CDI module

Capacitor discharge ignition

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Capacitor discharge ignition (CDI) or thyristor ignition is a type of
automotive electronic ignition system which is widely used in outboard
motors, motorcycles, lawn mowers, chainsaws, small engines,
turbine-powered aircraft, and some cars. It was originally developed
to overcome the long charging times associated with high inductance
coils used in inductive discharge ignition (IDI) systems, making the
ignition system more suitable for high engine speeds (for small engines,
racing engines and rotary engines). The capacitive-discharge ignition
uses capacitor discharge current output to fire the spark plugs.
Contents
1 History
2 The basic principle
3 Advantages and Disadvantages of CDI
4 References
History
The history of the capacitor discharge ignition system can be traced back to the 1890s when it is believed that
Nikola Tesla was the first to propose such an ignition system. In U.S. patent #609250 first filed February 17,
1897, Tesla writes 'Any suitable moving portion of the apparatus is caused to mechanically control the charging
of a condenser and its discharge through a circuit in inductive relation to a secondary circuit leading to the
terminals between which the discharge is to occur, so that at the desired intervals the condenser may be
discharged through its circuit and induce in the other circuit a current of high potential which produces the
desired discharge.'
The patent also describes very generally with a drawing, a mechanical means to accomplish this. In the late
1940s an attempt to make one using mechanical means to trigger the capacitor's discharge was tried in America.
It suffered from timing problems and was unreliable. However,it was the Robert Bosch company who were the
true pioneers. (Bosch is also responsible for the invention of the Magneto) During World War Two, Bosch had
fitted Thyratron (tube type) CD ignitions to some piston engined fighter aircraft. With a CD ignition, an
aeroplane engine did not need a warm up period for reliable ignition and so a fighter aircraft could take flight
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F.L. Winterburn
more quickly as a result. This early German system used a rotary dc converter along with fragile tube circuitry,
and was not suited to life in a fighter aircraft. Failures occurred within only a few hours. The quest for a reliable
electronic means of producing a CD ignition began in earnest during the 1950s. In the mid-1950s, the
Engineering Research Institute of the University of Michigan in cooperation with Chrysler Corporation in the
United States worked to find a method to produce a viable unit. 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
spark plugs, high energy throughout the RPM range resulting in better starting, more power and economy, and
lower emissions. A few engineers, scientists, and hobbyists had built CD ignitions throughout the 1950s using
thyratrons (tube type). However, thyratrons were unsuitable for use in automobiles for two reasons. They
required a warm-up period which was a nuisance, and were vulnerable to vibration which drastically shortened
their lifetime. In an automotive application, the thyratron CD ignition would fail in either weeks or months. The
unreliability of those early Thyratron CD ignitions, made them unsuitable for mass production despite providing
short term benefits. One company at least, Tung-Sol (a manufacturer of vacuum tubes) marketed a Thyratron
CD ignition, model Tung-Sol EI-4 in 1962, but it was expensive. Despite the failings of Thyratron (vacuum tube)
type CD ignitions, the improved ignition that they gave made them a worthwhile addition for some drivers. For
the Wankel powered NSU Spider of 1964, Bosch resurrected its thyratron method for a CD ignition and used
this up until at least 1966. It suffered the same reliability problems as the Tung-Sol EI-4.
It was the SCR, Silicon-controlled rectifier or thyristor invented in the late 1950s that replaced the troublesome
thyratron, and paved the way for a reliable solid-state CD ignition. This was thanks to Bill Gutzwiller and his
team at General Electric. The SCR was rugged with an indefinite lifetime, but very prone to unwanted trigger
impulses which would turn the SCR 'on'. Unwanted trigger impulses in early attempts at using SCRs for CD
ignitions were caused by electrical effects, but mainly 'points bounce'. Points bounce is a feature of a points-
triggered system. In the standard system with 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 SCR (thyristor) 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.
The design used an inexpensive method that would only recognize the
first opening of the points and ignore subsequent openings when the
points bounced.
A company was formed in Ottawa in early 1963 called Hyland
Electronics building CD ignitions using the Winterburn design. It
provided a 75 milijoule spark at all engine speeds up to 5,000 rpm on
an eight cylinder (10,000 rpm on a four-cylinder) and consumed only
four amperes at that speed. Dynamometer testing during 1963 and
1964 showed a minimum of 5% increase in horsepower with the
system, with 10% the norm. One example, a Ford Falcon, had an
increase in horsepower of 17%. Spark plug lifespan was increased to
at least 50,000 miles and points lifespan was greatly extended from
8,000 miles to at least 60,000 miles. Points lifespan became a factor
of rubbing block (cam follower) wear and the life cycle of the spring
with some lasting almost 100,000 miles.
The Hyland unit was tolerant of varied points gaps. The system could be switched back to standard inductive
discharge ignition by the swapping of two wires. The Hyland CD ignition was the first commercially produced
solid-state CD ignition and retailed for $39.95 Canadian. The patents were applied for by Winterburn on
September 23, 1963 (United States patent# 3,564,581). The design was leaked to the United States in the
summer of 1963 when Hyland exposed the design to a US company in an effort to expand sales. Afterward,
numerous companies started building their own throughout the 1960s and 1970s without licence. Some were
direct copies of the Winterburn circuit. In 1971 Bosch bought the European patent rights (German, French,
British) from Winterburn as their own CD ignition was based upon the Winterburn design.
The basic principle
Most ignition systems used in cars are inductive discharge ignition (IDI) systems, which are solely relying on the
electric inductance at the coil to produce high-voltage electricity to the spark plugs as the magnetic field
collapses when the current to the primary coil winding is disconnected (disruptive discharge). In a CDI system, a
charging circuit charges a high voltage capacitor, and at the instant of ignition the system stops charging the
capacitor, allowing the capacitor to discharge its output to the ignition coil before reaching the spark plug.
A typical CDI module consists of a small transformer, a charging circuit, a triggering circuit and a main
capacitor. First, the system voltage is raised up to 250 to 600 volts by a power supply inside the CDI module.
Then, the electric current flows to the charging circuit and charges the capacitor. The rectifier inside the charging
circuit prevents capacitor discharge before the moment of ignition. When the triggering circuit receives triggering
signals, the triggering circuit stops the operation of the charging circuit, allowing the capacitor to discharge its
output rapidly to the low inductance ignition coil. In a CD ignition, the ignition coil acts as a pulse transformer
rather than an energy storage medium as it does in an inductive system. The voltage output to the spark plugs is
purely dependent on the design of the CD ignition. Voltages exceeding the insulation capabilities of existing
ignition components can lead to early failure of those components. Most CD ignitions are made to give very high
output voltages, but this is not always beneficial. When there's no triggering signal, the charging circuit is re-
connected to charge the capacitor.
The amount of energy the CDI system can store for the generation of a spark is dependent on the voltage and
capacitance of the capacitors used, but usually it's around 50 mJ, or more. The standard points/coil/distributor
ignition, more properly called the inductive discharge ignition system or Kettering ignition system, produces
25mJ at low speed and drops off quickly as speed increases.
Most CDI modules are generally of two types:
AC-CDI - The AC-CDI module obtains its electricity source solely from the alternating current
produced by the alternator. The AC-CDI system is the most basic CDI system which is widely used in
small engines.
Note that not all small engine ignition systems are CDI. Some older engines, and engines like older Briggs and
Stratton use magneto ignition. The entire ignition system, coil and points, are under the magnetized flywheel.
Another sort of ignition system commonly used on small off-road motorcycles in the 1960s and 1970s was
called Energy Transfer. A coil under the flywheel generated a strong DC current pulse as the flywheel magnet
moved over it. This DC current flowed through a wire to an ignition coil mounted outside of the engine. The
points sometimes were under the flywheel for two-stroke engines, and commonly on the camshaft for four-
stroke engines. This system worked like all Kettering (points/coil) ignition systems... the opening points trigger
the collapse of the magnetic field in the ignition coil, producing a high voltage pulse which flows through the
spark plug wire to the spark plug.
If the engine was rotated while examining the wave-form output of the coil with an oscilloscope, it would appear
to be AC. Since the charge-time of the coil corresponds to much less than a full revolution of the crank, the coil
really 'sees' only DC current for charging the external ignition coil.
Some electronic ignition systems exist that are not CDI. These systems use a transistor to switch the charging
current to the coil off and on at the appropriate times. This eliminated the problem of burned and worn points,
and provided a hotter spark because of the faster voltage rise and collapse time in the ignition coil.
DC-CDI - The DC-CDI module is powered by the battery, and therefore an additional DC/AC inverter
circuit is included in the CDI module to raise the 12 V DC to 400-600 V DC, making the CDI module
slightly larger. However, vehicles that use DC-CDI systems have more precise ignition timing and the
engine can be started more easily when cold.
Advantages and Disadvantages of CDI
A CDI system has a short charging time, a fast voltage rise (between 3 ~ 10 kV/s) compared to typical
inductive systems (300 ~ 500 V/s) and a short spark duration limited to about 50-80 s. The fast voltage rise
makes CDI systems insensitive to shunt resistance, but the limited spark duration can for some applications be
too short to provide reliable ignition. The insensitivity to shunt resistance and the ability to fire multiple sparks
can provide improved cold starting ability.
Since the CDI system only provides a short spark, it's also possible to combine this ignition system with
ionization measurement. This is done by connecting a low voltage (about 80 V) to the spark plug, except when
fired. The current flow over the spark plug can then be used to calculate the temperature and pressure inside the
cylinder.
References
Bosch Automotive Handbook, 5th Edition
http://www.mclarenelectronics.com/Products/All/App_Act_Ign.asp
An open-source CDI circuit based on 12V DC power supply (http://www.me.iitb.ac.in/~ems/dccdi.pdf)
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Categories: Ignition systems Gasoline engines
This page was last modified on 26 February 2013 at 14:23.
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