How to make a Launch Emergency System using stock parts

[Malsheck]

Was having a little too much fun playing with the panic button yesterday and came up with this little setup. Its basically the Launch Emergency System (LES) like the ones used in the Mercury, Apollo, Soyuz, and the up coming Orion program. While there are mods out there that already do this I figured I would have some fun using the stock parts. Hope you enjoy!

[Scrogdog]

Nice video!

Off to build me one.

[Mr. Entropy]

I have a similar setup, except I don't put the extra sepratrons on for jettison, and I only use six for the abort as opposed to eight (although I could probably get away with just four). I have my staging order set to where the tower jettisons automatically along with my orbital insertion stage, and then have the whole thing plus the capsule decoupler tied to the abort button. The end result is that I use four fewer sepratrons, which ends up saving a bit of weight.

[Malsheck]

There's definitely room for refinement in how I put it together but I was mostly keeping it simple to give a good starting point for others to work off of. Last night I ended up tossing a 3rd chute on the octagonal strut (the side away from the hatch) just to see that it would fit. The main reason I put the 2 extra sepratrons for jettison was the first time I tested the system the tower was staying too close to the command module after separation. I didn't want it crashing into the command module once I opened the chutes. The real thing has something similar in that once it detaches it pulls its self to a safe distance. I do like your idea of staging the separation. I normally just do it manually as I'm coasting to apogee.