Electronic Ignition Comparison Matrix

[CATPart]

Originally Posted by n82rb

lightspeed has had the hall effect mag hole sensor for years. G-10

bob burns
RV-4 N82RB

I see it now. I was confused. Will fix.

[rv6ejguy]

Originally Posted by CATPart

rv6ejguy
No for E100. The price is as they list for the options included in that price. I am noting the various included options with (w)(p)(a) in the individual cells. I will modify the description to help clear that up. I have +gear because people often reuse the gear from their old mag, so it is not necessarily an up front cost.

Ok, got it now. Thanks for clarifying.

[Captain_John]

I love my G3i ignition!

CJ

[rv6ejguy]

The total rpm advance limit won't be too useful if it exceeds say 32+ degrees or so on your average Lycoming, a lot less if you have higher CR than stock or run mogas. Full throttle at SL on a hot day with CHTs over 380 and that much timing will cause lots 'o detonation anyway. Unless a system limits total advance to something like 24 degrees in the event of a MAP sensor failure, there is not much basis in useful fact for the protection claims.

Limiting total advance to data plate or less is the only way to truly protect from detonation (taking into account CR and octane of course) outside of knock sensors or much smarter monitoring of parameters such as CHT and IAT. These are things the EM-5 can do. The CPI also has a knock sensor input but that input is often used for the advance switch.

[CATPart]

updated to revision 4, see first post.

Once a bit more stable I may reorder the features a bit. Also need to find a different picture host because mine resizes to max height of 600 pixels, that's why the text is looking so small.

To sum up this effort, my main goals are to help objectively guide the newcomers and the already savvy, promote general knowledge, eliminate common and redundant questions, prompt more pointed questions.

Captain_John
I totally forgot about G3i! I looked it over and it is conceptually very different and maybe not right for this matrix. But if somebody wants to take a stab at it I can add the info, if it makes sense. I will do some more research too.

rv6ejguy and Toolbuilder,
I think the fact that pmag has the dedicated advance limit setting is the main point. Please don't take my statements of the "protection" this feature offers as gospel, for that was my own interpretation, and not their marketing, my bad for misleading.

everybody else,
thanks for your input thus far.

[N941WR]

Originally Posted by Toobuilder

...

However, we can go one step further than P-mag with SDS and show a practical advance limit even with a MAP malfunction. Since a MAP sensor apparently usually fails high or low, it is very easy to program all MAP points on either side of your operating "window" to provide zero MP advance. So if the MAP sensor fails high on takeoff roll and would drive another ignition to full advance, the SDS unit sees the hard limit and drops the MAP advance to zero, leaving only the RPM setting (which is the same as the data plate on my engine). So where a hard fail of the MAP can be a disaster on other ignitions, on the SDS it is a non-event. That is the power of having the curve at your fingertips instead of locked down.

So, I have no idea how the above should end up on your chart, but thought it worth mentioning.

FYI - The P-mags revert to the minimum timing when they lose manifold pressure, not the maximum limit.

[Toobuilder]

Originally Posted by N941WR

FYI - The P-mags revert to the minimum timing when they lose manifold pressure, not the maximum limit.

Are you suggesting that their software reads an extreme high or low voltage condition in the MAP sensor, recognizes this as some kind of malfunction and then in turn pulls all the MAP advance off the table? If so, then thats one step ahead of Litespeed, it appears.

[scard]

Originally Posted by N941WR

FYI - The P-mags revert to the minimum timing when they lose manifold pressure, not the maximum limit.

Uh huh, so does Lightspeed... .

[N941WR]

Originally Posted by Toobuilder

Are you suggesting that their software reads an extreme high or low voltage condition in the MAP sensor, recognizes this as some kind of malfunction and then in turn pulls all the MAP advance off the table? If so, then thats one step ahead of Litespeed, it appears.

I'm not sure how they measure MAP but I do know if you disconnect the line and leave it open to ambient pressure, it will not advance.

[N941WR]

Originally Posted by scard

Uh huh, so does Lightspeed... .

Scott, I didn't say anything about Lightspeed, just the P-mag.