Directly Measuring Ignition Voltage

KeepItSimpleStupid said:

This https://www.newark.com/vishay-gener...-5at/fast-recovery-diode-1a-1kv-do/dp/12M3636 would probably work for a diode. I'd put a little series resistance like <300 ohms or so. Diodes won;t fail if they are current limited. It also looks like you may want to capture the negative pulse.

The 1500 V ceramic caps that were used on old radios might be a good choice.

These https://www.toolplanet.com/product/...327&gpla=pla&gclid=CM2QqaGRibwCFUjNOgodkggApw might help too.

Click to expand...

I have a lot of Fast Recovery Diodes "SHV-24" They are Rated at 24KV and 2 mA.
I can supply them For Free, Excluding Shipping Cost.

Chemelec it is great to see you.

I want to play around with the diodes I have on hand first. I have some very low vF ones but am not sure if they are fast enough.

Problem is I need to stop playing with the engines long enough to do this and I am on a roll. The running count for the Zombies will be six when I get some parts tomorrow. It would be one more but I ran into a bad valve guide and don't have the tools to replace it.

This is an old thread but this may be of interest --- a capture I did of the secondary ignition voltage waveform on a Briggs & Stratton single cylinder lawn mower engine with the solid state igniter. I used a Hantek HT25 secondary ignition probe for the capture.

Welcome to the forum.
I have the same probe, its been usefull.
Burn time on that plot is very short.

Burn time is a fairly normal burn time for this type of system, burn times vary a lot between systems.

And this is a small pull start engine, of which I've never done this, maybe I will try it on my mower.
With multi cylinder motors you have a reference to go off, you dont have that with a single pot.