Paul,  Further to the stats. of Aust engine failures, It appears that
the failures are mostly spark and not fuel although both need a power
supply.  It is suggested that between all the requirements for spark,
Cranks angle sensor, ECU to control, either trigger box or smart coils,
wiring to everything plus a bullet proof power supply and the inevitable
electronic failure, hence the current problem. Since none of the ECU
manufacturers microtech and motech are interested at this stage in
altering their firing to accommodate your multifire, I am trying to get
redundancy into the present system.  I am suggesting leaving the current
system in place which will get the ECU to tell me what advance it is
using, which it does, while actually controlling the engine.  Then if
your system is also installed that can be either the main or backup
system.  Coils are the same, but I now have the standard ECU spark
control,  (and yours in standby) or it can be reversed with yours the
main with the standard ECU as backup.  Not entirely sure this will work,
so that is now my question. Will it work and how difficult to get to
work? Fuel failure seems to be way down the panic list, whereas ignition
is top of the list.  AS stupid as usual,

Neil.

My system has the coils built in. It can not use off the shelf coils as used
by Microtech and Tracy's system. Smart coils or otherwise.
This means you have only one set of spark plug wires.

It is a complete stand alone ignition system. One system
per spark plug. Four complete ignition systems. Highly redundant.

I am testing them for hours at 10,000 RPM and 6 sparks.
The temperature of the box stays below 100 F.
It is very efficient.

A mechanical failure of an electronic part is not possible as they are
embedded in solid potting compound.

Paul Lamar



Paul,  had an interesting conversation with a bloke who wires up planes for
a living.  I asked him re the EFI failures and he was adamant that most of
the failures are back to dodgy wiring by the owners.  He cited two Lycomings
where the wires were not secured well enough and naturally the flywheel
"ate" the lead with the expected result. Then he cited another instance
where the fan belt was not replaced despite it having a crack in it when
inspected.  It failed on takeoff, but not completely, just enough to flap
around and wipe all crank angle sensor wires out.  The plane crashed all for
the want of a $20 fan belt.  He is a fan of EFI once the wiring is firmly
secured to prevent failure even if the fan belt or flywheel is intent on
destroying the wiring.  He certainly shone a different light into the
darkness.
   Another question, if you are firing the lead coil multiple times,  Do
you actually need the trailing spark at all?

Neil.

I don't know. To be determined in testing. AIXRO and  Austro Engines do not
use them. Austro engines has 2 plugs side by side.

If you really want a dual set of coils you will need something like this.
The top post go to the spark plugs and the bottom post go to the coils
or stand alone ignition systems. You slide the top bar along to select
the second set of coils or ignition systems.

This selector switch is similar to a distributor. The rotor cap in the distributor
selects one of 4 or more spark plug wires. However that rotates while
this one is stationary.

A rotary version would also work and may be more compact.

Paul Lamar

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