Since I developed the 3PI ignition module in 2024, I have sold 2 or 3 dozen kits and have not had any reports of any issues until I received the following e-mail from Justin Snyder on Jan 25, 2026. I have not had a chance to test his changes (but will soon) but I have no reason to doubt his results. See his email is below:
---------------------------------------------
Hello,
I purchased the 3PI-X ignition module awhile back. I had a few issues getting it working reliably. It really messed with me debugging my new hit and miss model engine. I went through several 555 ICs and a couple 2N4124 transistors.
I was about to email you for troubleshooting tips but after a lot of research and reading about similar circuits, I believe the issue was stray voltage created by the coil. Adding extra grounding was not enough. To fix the issue, I added the optional 0.01uF cap to pin 5 of the 555 chip as well as adding a 0.1uF bypass capacitor between pin 8 (VCC) of the 555 and ground. So far no more blown 555 chips and reliable performance. These should be part of the circuit as added protections.
I hope this helps others so they don't have to go through what I did to get it working reliably.
No comments:
Post a Comment