Water Sparkplug

[Aaron]

Lawnmower Running on Plasma Spark

This mower is running on GASOLINE with RXP Generation II additive. Oil is 10-30 with vacclaisocryptene additive. It is a B&S engine...not sure of specs but this mower has been around the block more than once....I got it for free and the handle was even re-welded at the base because it broke. It has been well-loved.

Please see the pics I posted here for details.

Adjustable jet was turned all the way in as lean as possible and the engine did NOT die...opening the throttle made it just want more!

Cap was 23.5uf 160v charged through half bridge...scr discharged cap to primary of coil by reed switch that is triggered by magnet on rotor and it is mounted on a plate where the magneto was.

[Aaron]

Lawnmower Running on Plasma Spark youtube vid

Here is the video link:
YouTube - Plasma Ignition - Lawnmower Running

[theremart]

RE: running on Plasma spark

Here is the video link:
YouTube - Plasma Ignition - Lawnmower Running

Oh sooooo coool! I am very curious if we were to take a generator, and fill it with gas, run it till it died, then put your setup on that generator ( at the max lean setting ) how much longer the same generator would run...?!?!? My next question would be how does the lawnmower do under load? Can it cut grass at the lean setting...?

If we don't get the engine to run on water, at least one could cut back the amount of gas needed ( in theory ).

I also have a lawnmower that I have set aside for experimenting..... gonna look close at what you are doing.

[Ozicell]

Field Tester

@anyone interested, below is a simple test circuit that was posted at OU by IndianaBoys and maybe of interest to some here.

Luc


IndianaBoys Post:
Maybe this will be of assistance?
RIDICULOUSLY SENSITIVE
ELECTRIC CHARGE DETECTOR
Build this simple "electronic electroscope," a FET electrometer
This simple circuit can detect the invisible fields of voltage which surround all electrified objects. It acts as an electronic "electroscope."

Keep up the good work!

IndianaBoys

Hi Guys,

For those who haven't seen it, this is the field tester that Luc is referring to - I think!

YouTube - Energy Field Tester

Cheers
Jeff

[gotoluc]

Hi Luc,

Great work! Excellent comparison. Did you use your old circuit with only one cap, or Aaron's circuit with 2 caps? And if you used your old circuit, how did you protect your 6 diodes from being fried, because I thought the HV out from the coil would be close to 100KV? (1KV x 100)

James

Hi James, I used the old circuit, like you say LOL...maybe we can call it the original or simple circuit ...old well... just makes me feel old.

So yes, I used my simple circuit with one cap and a string of 6 x 1N5408 and the diodes are not protected and still working fine

Luc

[gotoluc]

Hi Guys,

For those who haven't seen it, this is the field tester that Luc is referring to - I think!

YouTube - Energy Field Tester

Cheers
Jeff

Hi Jeff, excellent video and demonstration of the circuit.

Thanks for sharing mate

@Aaron, thanks for the plasma lawn mower video

Luc

[Aaron]

mower ignition

Mart,

I have no doubt it will cut grass fine. It runs stronger with this ignition than the stock magneto even with it on the leanest possible setting.

I want a clear tube with CC measurements so the engine can be run dry and have like 5-10cc's of gas and time the running with and without the caps. Normal ignition, then with CDI, then with the diode and caps.

There are quite a few different tests I want to do but don't have time right now.

The first thing here was just to get the bare bones ignition system just working and timed right. We can probably retard the timing even more and it will run either just fine or even better.

[Jetijs]

Hi guys
Here is a video of my CDI system with water spark mod. There are seven 1n5408 diodes in the array and they are connected through a switch so that I can easily switch between water spark mode or basic capacitor discharge. The SCR is triggered by a solid state relay that is pulsed with my function generator. Unfortunately my solid state relay can not go higher than about 40Hz, but that should be enough for at least 2000 RPM. Now I need to attach a reed switch on the 12v side that will trigger the SSR. This should solve the random triggering problem. Also my generator engine is ready to install the new ignition system. So I will probably get it working by tomorrow.:

YouTube - SCR triggered CDI system with water spark mod

Enjoy

[Aaron]

magnetic switch test

Great vid Jetijs!

I had a thought on your magnetic switch.

What we did first was connect a little 9v alkaline battery with an LED/resistor and in series was the reed switch. We spun the rotor on the mower just to see where the reed would trigger in relation to the position of the magnet on the rotor. It pulsed once per rotation.

Maybe you can try the same just to see if your reed switch at least acts properly in that test.

[Jetijs]

Aaron, the reed switch works good on 12v and switches ok. I made a test. I attached a variac as a power source. The caps were charged through a half wave rectifier and I could change the input voltage anywhere from 0 to about 350V. I moved the voltage up gradually and watched how the reed switch would behave. It worked fine till I got the voltage up to 300V and it started to self trigger. The more voltage, the greater the discharge frequency. So I might be correct in my assumption that the inert gas in the reed switch glass envelope is starting to ionize at those voltages. It behaves just like a neon would at much lower voltages.

[Aaron]

switch

The highest we had the voltage on this particular setup is 160v peak from 120v wall power.

Is there any shaft visible between motor and generator? Any space to put some optical switch?

[Aaron]

Plasma CDI 50hz

Peter and I did this a couple weeks ago. This was a pretest before putting the circuit on the mower to see if it could keep up with the necessary speed.

47uf/160v cap discharged to primary by SCR (2n6507), which is triggered by adjustable 555 circuit.



VIDEO: YouTube - Plasma CDI - Capacitive Discharge Ignition 50hz


.

[tstorey]

Thanks Luc!

Extremely fast. The video cam barely catches it.

The stills are very helpful.

In the first series you had a small round "secondary" arc after the big flash that seemed different from other tests.

I think it is important that we are seeing such "speed."

I think the speed is a big deal and is telling us something important.

Best to all,

T

[tstorey]

Jetijs,

Thanks you for vid! You were getting strong static/interference on your camcorder mike...it was booming!

Beautiful spark.

T

[tstorey]

Aaron, It ran like a champ when you opened the throttle. Very lean add more air...stronger?

T