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Difference between revisions of "Capacitor discharge ignition"
Capacitor discharge ignition (edit)
Revision as of 15:24, 23 November 2010
, 15:24, 23 November 2010no edit summary
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They were unsuccessful, but did provide much data on the advantages of such a system, should one be built. Namely; a fast voltage rise time to fire fouled plugs, high energy throughout the RPM range resulting in better starting, more power and economy, and lower emissions. A few engineers and scientists had built CD ignitions throughout the 1950s, using thyratrons which required a warm-up period, and thyratrons were vulnerable to vibration as well. Silicon controlled rectifiers (SCR) or thyristors came later thanks to Bill Gutzwiller and his team at General Electric. These early attempts all suffered from the same problem that made them unable to perform much beyond idling speed. | They were unsuccessful, but did provide much data on the advantages of such a system, should one be built. Namely; a fast voltage rise time to fire fouled plugs, high energy throughout the RPM range resulting in better starting, more power and economy, and lower emissions. A few engineers and scientists had built CD ignitions throughout the 1950s, using thyratrons which required a warm-up period, and thyratrons were vulnerable to vibration as well. Silicon controlled rectifiers (SCR) or thyristors came later thanks to Bill Gutzwiller and his team at General Electric. These early attempts all suffered from the same problem that made them unable to perform much beyond idling speed. | ||
This was due to 'points bounce' which is a feature of a points triggered system. In the standard points, distributor, coil, ignition (Kettering system) points bounce prevents the coil from saturating fully as RPM increases resulting in a weak spark, thus limiting high speed potential. In a CD ignition, at least those early attempts, the points bounce created unwanted trigger pulses to the thyratron that resulted in a series of weak, untimed sparks that caused extreme misfiring. There were two possible solutions to the problem. | This was due to 'points bounce' which is a feature of a points triggered system. In the standard points, [[distributor]], coil, ignition (Kettering system) points bounce prevents the coil from saturating fully as RPM increases resulting in a weak spark, thus limiting high speed potential. In a CD ignition, at least those early attempts, the points bounce created unwanted trigger pulses to the thyratron that resulted in a series of weak, untimed sparks that caused extreme misfiring. There were two possible solutions to the problem. | ||
The first would be to develop another means of triggering the discharge of the capacitor to one discharge per power stroke by replacing the points with something else. This could be done magnetically or optically, but that would necessitate more electronics and an expensive distributor. The other option was to keep the points, as they were already in use and reliable, and find a way to overcome the 'points bounce' problem. This was accomplished in April 1962 by a Canadian, RCAF officer F.L. Winterburn working in his basement in Ottawa Ontario.[[Image: RCAF photo, Spring 1964 001.jpg|thumb|F.L. Winterburn]]The design used an inexpensive method that would only recognize the first opening of the points and ignore subsequent openings when the points bounced. | The first would be to develop another means of triggering the discharge of the capacitor to one discharge per power stroke by replacing the points with something else. This could be done magnetically or optically, but that would necessitate more electronics and an expensive distributor. The other option was to keep the points, as they were already in use and reliable, and find a way to overcome the 'points bounce' problem. This was accomplished in April 1962 by a Canadian, RCAF officer F.L. Winterburn working in his basement in Ottawa Ontario.[[Image: RCAF photo, Spring 1964 001.jpg|thumb|F.L. Winterburn]]The design used an inexpensive method that would only recognize the first opening of the points and ignore subsequent openings when the points bounced. | ||