Just a quick heads up to let you know that things are finally moving forwards on an ignition solution thanks to the tireless work of James Murray who, fed up waiting for me is just going ahead.

Primarily this involves an additional input board that will support dual VR sensors and the output drives to the coil packs. It will be a universal board so will work with factory coil packs (built in ignitors) and regular coils. Exact configs have yet to be completed, but it will drive at least 4 channels, which will be fine for 13Bs with split trailing and 20B with no split.

For 3 and 4 rotor engines that want split timing there is still the dual EDIS approach. Still a lot of testing to do mind.

The first test boards are being made up at the moment. It will be a while, as I have to get my car on the road and fit the s5 coil packs I have on the car. But in the meantime, if you are thinking about megasquirt don't ebay the 24+2 CAS lying around in the garage.

 

Very nice, thanks

I'm doing the GM-HEI ignition now tho, but I know I'm going to be megasquirting other cars, so this is definitely something for me to watch

 

assuming you have a scrappy near by the HEI solution will probably be cheaper, but we are aware that a number of people can't/don't want to go that way.

 

I have a way to run my 20B like Bill said with no split, or no trailing at all and the leading will have 0° and 180° sparks seperated between rotors correctly which no other ECU can provide; all on the MegaSquirt with only three ignition channels (the three LEDs on the front of the case can be used for this, and they look cool too). The best solution would be with a trailing split and 0° and 180° leading sparks for the least emissions, but that would require six ignition channels and some creative coding. Of course trailing adds nothing for power and I don't have emissions testing, so I'm not interested. I'll stick with the three channels for now.

I'd like to try both ignition systems I mentioned above on a dyno some day to see if there is any power difference.

Man, this MegaSquirt stuff keeps getting better. It's so cool that I think I'd like to get another MS and throw it on my planned carbed supercharged 13B project for ignition control only with optional EFI later. The boost retard feature is fully programable to whatever I want (much better than a locked dizzy). It'll consist of 2nd gen leading and trailing coil assemblies to take advantage of their beefy ignitors, and an unmodified CAS. After I'm done with my current projects I'd like to take on this next MS project and try to get 24+2 from a stock CAS working with an LM1815 circuit or two.

 

Still say an EDIS 6 would do you fine and be a lot less hassle. We have a 4-rotor PP here running great on an EDIS 8 setup and 4 FD leading coils.

 

EDIS is too much work in my opinion compared to the wheel decoder. It's also less flexible. With my setup, I can mimic EDIS6 firing leading and trailing with no split, or the other way with dual leading sparks per rotor face. Also, since there are now four outputs, I could also hook up a 26B pretty easily configured as a V8. Or I could run it leading-only on just two ignition channels triggering two FC leading coils. It depends on the rotor phasing, but I'd think it could fire L1 and L3 together, then fire L2 and L4 togther (whichever two are phased 180° apart). Plus you wouldn't befoul your engine bay with Ford parts.

I know the prospect of a trigger wheel on the eccentric shaft is great since there would be no gear lash to worry about, but a rotary does not have a cam, and the CAS is driven directly from the eccentric shaft. How did you mount your trigger wheel(s)? I'm sure it required more work than removing a couple teeth from the CAS wheel. Then again, the 2nd trigger input of the latest codes could render CAS mods obsolete. I'll need to try it after my current projects are done.

It's nothing personal. EDIS just doesn't 'spark' my interests. Sorry.

 

I donno, the HEI solution cost me $23 :p

 

Horses for courses. If you have an FD front then you have a VR mount, so a 36-1 is an 'easy solution'. However for those with time/inclination there are a number of ways to skin the cat. What James is looking at is an easy build solution that can be clearly documented and readily wired in using stock mazda parts.

At the end of the day there will be a number of solutions so you can pick and chose. Which can only be good. Now I just have to get a test bench setup and the car running.

 

I've already done the bench testing for my latest project. Now I've just gotta get the car running.

Something you wrote earlier didn't click until now. You mentioned using four FD leading coils which I assume is to to fire the L and T plugs in each rotor housing. Are you aware that's not an optimal solution? First, the FD coils aren't as good as FC coils (ask forum users j9fd3s or RETed for more info) and second, you shouldn't hook both outputs from a double ended coil to the same rotor housing (ask peejay or renns for an eloquant explanation). I'd keep typing, but I'd just butcher the info.

 

Well aware of the physics of it. I have a 4 channel CDI unit lined up in case there are spark limitation issues. At the moment it is running very nicely. Once run it we will see if it will also light a 200HP shot of NOS.

 

This is awesome news!
I've been watching (and drooling over) MegaSquirt's development since B&G's article in Circuit Cellar issue #138! (although I've only been collecting emails for a while now... not reading enough of 'em)
The one thing that was holding me back over the years has been the rotary ignition issues... you can bet that I'll be watching the progress on this one!

Bill:
Is there any specific forum or mailing list where the primary discussion of these modifications you and James are working on takes place? I'm aware of at least 2 mailing lists, maybe 3. I'm on the original list, but don't remember if I signed up for the yahoo list (If I did it was set to "browse-only"). I'd like to follow this so I know when I should take the plunge.

Great thanks to both of you for this work!

 

Thanks Bill and James. The rotary community owe you.

 

Might this thread be the right place to follow your progress?

If not, I'm guessing this is the right forum.


Thanks again!

 

To be honest I don't spend much time on the forum any more as it is too slow for my dialup. This one is barely usable with all this bl***dy avatars etc.

Mikes solution is one of many. What James is doing is taking something I have gotten nowhere with for years and making it a reality, I just have to test it out with the others in the MS rotary circle of experimental stuff and see if we can come up with an easy to fit rotary solution. At the moment there is not a specific forum on MS for this as it is too early for that. Once boards are made up and testing begins I am sure something will appear.

Bill

 

You can eliminate that as an issue either by turning off downloading of images in your web browser, or if you only want it to affect your view of this forum... click on "user/cp" then click on "edit options" on the left, scroll down, and uncheck "Show Avatars" and "Show Images".

 

ok how hard is it honestly to get a turbo second gen hooked up and tuned with the megasquirt? ive considered this a few times but have never seen anyoen actually really do it. and i really dont wanna pay 300+ bucks for a completed kit off of ebay.

 

I don't understand people who go MegaSquirt in kit form, half the fun is biulding it

It's pretty easy IMO, especially if the setup Bill's talking about comes out!

Though, after having done it keeping the stock harness, I reccomend getting another harness instead and chopping the stocker out. It's only a bit more work for a cleaner finished product IMO.

 

Definetly skip the factory harness. Best to start with new wires like below.

http://www.rs-autosport.com/

 

T2 Shouldn't be too hard. Not tried myself, as I have a 4 rotor to sort as well as a sweet 1st gen with a set of bike TBs for a friend.

 

I'm wiring up my 20B today.

 

i dont think it would be, but i dont want to take on building a unit myself and the ones i see on ebay are 300 plus.

 

Rotary ignition is ready for testing. http://www.msefi.com/viewtopic.php?t=7471 Anyone interested?

 

how much would the whole setup be for a t2 be? (the ecu, wiring, ignition, etc)

 

I didn't get a wiring harness or a relay board. I also didn't need a flyback board (14 ohm injectotrs) and I already had the ignitors and coils laying around. The MS in kit form was like $140 and the stimulator was an extra $40 or so. Total cost including shipping I think was $187 from Glen's Garage along with a solid month wait in August of last year. He's up to two months or more now due to fame. The time I spent building it and learning how to set everything up was priceless. There are other options for getting kits or pre-built units and wiring harness etc.

Some links.
http://www.rs-autosport.com/

http://www.diyautotune.com/

http://www.glensgarage.com/

 

It's also worth mentioning that I already had a CAS and an ignitor capable of handling 24 teeth per cycle (12 per rev) for VR signal conditioning up to at least 7400RPM (the top speed I could spin it in my drill press) and most other people will need to set up an LM1815 circuit for their VR signal conditioning. Two actually if they want to use an unmodified CAS with its dual VR sensors.

To sum up my MegaSquirt experience thus far, I'd have to say: man, I got lucky. I hope to be able to say I'm glad it worked out in the end, but I'm not quite there yet. Maybe some time this week I will be.