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why not an alternative ign system?

Started by Lucky, May 03, 2002, 08:02:02 PM

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silicon_toad2000

One mans clunker is another mans blank canvas.

jasonm.

What you may not know is that the early Dyna ignitions used in the 80's relied on the centrifugal spring advance mechsm. All new stuff relies on the engine's rpm sensor. In fact the OEM on ours is that type. The TCI is smarter than you think. So a simple swap, it is not.
looks aren't important, if she lets you play by your rules

ofstone

It should be possible to get the characteristics from a working ignition module (TCI = transistor controlled igninion not a CDI = Capacitive discharge ignition).
If you monitor the signal from the front cylinder pickup coil and the front cylinder ignition coil, it should be posible to log how the timing is advanced, and at witch point the spark fires. The circuit probably will be exactely the same for the rear cylinder. In the TCI probably only analog components are used since not much digital components were used. It should be possible for one with a good knowledge of electronics (both digital and analog) to build a new TCI with a micro controller specially programmed for use with the vision. The amount of advanced spark is only related to the engine's RPM's.

Koaps

Not only could it be possible, but someone is working on it, still experimental.

http://www.sportdevices.com/ignition/ignition_TCI.htm

That setup uses a PIC, I would use a OOPIC to get the added ease of coding the chip, but not only could you make an ignition module(doing timing comparisons), but you could also have it maybe(depending on memory, flash space, and design of board) get things like speed, tach, gas, even gps on a big LCD dash screen.

I like the OOPIC and play with things like it for robotics, but as a blackbox, it would be vary powerful.

I would try this if i had the money and resources, but then so would most of you.  ;D

Extent

That is quite a link, I love it, he notes in the source tho that it's for a 2-stroke engine, does that matter in our application or would that just end with the "wasted spark"
Rider1>No wonder, the Daytona has very sharp steering and aggressive geometry.  It's a very difficult bike for a new rider.
Rider2>Well it has different geometry now.

Koaps

I would imagine you would need to change the timings used, if someone had a scope, you could watch the pulsing on the two pickups for the TDI and map the timings, of course you would have to test it at IDLE, low, medium and high rpms.

Most that code is comparing delay and retarding the time to discharge. I would imagine it shouldn't be too hard to change it, if you understand ignition timing well, something I'm still learning.

An OOPIC could be used and more sensors added to check for throttle position and even air flow, so you could get more percise maps but that would require a great deal of calculating to get all the timing adjusted to all the new sensors, or some slick code, same diff. A PIC should be able to easily have sensors added to it, considering ultra-sonic navigation is possible with them, reading things like temp or tach would be a piece of cake by comparision.

Speaking of which, there is a another interesting link there on how to use a stepper motor to build a digital tach.

http://sportdevices.nmine.com/ignition/tacho.htm

Koaps

BTW,

OOPic is an object-oriented Pic,

http://www.oopic.com/

If you haven't done any coding before, it basically is a higher level coding language(meaning easier to read and more flexible to write, at the cost of processing times).

The PIC uses C and ASM(assembly) which are low level languages(C is higher than ASM). The OOPIC uses a language more closer to C++, but not exactly C++.

Below this is the machine code which is the ones and zeros the hardware reads.

The main issue I see for using PIC's is having to seal and epoxy all the components to protect them from weather and vibration. This just means careful planning of any circuits to allow for easy changing of parts that are likely to have issues(rectifiers, the PIC itself, transistors), using chip sockets and rolling your own ICs can help with this.

Also not too sure on signal interference, might need to shield the box used to house the PIC to prevent any interference, main concern here is having the PIC reset itself while running on the freeway.  :o