Plasma Ignition | Plasma Jet Ignition

[mpgmike]

I wish I had pictures of the simple version, but here are a few of the timing controller with the hand-held programmer. First pic is of the controller. Second pic is of the controller & coil mounted to the underside of the genset. Third pic is of the carburetor modification necessary to get a vacuum signal.

[nuvisys]

hello mike. nice meeting you here!

[Aaron Murakami]

Also, I design electronic controls for a living. I've seen a few requests for a simple electronic controller for single cylinder gasoline engines that would allow elimination of waste spark & provide for timing advance/retard. I already designed a couple variations of that for a previous project. It is not proprietary IP, patented, or anything of the ilk. If there is interest, I could whip up something simple for R&D purposes for a nominal cost; like a unit that just eliminates WS and controls timing with the turn of a knob for around $70 US. It used the kill switch wire as a crank signal, and manifold vacuum to a pressure transducer to differentiate compression from exhaust strokes.

The more elaborate version I designed incorporated XY Tables, where X = RPM and Y = MAP Average (vacuum) for trimming timing according to load. It used a touch screen controller to monitor conditions & program. This one would have to go for around $250 to cover my costs.

Installation requires an automotive ignition coil (can't alter magneto timing), a 12 volt battery (to power the controller & coil), splicing into the kill switch wire, drilling a small hole into either the carburetor or intake manifold, JB Welding a small brass tube into the drilled hole, running a plastic hose between the brass port and the vacuum port on the controller, and of course mounting everything (may involve bracket fabrication). If there's any interest, let me know. If I can get at least 5 takers, it would bring costs down to where I can meet the $60 price and not cost myself money.

As for posting schematics, I could do that. It uses a PIC MCU, which I could post the code as well. Anybody interested?

I'm interested in seeing different ways to do it. I have no experience with pic chip programming

Instead of basing it on pressure, what about a counter - 1-2-1-2-1-2,etc. and it only triggers on every 1 or every 2.

[firozmusthafa]

Mpgmike,
I am really a fan of your work.
If you have trouble with EMI interference, I suggest you could try 3 things:
1. Improve the engine grounding using heavy gauge copper cables and clean the connector terminals thoroughly and add silicon dielectric grease to prevent future corrosion, repeat same on battery terminals too
2. Add super low ESR capacitor bank in parallel to your battery(when you parallel more capacitors resistance reduces more and more), use super thick copper wires for this.
3. Look up ground strapping technique. I use bifilar winding of magnet wire, short it out at one end and ground both wires at the other end. Avoid doing this in plasma piggy back wires at all costs (in your case, aquapulsar to spark plug wires), bifilar winding cancels out emi pulses emanating from high tension wires.

wish you best of luck!
Happy to see like minded guys

[Aaron Murakami]

Mpgmike,
I am really a fan of your work.
If you have trouble with EMI interference, I suggest you could try 3 things:
1. Improve the engine grounding using heavy gauge copper cables and clean the connector terminals thoroughly and add silicon dielectric grease to prevent future corrosion, repeat same on battery terminals too
2. Add super low ESR capacitor bank in parallel to your battery(when you parallel more capacitors resistance reduces more and more), use super thick copper wires for this.
3. Look up ground strapping technique. I use bifilar winding of magnet wire, short it out at one end and ground both wires at the other end. Avoid doing this in plasma piggy back wires at all costs (in your case, aquapulsar to spark plug wires), bifilar winding cancels out emi pulses emanating from high tension wires.

wish you best of luck!
Happy to see like minded guys

I agree - you can do the big 3 upgrade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG7laKXLmdg

Also, if the capacitor is not discharging through the ignition cables, you can use suppression wires that are intended for cap discharge. Then the cap can just be discharged on separate low resistance wires that go to the top of each plug.

[mpgmike]

The Hyundai is gone. I don't have EMF issues with the Jeep, just too short plug life. I intend to build/assemble a weaker system than the Aquapulser for the Jeep. I believe (after reading the 122 pages of this thread) that my Jeep issue is simply that the Aquapulser puts out such a powerful plasma spark that the spark plug ceramics can't hold up. I live in the north east US where humidity is usually 70% or higher year round. That would add electrical conductivity to most anything.

I'm doing a different generator project where I disassembled the engine, removed the camshaft, drilled & tapped a hole in the plastic cam gear, added a ferrous screw for a trigger, then drilled & tapped the housing to mount a mag pick-up. With a positive cam signal, I KNOW when I'm on the compression stroke.

[mpgmike]

I am really a fan of your work.
wish you best of luck!
Happy to see like minded guys

Thank you very much!

Attached is a scope shot of the "kill wire" in the top red trace with a vacuum signal on the bottom yellow trace. This is with no load. I used a 5 HP Honda engine from a pressure washer for much of the development work. (Pressure washer died & the whole shebang was free. Engine still works.). If you used a comparator feeding into a CD4013 Flip Flop instead of a MCU, you may be able to rig something up for waste spark elimination. Don't know how you'd actually be able to alter timing with analog electronics. The PIC processor just makes the hardware much simpler for me.

[Aaron Murakami]

The Hyundai is gone. I don't have EMF issues with the Jeep, just too short plug life. I intend to build/assemble a weaker system than the Aquapulser for the Jeep. I believe (after reading the 122 pages of this thread) that my Jeep issue is simply that the Aquapulser puts out such a powerful plasma spark that the spark plug ceramics can't hold up. I live in the north east US where humidity is usually 70% or higher year round. That would add electrical conductivity to most anything.

I'm doing a different generator project where I disassembled the engine, removed the camshaft, drilled & tapped a hole in the plastic cam gear, added a ferrous screw for a trigger, then drilled & tapped the housing to mount a mag pick-up. With a positive cam signal, I KNOW when I'm on the compression stroke.

I have an X60 or whatever Aquapulser unit that I got from Arvind way back after I found out some crooks filed for the patent with my circuit in it.

Anyway, those units are really not all that strong - the capacitance is not that high.

Did you say you used Pulstar plugs with it? I don't think Pulstar makes non-resistor plugs. It's just a resistor plug with a built in peaking cap and that's about it. If you even got it to work, the stronger spark isn't just because of the Aquapulser unit, you're also getting the effect of the Pulstar cap discharge with it - I'd be surprised the plasma discharge even works with those plugs.

In graduated tube fuel rundown tests on a generator that Jetijs did way back on Energetic Forum, there was no difference from a normal plug. They go through all that effort to put in a peaking cap but with the high resistance plug, it's like an effort in futility. It's like having a Ferarri where the breaks are permanently applied 50% - there's no point.

Of all the spark plug tests I know of, the homemade Firestorm plugs held up the longest to the plasma, but you need to be able to weld and machine so it's not for everyone. If anyone can make those plugs, I'd like to buy some from them. All the Firestorm patents have been public domain for quite a while now so it's a free for all.

If you haven't seen this, check this out - was based on a lot of the plasma projects on Energetic Forum: http://www.hho4free.com/documents/sp...lasmaplugs.pdf

[mpgmike]

The Pulstars with the Aquapulser active didn't put out anything near a plasma spark. It acted like a CDI level spark that never quenched; it just buzzed. Pulstars are classed as Resistor spark plugs. From my understanding, you are correct in that the Pulstar is a resistor type spark plug with a built-in peaking cap. Again, a plasma discharge type system (specifically Aquapulser) DOES NOT work with the Pulstar plugs.

As for Firstorm, I had a unique opportunity to speak with Bob Krupa while he was still alive. He personally told me the story of his '96 T-Bird on the dyno. I got some drawings and other technical specs from him via email after the first call. The 2 often overlooked keys to his design were the beryllium allow used in the electrodes, and the billet ceramic insulation. I can attest to the poor quality of production ceramic insulation on the Brisk plugs. I have seen numerous attempts to replicate his design (including the link you posted in #1222). If someone made them, I too would buy them, even at a somewhat exorbitant price (please keep them under $30 each).

I have the X60 and an X80U, the X60 is what I installed on the Jeep. I put the X80U on the Hyundai.

[Aaron Murakami]

The Pulstars with the Aquapulser active didn't put out anything near a plasma spark. It acted like a CDI level spark that never quenched; it just buzzed. Pulstars are classed as Resistor spark plugs. From my understanding, you are correct in that the Pulstar is a resistor type spark plug with a built-in peaking cap. Again, a plasma discharge type system (specifically Aquapulser) DOES NOT work with the Pulstar plugs.

As for Firstorm, I had a unique opportunity to speak with Bob Krupa while he was still alive. He personally told me the story of his '96 T-Bird on the dyno. I got some drawings and other technical specs from him via email after the first call. The 2 often overlooked keys to his design were the beryllium allow used in the electrodes, and the billet ceramic insulation. I can attest to the poor quality of production ceramic insulation on the Brisk plugs. I have seen numerous attempts to replicate his design (including the link you posted in #1222). If someone made them, I too would buy them, even at a somewhat exorbitant price (please keep them under $30 each).

I have the X60 and an X80U, the X60 is what I installed on the Jeep. I put the X80U on the Hyundai.

I didn't know that Robert Krupa died. I corresponded with him by email a bit.

There are the clips of the Firestorm plug with the big plasma swirling around in one combustion chamber of a head while the other plug is normal. What he always left out of the facts is that the plug wasn't responsible for that light show, which is what he always claimed. He was using the Green Hornet spark amplifier, which is essentially the same as Aquapuler's. One time Krupa told me he was creating bowling ball size blasts from a plug, which was complete nonsense. Green Hornet is not in business anymore that I know of. Those are of course the antiquated way of creating the plasma rather than my method that allows you to use an off the shelf MSD/CDI.

Robert Krupa was introduced to the plasma ignition by Smokey Yunick way back - Yunick wrote articles regularly in Popular Mechanics in the 70's or 80's and he wrote about the plasma ignition, which is how Krupa and Yunick idled a V8 engine with a 100:1 air/fuel mixture. That was way before Green Hornet.

[ahGM]

Hi,
What do you think of these videos?
What are the disadvantages?
Thank you .

Using capacitors instead of a car battery for 3 years and counting!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzaLF5tFf88
----------------------------------------------------------------
Replacing My Car Battery with Capacitors! 12V BoostPack Update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3x_kYq3mHM
---------------------------------------------------------------
5x Super Capacitors Starts A Car 100F Allcingeye
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCfy3v4GKqM

[heysoundude]

Trust, but verify by doing your own research.
Farads, Capacitance, how to build circuits with capacitors...
incorporating small battery backup (like maybe some of these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbuZbFq25gE) to offset the natural drain of the caps is key, in my opinion, as is incorporating a small solar panel to trickle charge back up what gets lost (an amorphous dashboard solar "battery maintainer" would do it, 500mA or so...)
a heated garage should offset losses and elimination of solar input...
but this is off topic to this thread about plasma ignition...sorry mods

[Faraday88]

Hi,
What do you think of these videos?
What are the disadvantages?
Thank you .

Using capacitors instead of a car battery for 3 years and counting!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzaLF5tFf88
----------------------------------------------------------------
Replacing My Car Battery with Capacitors! 12V BoostPack Update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3x_kYq3mHM
---------------------------------------------------------------
5x Super Capacitors Starts A Car 100F Allcingeye
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCfy3v4GKqM

Excellent! Im not sure if that Maxwell board has it, but you can have individual RCD(Resistor-Capacitor-Diode) snubber circuits to protect the Supercaps fro the switching transients (Radiants) that will keep them going ideally. also protect those terminals from the environment form corrosion (much simpler than that for lead-acid batteries)
Rgds,
Faraday88.

[Realtravel]

Hey everyone, has anyone had anything to do with the Brand Brisk, they make a very interesting spark plug, I like the concept, let me know what you think
https://briskaustralia.com.au/GR15SXC

[Aaron Murakami]

I'm familiar with Brisk plugs, but have never used them. If you search this thread, you may find other comments about them.