Ignitech programmable ignition manual

[FastBikeGear]

The Ignitech programmable ignition units have proven very popular in New Zealand so I thought it was about time we had a discussion thread for them.

I am happy to attempt to answer any technical queries here for any one who has them. My experience is limited to their TCIP4 units for carburetor end vehicles.

We have been importing and distributing the Ignitech TCI-P4 ignition systems in New Zealand for some time and we have gained quite a bit of experience with the unit fited to our Frankencati. The Frankencati set up proved to a really good test bed for learning about the systems as it is also been fitted with our own Dual Spark Plug heads and getting the ignition otimised to work with these proved more of a challenge than expected.

We came to the realisation very early in the pice that the Ignitech supplied manual suffered from English being the writers second language and it also lacked instructions on new featuers that had been added tothe units over the years, etc.

So I began writing our own manual for the units a couple of years ago and I have been giving this away on request to customers all over the world. Over time and with lots of custmer feed back it's got better and more detailed. I have just finished the biggest rewrite of this that I have done in sometime.

A coule of weeks ago we decided to begin charging nominal fee of just $10 for the manual to help fund the ongoing work in refreshing it and keeping it up to date. We include it for free with every Ignitech unit we sell of course. the easiest way to purchase the manual is from here.

It contains extra detail and clearer explanations than the Ignitech supplied manual which should make understandanding and setting up your unit easier. Sections in navy blue are the sections added/altered by FastBikeGear to the original Ignitech manual.

The manual is focused around setting these units up on Ducati bikes but should be equally valuable to assisting with setting them up on other bikes.

The purpose of creating the FastBikeGear Ignitech manual is to:

1. Improve the readability.
2. Add explanations on how it works (pieced to gather by assumptions, testing, and extra information I have obtained from Ignitech).
3. Add more detail and explanations
4. Document the extra features that the new firmware gives you access to. E.g. It is now possible to get more advance and fire the spark plug before the leading edge of the lobe. Before maximum advance was limited by the length of the lobe on the flywheel.
5. Many people think that the maximum advance you can run before you get pre-ignition or detonation will give you the maximum power. This is often incorrect and I have attached a theory section on this as an appendix to this manual (it's a fairly technical section but do yourself a favour and get your head around it by discussing it over a couple of beers with your mates.)

[F5 Dave]

Only worked on the P2. Yeah set up of advance & rotor position is the most misunderstood part. Everything I've done is trailing edge on the magnet & set std as positive so that wasted a bunch of time. How to set up for a single is missed & important. The Test functions are bloody useful when getting started with an install. Battery voltage lags cause queer problems, total loss systems are dicey at best.

The quick shifter nomenclature is confusing at best as is the powerjet solenoid table which is confusing as heck until you realise how to read it & the interaction of the TPS which I'm still on beginner's turf.

[FastBikeGear]

Only worked on the P2. Yeah set up of advance & rotor position is the most misunderstood part. Everything I've done is trailing edge on the magnet & set std as positive so that wasted a bunch of time. How to set up for a single is missed & important. The Test functions are bloody useful when getting started with an install. Battery voltage lags cause queer problems, total loss systems are dicey at best.

The quick shifter nomenclature is confusing at best as is the powerjet solenoid table which is confusing as heck until you realise how to read it & the interaction of the TPS which I'm still on beginner's turf.

All good comments Dave. Dave I run the TPS with a full 3D map on the Frankecati, works brilliantly. I probably get an extra 5 hp in the mid range (same power up top) but mapping for throttle position sensor defiintely lso makes the bike much smoother.

Your findings match ours Dave. Total loss systems are always an issue with ECU units that need good stable voltage to operate. The Ignitechs need at least 11.5 volts but we also find they benefit from a voltage stabilisation device across their power supply.

[Voltaire]

I've run an ignitech on my 1973 BMW 900 racer total loss for about 18 months, works well. I like the rev limiter function.
The instructions are not that great and as pointed out spent a bit of time on the rotor position.
Took me a day to realize that the the PC did not like non resistor plugs and the screen would freeze.
I run the stock advance of 28 degrees and its been fine for about 40 races.
Set it up for twin plugs but have so far not felt the need for them.
I was running the large stock battery with no issues, now running a Shorai.
Probably put one in the 500cc BMW I am working on next.
I'd be interested in a copy of your notes

[FastBikeGear]

I've run an ignitech on my 1973 BMW 900 racer total loss for about 18 months, works well. I like the rev limiter function.
The instructions are not that great and as pointed out spent a bit of time on the rotor position.
Took me a day to realize that the the PC did not like non resistor plugs and the screen would freeze.
I run the stock advance of 28 degrees and its been fine for about 40 races.
Set it up for twin plugs but have so far not felt the need for them.
I was running the large stock battery with no issues, now running a Shorai.
Probably put one in the 500cc BMW I am working on next.
I'd be interested in a copy of your notes

Yes definitely require either resistive plugs/ resistive leads/or resistive spark plug caps (any one of the three). Without one of the three being resistive you run the risk of destroying the Ignitechs and they officialy they are not covered by warranty if you run them with out one of the three items being resistive. Quite a few of them got destroyed in the US when one ealer over there recommended his customers not use a reistive item in the HT side.

We have had customer run them total loss with the both large lead acid batteries and the Ultrabatt Lithiums. However if the voltage ever drops below about 11.6 volts you wil start to see some issues.

Voltaire, If you would like a free copy of the FastBikeGear Ignitech manual just email me liam@fastbikegear.co.nz and I will email it back to you. There are quite a few pages we have added on the twin plug set up as I am a bif fan of twin plug heads in early bikes with non centrally located spark plugs. Definitely some performance benefits to twin plugging that a lot of people don't realise...but the gains in hp arn't huge.

[F5 Dave]

I think its resistive plugs and caps. Comms with the PC via serial interface gets hazy with just caps so it clearly isn't enough in many cases. Good old DB9 serial port is also more resilient than USB. The older P2 uses a serial cable & the P2 Race uses a USB. Interface adapters can apparently get a bit tetchy. I bought a 2nd hand $30 old school laptop just for the ignitech, (well and My Triumph TuneECU cable setup).

[FastBikeGear]

I think its resistive plugs and caps. Comms with the PC via serial interface gets hazy with just caps so it clearly isn't enough in many cases. Good old DB9 serial port is also more resilient than USB. The older P2 uses a serial cable & the P2 Race uses a USB. Interface adapters can apparently get a bit tetchy. I bought a 2nd hand $30 old school laptop just for the ignitech, (well and My Triumph TuneECU cable setup).

Dave we recommend only using resitive plugs or caps not both. You can use both, but we believe it is preferable not to. Just one or the other is enough. Generally we prefer resistive caps to plugs because with resistive caps you never run the risk of dead shorting the HT side to earth.

We also VERY STRONLY recommend against using supressed leads (on the older bikes). Just recommend using good old copper cored wire!

Yes we have had lots of problems with after market USB cables that cause issues and even corruption of the configuration. We have successfully used one brand we get locally, but to avoid problems we now recommend using the ones we get form Ignitech.

For updating the firmware (as opposed to the configuration) we definitely recommend using a a good old DB9 serial port. It is also important not to mix and match incompatible firmwares with the wrong versions of the configuration software. These need to be kept in step. We have custom configuration software and firmware that we use (that Ignitech developed for us at our request - this custom firmware gives us access to some extra features not available in the standard firmware and software package). For the earlier version 80 units and we use the standard firmware and configuration softare for the later version 88 units.

[FastBikeGear]

I think its resistive plugs and caps. Comms with the PC via serial interface gets hazy with just caps so it clearly isn't enough in many cases. Good old DB9 serial port is also more resilient than USB. The older P2 uses a serial cable & the P2 Race uses a USB. Interface adapters can apparently get a bit tetchy. I bought a 2nd hand $30 old school laptop just for the ignitech, (well and My Triumph TuneECU cable setup).

Dave we recommend only using resitive plugs or caps not both. You can use both, but we believe it is preferable not to. Just one or the other is enough. Generally we prefe resistive caps to plugs because with resistive caps you neve run the rik of dead shorting the HT side to earth.

We also VERY STRONLY recommend against using supressed leads, Just use good old copper cored wire!

Yes we have had lots of problems with after market USB cables that cause issues and even corruption of the configuration. We have successfully used one brand we get locally but to avoid problems we now recommend using the ones we get form Ignitech.

For updating the firmware (as opposed to the configuration) we definitely recommend using a a good old DB9 serial port.

It is also important not to mix and match incompatible firmwares with the wrong versions of the configuration software. These need to be kept in step. For the older version 80 units (with 16 bit processors) we have custom configuration software and firmware that we use (that Ignitech developed for us at our request - this custom firmware gives us access to some extra features not available in the standard firmware and software package). Most customers won't need thees extra features.

For the later version 88 units (with 32 bit processors) we currently use the standard firmware and configuration softare that Ignitech is supplying with them.

[koba]

Thread Subscribed.

Fitting will start

[F5 Dave]

Carbon leads are for cars with excess power from a mondo coil and limited revs. Seen a few bikes that get miraculously cured of the misfires once they take off that silly coloured car coil they fitted a week back along with some dyna coils or some such.

[FastBikeGear]

Carbon leads are for cars with excess power from a mondo coil and limited revs. Seen a few bikes that get miraculously cured of the misfires once they take off that silly coloured car coil they fitted a week back along with some dyna coils or some such.

Sound like we have had similar experiences with those leads!

I ascribe no magical properties to the Dynatech coils either!

But matching the dwell settings to whatever coils you use is key to maximising performance from any ignition system. We have just added a section on doing exactly that into our Ignitech manual.

I am a big fan of using low primary coil reistance/reactance coils where the ECU can handle them.

I was discussing ths with Jan at Ignitech last year and he reckons the Ignitechs can easily handle 0.8 ohm coils.

I haven't tried it yet but I want to do some some back to back tests with the Ignitech set up for some 3 ohm coils and some 0.8 ohm coils and see if I can detect any differences, Theory suggests we will get a better spark at higher revs, all other things being equal...I am just not sure that a better spark at higher revs on the bike I am currently playing with will yield any performance benefits as it seems to setting fire to what's in the cylinder pretty damn well at the moment!

[Voltaire]

thanks for the manual and advice Liam, I too agree that the setting up of the rotor and pickup is the part I struggled with.
Thanks for higlighting the relationship between the leading and trailing edge.
some photos would be useful for showing right and wrong ways of doing it.
I say mine was wrong but I was able to compensate for it via the software provided.
I use a usb port via an adaptor I got at Jay Car.

Swapping over motors this week in preparation for the HMCC series so see how it goes.

Cheers John

[FastBikeGear]

thanks for the manual and advice Liam, I too agree that the setting up of the rotor and pickup is the part I struggled with.
Thanks for higlighting the relationship between the leading and trailing edge.
some photos would be useful for showing right and wrong ways of doing it.
I say mine was wrong but I was able to compensate for it via the software provided.
I use a usb port via an adaptor I got at Jay Car.

Swapping over motors this week in preparation for the HMCC series so see how it goes.

Cheers John

Thanks for the feed back John...and good suggestion I will add some photos to go along with the diagrams the next time I update the manual. I have some good luck with some inexpensive USB adaptor cables I got from Dick Smith, they were fine for chaning hte configuration but I had to go back to using a DB9 cable when I wanted to reflash (update) the firmware in a unit recently.

[DaveyJones]

Hi

I have a SPARKER DC-DCI-P2 race for my aprilia rs250.
Having problems with communication between unit and computer. I have the plug and play loom so should be no issues with wiring. But am using a USB to serial adapter and thinking that may be the issue.
Any body else have this problem?

[F5 Dave]

USB adapters can be an issue I've heard, which is why I bought a $30 laptop with good old RS232 port. But you should get it to work. Obviously if it's running you'll need resistor plugs.