batteries may be backwards and fighting the others. Take all the batteries out, then put them back in according to the diagram in the bottom of the battery compartment.

• Clean the metal clips that act as battery contacts in the controller. Nothing fancy, rubbing alcohol and toilet paper, or scraping with a knife will do.

• One of the wires going to the alligator clips may be broken, take a close look at the soldered connections at each end. If a connection is definitely broken, your controller will not work. Either contact Estes about a replacement - or find someone that's handy with a soldering iron.

• It's possible that your batteries are dead. Get new ones and use them.

The light came on and looks good and bright

It looks like your controller is fine. Let's look at how you are using it.

The ignitor smokes and burns the tip off without lighting the motor

• Take another ignitor and make sure its tip is seating right at the bottom of the nozzle chamber. The best way to ensure that is to turn the rocket upside down and just drop the ignitor into the nozzle, then insert the plastic plug to hold it in.

• Sometimes crud gets in the nozzle hole and coats the propellant. Using a very small screwdriver, scrape just a little around the bottom of the nozzle chamber to expose fresh propellant.

The ignitor doesn't seem to do a thing

• Don't stab the launch button, but press and hold hold it down for as long as 3 seconds on each attempt. The light should go very dim or out while you are pressing the button.

• The batteries should be good alkalines or fully charged NiCads, ordinary batteries often don't supply enough zap for the job.

• Check your ignitor wires to make sure they aren't crossed or touching the blast deflector. This will mean checking the plastic plug to make sure the ignitor wires are on either side of it, and not jammed together.

• Check to make sure the alligator clips aren't touching each other or the blast deflector.

• Clean the alligator clips to get them shiny where they clamp the wires. A pencil eraser or rubbing alcohol and a cloth will do the trick.