XS Engineering 20v ignition booster

donk_316 · Post by **donk_316** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 8:36 pm

They are completely sold out and have no idea when they will build more.

But this is a pretty simple 3 wire piece of equipment with proven dyno gains.

It takes your coil / ignition voltage and makes it into 20v by use of magical voltage pixies according to my 9 year old daughter.

SO some of you Fieronerdlingers probably built shit like this for fun. So build them. Or show me how to do it.

Shaun41178(2) · Post by **Shaun41178(2)** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:17 pm

XS Engineering = Stone Mountain racing = SS autochrome = CRAP

donk_316 · Post by **donk_316** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:32 pm

no no.. your thinking of XS Power or whatever... XS Engineering is a highly reputable tuning shop in the USA.

They just raced their R32 and won 1st overall in unlimited AWD.

http://www.xs-engineering.com/

Pick up the latest superstreet mag for all the details.

Shaun41178(2) · Post by **Shaun41178(2)** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:37 pm

oops yea my bad. I got confused.

<--- been drinking.

S8n · Post by **S8n** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:27 pm

Shaun41178(2) wrote:oops yea my bad. I got confused.

<--- been drinking.

On a Tuesday???? Starting late this week, huh?

Kohburn · Post by **Kohburn** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 7:59 am

so basicly ramping up the voltage before it goes into the coil causing it the be even higher when it comes out?

higher voltage = easier spark

donk_316 · Post by **donk_316** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:25 am

yeah something like that.

Mach10 · Post by **Mach10** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:55 am

So, a few caps here, some MOSFETs there... No problemo...

All you need is to build a switching power supply that can handle 10a of surge load, and provide a nice stable 20v output.

But more voltage means more heat, and it has to do all this under the worst possible conditions.

The circuit would be easy. Keeping it from self-destructing (and the coil) would be a little harder.

p8ntman442 · Post by **p8ntman442** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 12:42 pm

you need to build a voltage doubler circuit, or use a transformer, whic a coil is. A step up transformer will take your 12 V and make it into 20V at the cost of sacraficing your current output capabilities V1/V1 = I2/I1 so say v1 is 12 volts and you want v2 to be 20 V. Now say your coil current draw (I1) is 25mA you get 12/20 = I2/25mA = 15mA provided to your coil rather than the 25 you started with.

Now to keep up with current demand, simply double the circuit, and By this I mean, feed two Identical coils with two transformers, and tie the output together and run it to the cap. This will not increase the coil output, but double the current as it is two voltage sources in parallel.

Now your gonna have to deal with timing the coils to fire together, and you will have to do this with the signal from the ignition module. This will be tricky, but you can run 2 electrolytic capacitors between the spliced ignition module output to the 2 coils. The caps (one small and one bigger) will maintain a balance between the two spliced lines. Careful with your capacitor selection, to large and you will muffle the signal and you will have to compensate by advancing the Timing.

Be careful, and buy a few extra ignition modules.

donk_316 · Post by **donk_316** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 12:46 pm

That sounds alot more complicated than the piece they sell...

Its a little box. No bigger than a typical DIS coil. With 3 wires gnd/12+/output to main coil power. Many mags have dyno tested these and they show gains...

here is the accel version: http://cgi.ebay.ca/Accel-200-Universal- ... dZViewItem

Mach10 · Post by **Mach10** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 1:14 pm

p8ntman442 wrote: A step up transformer will take your 12 V and make it into 20V at the cost of sacraficing your current output capabilities

Which is why I'd suggest a voltage regulator circuit rather than just a transformer. For one thing, it'll keep the voltage steady as the current demand fluctuates, rather than accentuating the drop when load increases.

You'd want large caps for surge capacity, and some kind of half-decent heat dissipation circuitry. :thumbleft:

p8ntman442 · Post by **p8ntman442** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 2:26 pm

Look, I dont have the cuircuit card capacity to build a sweet box like XS, I provided a dirty way of home brewing it for probalby less than $50.

As for Large Caps, you dont understand what I was using them for obviously, they were for balance not surge. XS uses capacitive Inductive Discharge, and to build and make that work would require a lot of Money to make look pretty.

Mach, You can not build a voltage regulator that will regulate 12V to antything more than 10V stable, and that would be Iffy.

Donk, If you want a beautiful setup, you will have to wait, and pay for it. This is not an easily homebrewed device to produce.

What they most likely do is Ramp the voltage up to 24V with a transformer inside the box, then use the big ole MOSFET and Capacitors to supply the high current demand. This is why their voltage output is 20 to the coil rather than 24, the voltage regulator can not regulate the 24 cleanly, so it keeps it at 20 and stable.

No doubt it works. your power disapated by the coil will be proportional to your voltage increase. So increasing it by 65% will increase the energy of your spark by 65% as well.

Any one of us that built this and use it anywhere near 6000 RPM would produce a product as reliable as the fiero ignition module.

Mach10 · Post by **Mach10** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 2:31 pm

p8ntman442 wrote:As for Large Caps, you dont understand what I was using them for obviously, they were for balance not surge. XS uses capacitive Inductive Discharge, and to build and make that work would require a lot of Money to make look pretty.

Mach, You can not build a voltage regulator that will regulate 12V to antything more than 10V stable, and that would be Iffy.

I misread, and mis-typed. I meant against using a plain transformer with no voltage correction. You're perfectly correct :salute:

Pyrthian · Post by **Pyrthian** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 9:44 am

so, how wide of a spark plug gap can ya get with this? while a hot spark is nice - a larger spark is even better. a 0.10" gap? a MSD box & coil can get ya a 0.07" gap. from the sounds of it, with capacitive discharge & high voltage - I would guess you could get a 0.15" gap. this is also assuming you can get wires that'll carry that.

donk_316 · Post by **donk_316** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:59 pm

My car runs COP so im not concerned with Spark Plug Wires. They are also upgraded units too.

I dont want to run a wider gap either. I just want to have as strong a spark as possible that cant be blown out by 22psi of boost.

Kohburn · Post by **Kohburn** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 1:55 pm

high voltage isn't what hurts wires or people.. high amperage will melt wires and kill people..

high voltage however can jump gaps much easier

do you just not want to buy one from another company? seems there are a couple companies already making these for reasonable prices.

whipped · Post by **whipped** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:18 pm

Boost Switcher + 20V regulator = done

How much current does an ignition coil use? 3a?

It will probably cost you $50 worth of parts, but I f'n hate switchers. Too much voodoo involved. I built a buck switcher 100% to specs and it works great..... it just overheats. So it's worthless

http://www.powerstream.com/dc-buck-boost.htm

Buy one of those ^^^. The PST-DC/2419-5 will take an input 10.5-30V and turn it into 16.2 to 22V @ 5A. Cost $131 and you don't have to screw around with building things that won't work

Mach10 · Post by **Mach10** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:20 pm

Stock ignition is fused to 10a...

That's 10a @ 12v, though... It'll be a little less at 20

whipped · Post by **whipped** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:23 pm

You can power one with a 9V and get a nice 1" arc

1A... maybe 3A peak

:la:

p8ntman442 · Post by **p8ntman442** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 5:56 pm

I got my numbers from coil resistance. 12v/500 ohms = .024 amps or 24mA Correct me if Im wrong.