Upgrading ignition timing

[a101960]

Clearly the issue of unsuitable fuel for our BSAs is not going to go away. This set me thinking about the possibility of retro fitting an anti knock sensor. Texas Instruments for example, market interface modules which are surprisingly inexpensive (£5.34). Sensor units are available from around £25 upwards. Now given that the sensor is more or less a listening device that creates a voltage that is sent to the module does anyone think that an anti knock system could be made to work with a Pazon or Boyer electronic ignition system? From what I have been able to deduce the sensor detects the sonic waves produced by pinking and the module retards the ignition just enough to stop the pinking. In theory it should be possible to devise an anti knock system for our BSAs. Manor Mike you are an electronic wiz kid is this a viable project to research?

John

[bsa-bill]

Having just fitted a Pazon unit (with remarkable results so far although shed bound due to work at the moment) this is interesting.
 Question for Pazon maybe John, maybe they will incorporate in a future version
 thinking it out a little further how difficult could it be to arrange for the Pazon trigger unit to be made cable adjustable and the riders ear to be the sender unit, would moving the trigger unit while the motor is running confuse the ignition unit -

[muskrat]

G'day John, Bill,
                     I asked Pazon a while back if they could make a unit like the Dyna 2000ip unit I put in a mates HD. It has 4 advance curves and 4 rev limits as well as a voes (vacuum op elec switch) std. Then you can hook up the laptop and adjust all that further to suit your needs. He said may bee in the future.
 I am thinking of getting a 2000ip and modifying it to suit, but at $500 to butcher, it may bee a while here too.
Cheers

[Dynamo Regulators Mike]

John
It is flattering that you ask me as an 'electronics wizard'. I guess anything is possible but it would not be a trivial project. Not least issue would be devising a means to control the ignition unit's advance. Would probably be fun to do but not very cost effective and would take a lot of hours as well.
Bill's idea of adding a degree (or few degrees) of manual retard would be easier. I have read of cylinder head temperature guages to monitor for adverse effects of poor fuel (or whatever) which might bring much the same benefits in avoiding engine over stress here. But my feeling is that if fuel variation is a big problem then a slight reduction in compression would provide a low tech but practical resolution. That and getting the carburation spot on and good strong sparks and our twins run very nicely indeed under a wide range of conditions.
Cheers
Mike

[t20racerman]

I'm not knocking a great idea, but with so few A owners interested in fitting such a system the viability of such a project must be low. A manual advance and retard does the job quite well, as does AVgas if you can get it. If you have lower compression pistons the problem goes away too.
Me, I'm interested, but there can't be many of us

[muskrat]

just about any bike with mag or coil ignition would benefit. Lots of 'em out there.
Cheers

[bsa-bill]

come to think about this technology already exists, sort of, motogp bikes purposefully misfire when accelerating.
It would be sneaking into into engine management  though, maybe our old design engines can only go so far down that route

[Dynamo Regulators Mike]

Yes. If you want state of the art engine control it is readily bought at your five star modern dealer at a price. Fuel injection would bring real benefits too.
For old world charm and everyday practicality the pre-unit twins are hard to beat IMO.
Mike