Topic: c5 power arc ignition Who knows about the saturation settings for coils ?

[boyt666]

hello ,

any time ago I replaced my Boyer Bransden ignition ( after all still good stuff...) with a c5 power arc ignition with mc-2 coils , already had a discussion before here and had a lot of email traffic with the shop... They don't reply my email anymore because the fault is 100 prc on my bike and not their system ....
Too less fuel , wiring not ok, fuel cap vent holes blocked, bad airfilter, .... I checked and tested all possible problems, but it ran ok before with the Boyer Bransden ignition , so why should there be something wrong with my bike....
Last year I took contact with the nearest biker who ones also the ignition ( and had the same issues also ... thank SOHC forum for that opportunity !  ) but his coiled burned up too , mine are still standing ...
Herbert L. gave up and sold his programmer cable to me , so I'm now capable of programming the ignition and full testing, I tried many different curves and settings , but I keep the saturation under their safe setting so I would certainly not end up with a burned coil ....

Last week I put in a larger battery , the liPo only has 2 or 4 Ah ( but 240 A start power ) and my other from a bmw f800s gives 12 Ah , so plenty of juice....

So my best result is the curve from power arc itself .... , but NOT with 3 sparks ! 1 and 2 sparks give about the same result but with a 3 spark it falls flat on his face at 7000 rpm ,
In the meanwhile I have read a lot info , so cars only use multisparks at idle an very low rpm

Now my question , there is also a curve to set the saturation of the coils , that means the on / off time to recharge the coil ...  To know the exact setting I should need ifno about the coils ,
and a good calculator....  but because power arc doesn't reply my question , I still can't find any coil spec...
I  lowered the curve a bit on the 1 and 2 spark curves  ( see image for sample how the curve looks )
Their max setting is about 150 crank degrees I think seen at the curve index  ( of a total 180 or 190 ? by honda engine ? ) so that means only 40 degrees rest ( off time ? ) ....

Any help welcome , just need to know how much I could lower the saturation , so maybe I could get 1 or 2  bigger sparks  iso 3 smaller sparks !

Thanks !

Kind regards ,

Sam

[Nicklopic]

Following for your results
But the one snippet I can add is that externally, the powerarc MC-2 coil is a Hyundai Kia waste spark coil. BWD part e874. Powerarc claims that their coils are proprietary and fancy but visually the coil they use is identical except the addition of that epoxied board instead of a standard pigtail and the coil boot pulled off. Standard motor products might be more willing to divulge the specs of their coils than powerarc and it might give you the baselines you need to try to calculate the rest.
I have the contact information for my areas BWD rep and if you tell me what you'd like to know, he might be able to get me some information if it helps.
Again I have no idea if internally the coils are the same but I can't see powerarc being able to drastically change the coil themseves but who knows

[boyt666]

thanks Nick , if this type of coil match this would be a big step forward.... normally for saturation test or dwell time they also use an oscilloscope . but thats why the spec of the coil are interesting, then you know the value right away. 
formula is to convert  milliseconds into crank degrees ecetera....
Thanks , I will search for more info about these coils !

[johno]

If your doing this for the technical challenge, good luck and enjoy.
If your doing it just to get the bike running, change tack and put your Boyer back on or buy something else.

[MRieck]

If your doing this for the technical challenge, good luck and enjoy.
If your doing it just to get the bike running, change tack and put your Boyer back on or buy something else.

Boy, is that the truth spoken by a man that knows the heartache.

[bear]

If your doing this for the technical challenge, good luck and enjoy.
If your doing it just to get the bike running, change tack and put your Boyer back on or buy something else.

Boy, is that the truth spoken by a man that knows the heartache.

I posted my opinion on these things when Johno started his journey.
But that was quite some time ago.
So again, in my opinion these things are nothing more than an electronic version of snake oil.

[scottly]

Even C5 and power arc gave up on the POS system:
http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php/topic,182962.0.html

[boyt666]

a lot of negative reactions for the c5  ,electronics are indeed so delicate to vibratios , heat and humidity....the latest version like mine should be more heat resistant...they assume...
  I don't like the way they treated me as a customer, put weeks of work and testing in it , and they say I don't do enough effort... they wouldn't even sell me the programmer cable !  but my engine starts great , have a good take off , idles better at start stop traffic lights ,runs smoother and clears out the weak spot rev point at 3-4 k rpm.  I regularly clean the inside of the ignition cover to avoid any dust and dirt , never run in wet conditions , unless it's unexpected rainfall...

thanks for all the info , ps could't find yet more spec for the coils

[boyt666]

a bit of sniff around in the backyard of c5 itself ....
found some article.... see attachement... so a coil only need 10 degrees to recharge...
all info still welcome and can't thanks this forum enough for all the helpfull info and mods of users !

[boyt666]

 link to article
http://www.c5ignitions.com/uploads/1/5/1/5/15151528/part_3_-_electrical_loads.pdf