Gallery, Projects and General > The Design Shop

Newfangled ignition coils

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geoff_p:
I made the same assumption, that chassis would be negative and the other connection positive

I agree that the electronics could be an 'amplifier' so as to convert the triggering pulse (presumably very low power) into a large-enough current pulse to energise the coil.

So now we have an earth/ground at 0volts and a +ve supply to the amplifier through the small lead.

How does it receive "pulses from the sensor in the engine"?

Geoff

tomrux:
the majority of motorcycles use CDI type ignitions these days. you would be better of trying to get a coil of an earlier bike. you need to go back to the early 80. once they went electronic things got complicated real quick.

Tom R

David Jupp:
May well also be designed to run via a ballast resistor in normal use (which is bypassed when cranking the engine) - this ensures a decent spark when cranking on a cold morning.  So don't apply full battery voltage or it will overheat.

shipto:
my understanding of these things is that voltage will only be produced in the HT side if there is a intermittant/pulsed voltage on the other side and they are just basic transformers. I suspect the electronics only supress bounced signals and/or interference.
So what I would do is take a wire from the negative end of a battery bolt or wrap it around the earth of the coil and then around the earth of the spark plug, then just brush the live wire across the positive quickly and see if a spark is produced.
I suspect that it will but I could be totally wrong so try it at your own risk.

geoff_p:
My thanks to all of you for your contributions, though none seem to answer my original question "How [do] they work?"

Thailand has a terrible history of not looking after history: in a country of poorly-educated people, older stuff is just discarded when "new" comes along, and this is especially true of technology.

So my chances of finding an old-style coil in Thailand verge on not-likely-in-my-lifetime.  But I do want to get my engine running, so I've by-passed the problem,

and have ordered a complete CDI system from Messrs Hobby King.  I just hope I can adequately hide the blooming thing.

Part of my aim in the engine's build was/is to demonstrate older technology but I guess I'll have to moderate it to "mostly older technology."

Geoff

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