As I've sat and read through dozens of postings dealing with ignitions

systems I remain fascinated at the creative thinking, inventiveness,

synergy, etc, of the various engine builders and builder wannabes.



But I also wonder why things must be so complicated.  I keep thinking

about the venerable chainsaw.  I've worn out a chainsaw or two, and I

have four running saws out in the shed right now. I could go out their

right now in the ice and snow and any of them will start easily with a

couple of pulls on a rope at about 100 rpm. They burn a relatively high

oil-content fuel, and yet I rarely need to even replace a spark-plug.

They idle easily, run air-cooled on 100F or -40F days, they run much of

their life at many thousand RPM, and I have never had to touch the

ignition system of any of them. I've heard of guys occasionally needing

to replace an ignition "module" on a chainsaw, but you can buy a

replacement module for about $10.



So it seems like we might be complicating things a bit.  Just what am I

missing?



Robin Berglund



They are probably capacitor discharge system similar to an out board

motor although I have never had one apart. As such the flywheel

with built in magnets is a bit hard to build for a home builder.

We are looking for something that uses cheap off the shelf parts

and simple or cheap enough to build by a home builder. The outboard

type is not quite there. Most chain saws are on cylinder so that

would not be suitable for a 2 rotor. Might work OK for a one rotor.

What does a new flywheel cost?



This photo system I have been working on shows the most promise

of meeting the needs of all the systems I have investigated so

far as it is dirt cheap. Other than the coils which are

now down to less than $30 each the electronic parts, what there

are of them, are less than $10. It does not make much sense

to buy an engine for only $3000 and spend $1000 or more on the fuel

and ignition system.



Paul Lamar



http://tinyurl.com/2g5qp67

This guy runs a distributor on the trailing plugs and CDI through the
distributor for the leading plugs.

Todd

Distributors on rotary engines are totally unnecessary as
one rotors fire every rev unlike a 4 stroke 1 cyl piston engine that
fires every other rev. That is why distributors run
at half crank speed.

Mazda did away with distributors in 1992 with the 3rd gen
RX7. They replaced it with cheap crank angle sensor or 2.

Todd can you turn off your html when you send us a message?
It seems to add an unnecessary space between each line.

Paul Lamar