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How Gen 2 Ignition Works

14K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  EXBMW 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I posted a link to a video clip on the Generation 1 forum showing how CDI (Capacitive Discharge Ignition) works.

I thought it only fair to post on this Generation 2 forum, a counterpart link to a video clip showing how the Generation 2's "Fully Transistorized Breakerless Ignition" works.

The operating principles are sound; only . . . since the KLR has only one cylinder, there's no DISTRIBUTOR; further, the KLR650 enjoys a "false spark" with each four-stroke cycle; the pickup coil sees TWO triggering pulses each cycle (instead of the ONE shown in the animation, whose rotor turns at camshaft speed, whereas the KLR650's turns at crankshaft speed).

Enjoy! :)

 
#2 ·
Good video, but this guy is more monotone than the guy from the old commertial for clear eyes
 
#3 ·
Dang-it! It still does Not Explain why Tom could Not kick-start a 2008 and Newer Model!

I don't see why the New system can't work in ONLY 1 revolution cycles!
Both Old style and New style ignition systems, have a 'Waste' spark on the exhaust stroke!
And if anything, the new system with even weak battery voltage continuously 'trying' to flow thru the primary ignition coil windings, one would think it should generate a spark.
Why can't the Gen 2 'Spark', in 1 Revolution cycles?

Where as the Old style builds up the capacitor in 'steps'.
How many + poles pass by the Gen 1 exciter coil in one Revolution?
 
#4 ·
How many + poles pass by the Gen 1 exciter coil in one Revolution?
The total number of poles on the rotor, I should think! :)

I mentioned the Generation 1 presentation was simplified; refinements I'd expect in the real-world as-built condition: First, the AC coming from the exciter coils could easily be stepped-up with a transformer; I expect the elves who assembled Generation 1 KLR650s performed that very trick--say, going from maybe 100 VAC to 400 VAC. Next, the schematic shows a half-wave rectifier (the diode, D1?); no reason not to put in a full-wave rectifier, increasing the capacitor-charging coulombs-per-revolution by about 100 % (i.e., nearly twice that of a half-wave rectifier). So, by these refinements, the voltage is increased by a factor of 4, and the charging time and thus, current, by 2.

This discussion doesn't address why the Generation 2 produced no spark with the kickstarter. Is the impulse from the pickup coil too weak to trigger the electronic switch breaking the circuit saturating the ignition coil primary windings?

My cursory drive-by circuit analysis of the Generation 2 ignition suggests; if the ignition coil primary windings are saturated by the 12 VDC of the battery circuit, anything breaking that circuit should induce high voltage and consequent spark from the ignition coil seconday windings. I think somehow, the electronic switch did not receive a sufficiently robust pulse from the pickup coil to open the circuit and generate a spark from the consequently collapsing electromagnetic field . . .

That said, truth be told, I don't know why the kickstarter didn't work. A Generation 2 can be bump-started, AFAIK; electrically, I'm unaware of significant difference between bump-starting and kickstarting. May the frontiers of knowledge someday expand to solve the extant riddle.
 
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