Plasma Ignition | Plasma Jet Ignition

[Aaron Murakami]

I'm starting this thread to talk about Plasma Ignition.

I have Ignition Secrets by Aaron Murakami | Plasma Ignition available and it doesn't include technical support for people's experiments. I do however, help quite a few people out anyway, but from now on I'm only going to address any of that in this thread. So if anyone has questions, they have to read this entire thread first and then if the questions aren't answered, I can try to help out.

The concept is simple - high voltage from coil jumps the gap and ionizes the gap and makes it conductive enough so that a lower voltage capacitor in parallel with the gap can discharge over the gap creating the plasma impulse.

I'll post more later, but this is just to get things started.

[hh1341]

Answering these questions for all to see is a great idea......Thanks

[hh1341]

Here are my questions........


My mosfet gets hot quite quickly.( Nte 2376 )
I am using a 50/50 duty cycle on my 555 .( maybe the cause )

I seem to be drawing about 4amps, to a standard auto coil with 12 volts. Does that sound about right

Also I was wondering if you could explain the function of the several diodes in your 555 circuit and the very short off cycle.

Yours
Carl

[Aaron Murakami]

Here are my questions........


My mosfet gets hot quite quickly.( Nte 2376 )
I am using a 50/50 duty cycle on my 555 .( maybe the cause )

I seem to be drawing about 4amps, to a standard auto coil with 12 volts. Does that sound about right

Also I was wondering if you could explain the function of the several diodes in your 555 circuit and the very short off cycle.

Yours
Carl

Hi Carl,

Thanks for bringing these questions here!

I'd put the mosfet on a heat sink if you are having heat problems.

Also, if this is just for a bench test, I'd reduce the duty cycle to the lowest possible to still get the effect.
You can replace that 1k resistor with a variable one to adjust the on time. It will automatically change the off time.

Are you using an off the shelf CDI or did you make your own cap charger? 48 watts being high or low would depend on that.

The diodes on the 555, I really don't know. I used that 555 circuit for a long time for various projects because I can change the on and off times for serious pwm control.

[hh1341]

Thanks Arron,

I may have not read all the info on the forum or missed a bit.

This is what I was looking for........

I think the setup to be applicable in a working application would need to have the cap switching done, solid state, and the voltage supplying the cap to be raised from available 12 volt to 120 by, say, a doubler array.
One could use a step-up transformer, driven by a 555, but it's always good to keep the parts count down.

What work has been done in this direction, who is doing it, can I join them?
I need to get this on the road.

Yours
Carl

[min2oly]

Hi Aaron,
thanks for getting this started. Just to be sure, this is what we are talking about right?

I am very interested in how you are supplying the higher voltage at a steady rate on the vehicle itself. I was thinking of using a small 300W inverter. I am more interested in knowing what you have used that actually works.
Thank you for sharing this mod.
-KR
Patrick

[hh1341]

Min2oly.....

An inverter can and has been used to charge the cap.

A DC voltage multiplier would be the bee's knees

The mechanical relay is a weakness also.

Looking for help on both these items .

Carl

[hh1341]

BTW Arron, the package is well worth the 37 bucks.

Thanks
Carl

[Aaron Murakami]

For my cap charger, I use this: MSD 5520 Street Fire Ignition with Rev Control : Amazon.com : Automotive

This unit works perfect for my jet engine - triggered with the same 555 mosfet circuit you see in the book.

The unit also works perfect for my gas generator - I put a threaded rod down the middle of the generator, put on a timing wheel with a magnet embedded in it it triggers a reed that turns on a transistor to connect the msd trigger wire to ground.



ABS 4" end cap is bolted to the generator cover plate with the 2 bolts you see through the timing wheel. The reed switch and transistor setup is mounted to the inside of some ABS tubing that is cut about 4-5 inches long and that is pressed into the end cap. There is a bold coming through the top that I can screw down to lock it into place. Loosening the bolt, I can rotate the pipe inside the end cap to adjust the timing anywhere inside of 360 degrees so basically infinitely adjustable. Obviously, it will only need to be adjusted in a certain range.

When the transistor switches, the white trigger wire from the MSD unit is connected to ground and that discharges it into the ignition coil.



That is the Street Fire MSD unit with performance coil.

For real applications, I wouldn't build my own cap charger - I'd just use an off the shelf MSD or CDI and connect the diode(s) accordingly.

Some people get the off the shelf CDI/MSD's to work and some can't. I'm not sure why - there are too many variables. So far, I haven't been able to not get it to work with everything I've tried. Various MSD units, Street Fire (MSD's budget model), the old Tiger CDI, etc...

@Patrick - the higher voltage is supplied directly by the ignition coil.

[Aaron Murakami]

BTW Arron, the package is well worth the 37 bucks.

Thanks
Carl

Thanks Carl!

[min2oly]

Min2oly.....

An inverter can and has been used to charge the cap.

A DC voltage multiplier would be the bee's knees

The mechanical relay is a weakness also.

Looking for help on both these items .

Carl

Carl,
thanks - wouldn't the distributor take the place of the mechanical relay in the vehicle, or are you talking on the bench?
-KR
Patrick

[Aaron Murakami]

Carl,
thanks - wouldn't the distributor take the place of the mechanical relay in the vehicle, or are you talking on the bench?
-KR
Patrick

You could short out the distributor points if you put the plasma through that. So the diodes go from the CDI/MSD direct to the boot of each plug directly bypassing the distributor.

[hh1341]

Arron .......where is this latest info ...........this stuff has evolved since the package......is it on the forum?

Carl

[Dog-One]

How I do it

Secondary spark gap is a must; something like this will do:


Crunch down the size of the diode string:


Grab yourself a standard ignition system:


Build the circuit from off-the-shelf parts:





Tested on a single cylinder engine to run up to 3600 RPM with no issues. Powerful one inch jet shooting from plug at 30 cycles per second.

Hope this helps folks.

Cheers!

D1

---

P.S.

Currently working on a genset modification using water mist and Brown's gas. Once all the parts are in, I'll have more to show.

[hh1341]

Seems to me the cap charge which rides the ignition spark should be triggered by the conventional timing mechanism (eg points )

This synchronizes the cap discharge with the timing. Therefore things like timing advance are taken of.

The version I envisage is a twist on the one Peter demonstrated.

It needs 2 things as I see it.....

1. A solid state electronic flip flop switch to replace the relay.

2. A simple, robust, way to raise 12 volts to, say, 120 v ( a DC voltage multiplier )

My weak suit is the electronics.

I have replicated the circuits in the package, It's these 2 suggested wrinkles that might stump me.

Who on here would be up for a collaboration on developing these items?

Carl