The new news 24 thread

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Welcome back Dave Numbers!!!!

[dave21478]

Is there a fuel burning heater on that freelander?

Yes, i took it off while I had the bumper off. It hasnt worked for a while though so I will be stripping it down and seeing whats what. Internet suggests either the glowplug or injector are common failure points. I will be doing a thread on it if I can get any joy from it.

[richardmorris]

Arrived at work this morning to find one of my customers Alfa 159 sitting outside with a towing eye sticking out the front. It turns out he tried to drive through a rather deep puddle. I didn't hold out much hope as it is a diesel, but after removing the air filter and draining all the water out of the intercooler it only went and fired up. It's running a little rough but may live again which is just as well considering how much money he has spent on it over the last 2 years. In other news I got another replacement key for the Rolls today, the first one they managed to mix up the key number and cut the wrong one. This time they have cut the right code but used the wrong key blank so it still doesn't fit, fingers crossed that it will be third time lucky with the next one.

You’d think Rolls Royce specialists may do something better to justify their high fees.

[DodgeRover]

Yes, i took it off while I had the bumper off. It hasnt worked for a while though so I will be stripping it down and seeing whats what. Internet suggests either the glowplug or injector are common failure points. I will be doing a thread on it if I can get any joy from it.

Don't forget the dosing type fuel pump that goes with it

[New POD]

You’d think Rolls Royce specialists may do something better to justify their high fees.

It's the Rolls Royce of key cutting.

[SiC]

Got my Sparkrite SX4000 that I bought from SimonBBC off eBay. I believe Accuspark sell the same unit too. Quite cheap at £30 and that included 4 spark testers too.

 

Naturally the first thing I did was to rip the lid off. I can't say I'm totally impressed with the build quality nor how long it'll last though. Take a look at this:

 

The green LEDs is haphazardly bent across. Looks like the case designer didn't speak to the PCB designer. The red LED with a resistor is bodged in onto the switch and badly soldered to the back of the PCB. While the switch itself is not a waterproof or sealed unit. Moisture and condensation will get in and rust that out pretty quickly.

 

The input wires are held in place by the back of the lid. No strain relief and worse, a sharp edge. Likely to chafe through and short out. As most older cars don't have their ignition circuit fused, this can easily cause a fire.

 

The two electrolytic filtering capacitors on the back are not secured and left hanging. Fine for products in the home that aren't move but in an automotive environment they're likely to fall off from vibration work hardening the leads.

 

The other side of the PCB isn't much better. There is solder residue left from some hand soldering. The routing of the PCB tracks is awfully messy and really not optimal. Looks like whoever designed the PCB either didn't really know what they were doing or did not care one jot.

 

There is also no conformal coating on the PCB at all, so it's almost certainly going to corrode and rust away over time as moisture gets in. Before it does that, it's likely it'll cut out and die.

 

The input voltage regulator doesn't appear to either be automotive rated. As automotive is a hostile environment electrically and environmentally, it's likely this will degrade and die. At least they bothered putting a TVS diode to try and soak up some of the bigger peaks. However this is a 53v part and the voltage regulator has a maximum input of 24v. So spikes will damage the part anyway.

 

It's interesting they used a microcontroller. Not sure entirely what it's doing but I imagine it's probably debouncing the points and maybe sorting the dwell period. I may dig out my Microchip programmer and see if the memory is locked down from reading it. Then I can see what it's actually doing and going on.

 

Also concerning is the lack of low impedance decoupling caps on the microcontroller power pins. Again it gives off a design smell that the designer didn't really know what they were doing. Even a bog standard 100nF capacitor is better than the zilch on here and literally fractions of a cent. So cheap that a lot of Chinese PCB assemblers don't bother charging for them.

 

What looks to be a diode across the distributor points appears to be a late addition to the design as there is no footprint markings on the PCB for it. At least they used a automotive rated coil driver J-FET for driving the coil though. Probably the only decent part of the design.

 

As the design is so simple, I quickly sketched a schematic of the board. It's a tad messy, as the last time I hand drew a schematic was over 10 years ago when I was at uni.. I didn't include the input switch or red LED but that basically only switches the distributor points input directly to the coil output.

 

 

I honestly don't think I want to put this in my car given the crappyness of the design. At the very least I may swap out the switch for a waterproof one and give the PCB a spray of Conformal Coating.

 

2/10.

[Coprolalia]

I absolutely love this site sometimes... 'I bought this new-fangled doodad off eBay, stripped it down and systematically reverse-engineered it to review.'

Outstanding that man.

 

SiC proving case in point the depth and strength of knowledge on here.

[dollywobbler]

Now I'm worried, as that's exactly what I have on the Invacar. It does work, but I wonder for how long?

[Timewaster]

 

Considering a rebrand to ‘The Baseman’.

Hey DJ, Where's the BASE?!

 

See what I did there?

[SiC]

Now I'm worried, as that's exactly what I have on the Invacar. It does work, but I wonder for how long?

Well I'm a designer, so I always like to make things to best practice, to last a reasonable amount of time, hit a cost target and to be designed for manufacturer. For me personally it does fall short in its robustness especially. However they do appear to work and as the design is simple, there isn't a lot to go wrong. So they're likely to do the job you need it to. My biggest concern is its longevity - especially under the bonnet of a car with noise, vibration and moisture. Failure won't be measured in weeks or even months but more likely in a year or two.

 

It would be interesting to see what Cobblers view is on the design. Where I design things to be made, he is the one who sees the consequences of our design decisions and what fails!

 

Also I'd be interested to crack the lid of one off that has been in use for a couple of years.

 

For me to be happy to use it, I'll probably do the following things:

• Cut out the switch entirely and wire it so it directly controls the points all the time. Realistically I am very unlikely to switch the unit out. If I need to do that, as it sits between the coil and the points, I can simply disconnect the lead to the box and connect these two back together again. They're only spade terminals after all.
• Support those capacitors with hot melt glue. This should stop vibration damaging the parts and making them fall off.
• Cut back the metal back plate around wire exit and use hotmelt glue to seal the exit.
• Spray conformal coating onto the PCBs. E.g. this stuff https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/servisol-pcb-lacquer-re80b

Kinda spurred me on to want to make my own mappable Ignition system - especially as the original distributor for my MGB is knackerd. Aftermarket distributors don't seem to have a lot of details on the advance curve of them. So they won't be running as the originals did. Also with modern fuels, the ignition timing isn't likely to be optimal either. It's why I originally bought that cheap £27 Accuspark distributor to play with. However that at the moment has been put into duty in the MGB.

 

There isn't a whole lot of hardware needed to do it, but the commercial ones are so damn expensive! Most programmable ignition systems are well above £200. E.g. 123 Ignition, lumenition (I don't think this one is even got a map - just an amplifier), Aldon Amethyst, the well known MegaJolt and et al.

 

The best is the MegaJolt, but this is designed to replace the distributor completely. Even though it is better to replace it completely and have a coil pack, it does loose some of the originality and unless you want absolute top performance (i.e. racing) I don't think its entirely necessary.

[Saabnut]

Back in my yoof (late 70s early 80s) these were considered THE thing to have. Over the years, the Sparkrite lost that reputation and are now considered as shite on several of the old motor forums I frequent

 

SiC has just explained why this has happened and that the consensus of Sparkrite being shite is correct. Thank you.

[dave21478]

Sparkrite alarms and immobiliser stuff is utter pish - always has been. When I used to sell that sort of thing these were GUARANTEED to be fucked in under a year, almost always due to damp ingress.

A misfiring alarm is a pain in the arse and an unreliable immobiliser is a nightmare....no way would I use any ignition-related stuff made by them.

To be honest I had assumed the company would have folded decades ago.

[stonedagain]

I used a Lumenition ignition on old Fords back in the 80's. It might still be buried up the loft somewhere!

[Bucketeer]

Thanks for sharing that SiC, very interesting. I fear that the full extent of my pre-fitment investigation and analysis would be to shake the box.

[somewhatfoolish]

Sparkrite ignition doohickey review

 

2/10.

I think I've got a 70s-80s era sparkrite transistor ignition doohickey in a box somewhere; if you fancy doing the same to it and posting a review I'll lob it in a jiffy bag. The comparison would be interesting, not least the relative quality of components.

[Parky]

My Chevette had a Lumenition system and it was about the only part of the car that didn't break on me. That was early 90's.

 

Currently sitting in Costa while the daily gets its MOT. Ten years old next week with a perfect score on MOTs so far. Could today's be a step too far?

 

Key factors seem ok. Obviously I can't check the emissions unless I spend some time with the exhaust gases, and whilst the front tyres are just legal I might get an advisory there. God it's like awaiting an exam result isn't it?

[alcyonecorporation]

Got my Sparkrite SX4000 that I bought from SimonBBC off eBay. I believe Accuspark sell the same unit too. Quite cheap at £30 and that included 4 spark testers too.

 

Naturally the first thing I did was to rip the lid off. I can't say I'm totally impressed with the build quality nor how long it'll last though. Take a look at this:

 

The green LEDs is haphazardly bent across. Looks like the case designer didn't speak to the PCB designer. The red LED with a resistor is bodged in onto the switch and badly soldered to the back of the PCB. While the switch itself is not a waterproof or sealed unit. Moisture and condensation will get in and rust that out pretty quickly.

 

The input wires are held in place by the back of the lid. No strain relief and worse, a sharp edge. Likely to chafe through and short out. As most older cars don't have their ignition circuit fused, this can easily cause a fire.

 

The two electrolytic filtering capacitors on the back are not secured and left hanging. Fine for products in the home that aren't move but in an automotive environment they're likely to fall off from vibration work hardening the leads.

 

The other side of the PCB isn't much better. There is solder residue left from some hand soldering. The routing of the PCB tracks is awfully messy and really not optimal. Looks like whoever designed the PCB either didn't really know what they were doing or did not care one jot.

 

There is also no conformal coating on the PCB at all, so it's almost certainly going to corrode and rust away over time as moisture gets in. Before it does that, it's likely it'll cut out and die.

 

The input voltage regulator doesn't appear to either be automotive rated. As automotive is a hostile environment electrically and environmentally, it's likely this will degrade and die. At least they bothered putting a TVS diode to try and soak up some of the bigger peaks. However this is a 53v part and the voltage regulator has a maximum input of 24v. So spikes will damage the part anyway.

 

It's interesting they used a microcontroller. Not sure entirely what it's doing but I imagine it's probably debouncing the points and maybe sorting the dwell period. I may dig out my Microchip programmer and see if the memory is locked down from reading it. Then I can see what it's actually doing and going on.

 

Also concerning is the lack of low impedance decoupling caps on the microcontroller power pins. Again it gives off a design smell that the designer didn't really know what they were doing. Even a bog standard 100nF capacitor is better than the zilch on here and literally fractions of a cent. So cheap that a lot of Chinese PCB assemblers don't bother charging for them.

 

What looks to be a diode across the distributor points appears to be a late addition to the design as there is no footprint markings on the PCB for it. At least they used a automotive rated coil driver J-FET for driving the coil though. Probably the only decent part of the design.

 

As the design is so simple, I quickly sketched a schematic of the board. It's a tad messy, as the last time I hand drew a schematic was over 10 years ago when I was at uni.. I didn't include the input switch or red LED but that basically only switches the distributor points input directly to the coil output.

 

 

I honestly don't think I want to put this in my car given the crappyness of the design. At the very least I may swap out the switch for a waterproof one and give the PCB a spray of Conformal Coating.

 

2/10.

 

Well, that's your classic car business sorted. 

 

When's the website going up? 

[Stanky]

Hopefully its a good day for MOTs Parky - the wife-mobile is in for its annual inspection as well today. Its at a garage I've not used before too due to the tester being really quite unwell at the usual place, so added nervousness and increased wear and tear on the f5 key on the MOT website this morning.

[320touring]

Hopefully its a good day for MOTs Parky - the wife-mobile is in for its annual inspection as well today. Its at a garage I've not used before too due to the tester being really quite unwell at the usual place, so added nervousness and increased wear and tear on the f5 key on the MOT website this morning.

You dont have time for that -get the GEEP running!

[fordperv]

Sparkrite alarms and immobiliser stuff is utter pish - always has been. When I used to sell that sort of thing these were GUARANTEED to be fucked in under a year, almost always due to damp ingress.

A misfiring alarm is a pain in the arse and an unreliable immobiliser is a nightmare...

You say that but we put one with the central locking interface and all that on my dad's sierra and it worked faultlessly in all the years he had it, but that could be down to the way he fitted it and the fact it was an old one, i took it off when the car rotted away its sat in my mum's loft

[Stanky]

How did you get an entire Sierra into the loft?

[Parky]

Hopefully its a good day for MOTs Parky - the wife-mobile is in for its annual inspection as well today. Its at a garage I've not used before too due to the tester being really quite unwell at the usual place, so added nervousness and increased wear and tear on the f5 key on the MOT website this morning.

Thank you Stanky - it was indeed a good day, another pass with an advisory on the front tyres (as expected). Nothing else to worry about, everything else is tip top apparently.

 

Good luck with the wife-mobile!

[Stanky]

Thanks, I got a clean pass for the second year running, not bad for a £500 stop-gap car.

[Guest Hooli]

How did you get an entire Sierra into the loft?

 

Piece by piece.

[phil_lihp]

Kinda spurred me on to want to make my own mappable Ignition system - especially as the original distributor for my MGB is knackerd. Aftermarket distributors don't seem to have a lot of details on the advance curve of them. So they won't be running as the originals did. Also with modern fuels, the ignition timing isn't likely to be optimal either. It's why I originally bought that cheap £27 Accuspark distributor to play with. However that at the moment has been put into duty in the MGB.

 

As others have said, sounds like you could make your own better-quality system, you certainly seem to know your stuff.  

[SiC]

Well, that's your classic car business sorted.

 

When's the website going up?

Is there any money in such a product and in classic cars in general? I can imagine there is in the top end stuff but at the hobby/enthusiast level?

 

Problem with making it a commercial product like this is that the design and implementation is only one part of bringing it to market. Not only the marketing, manufacturing, sales, support and stocking, but to get a product like this to market involves a lot of approvals process. It should be properly type approved and that's expensive + time consuming.

 

I'd love to see the certificate of conformance for that Sparkrite module. Mostly because I suspect there is none. It's not heavily policed so no questions asked but that's all well and good until someone sues for liability. Even if they have product liability, under H&S grounds can make the directors personally liable too. Also without type approval, the liability insurance could be found to be null anyway.

 

Also having set up and ran a startup of my own previously, it's bloody stressful hard work. Right now in my life, a regular 9-5 with a decent salary is what I need and have.

 

If/when I do make my own ignition system, I'll just do it in my own time and probably ultimately open source it. That way I can stop & start the project as I have the mojo for it without stressing having deadlines and worrying about burn rates, budgets, marketability, etc.

 

First things first though is that I need a bench test jig to aid development. Does anyone know of any Distributor testers for sale?

[tooSavvy]

... Sparkrite Clone burns down multistorey car park.... I see it all now....

 

*OLLI have the crown atm.

 

 

TS

[omegod]

Looks like the old AS whore Rover 220 sli has passed it's MOT so lives on, not sure who has custody but well done 

[stuboy]

Collegue asked me to pump up hes rear tyre (again) as he said it was not handling very well, 4.5psi and a nail right on edge .. looked at both rears advised to replace tyres as there perished...they wanted to know how long last... safety last eh.

[catsinthewelder]

Looks like the old AS whore Rover 220 sli has passed it's MOT so lives on, not sure who has custody but well done 

 

Currently with Nisfan,  good to hear it's passed.