Automotive stroboscope: purpose, principle of operation, design

2024 Author: Erin Ralphs | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-19 11:42

Every car enthusiast knows that the ignition timing must be set correctly and work at the right time. This will allow you to achieve maximum power of the internal combustion engine and, as a result, high efficiency, extend the life of the engine. But it is almost impossible to perform high-quality tuning without the appropriate equipment, which is why we need a car stroboscope. It is still possible to set the ignition without any devices, but only many years of practice can help here.

Car strobe light

Stroboscopes are used to set the ignition timing, as well as its control. There is a certain proportion according to which the advance angle should become larger along with the increase in engine speed. From this it is easy to conclude that a car strobe is used to tune at idle up to 5,000 revolutions of the crankshaft per second.

Today there are a whole host of varieties of strobe lights, ranging from homemade to expensive professional devices. Of course, if you are notIf you are an employee of a service station, then it makes no sense to buy an expensive unit, since you will not have to use it often, especially considering that you can assemble a car stroboscope with your own hands in just 10-20 minutes.

Using the device is quite simple. When the engine is not running, a high-voltage wire from the engine spark plug (cylinder 1) is threaded into the special ring of the strobe sensor. Then the wire is connected back, the engine starts, and then the strobe. Further, the lead angle is determined by the sensors.

Car LED Strobe Light

Most often LEDs are used for indication. This is due to the extremely short service life of flash lamps. Of course, the LED is brighter, and its glow is clearly visible even in the sun. As a rule, the body is made of plastic, and it consists of two halves. On one side there is a hole for the LED. It is worth noting that all elements are assembled on a printed circuit board.

The transformer has 2 windings. A wire diameter of 0.3 mm is used as the primary winding. The secondary is made from a wire with a diameter of 0.2 mm with a number of turns 638. It is quite difficult to find a ferrite core with a coil. It can be removed from a failed PC power supply.

The inductive ring of the sensor is made as follows. We take ferrite rings with a diameter of up to 4 cm and a total permeability of not more than 3,000 N m. About 36 turns of wire with a diameter of 0.8 mm must be wound directly on the ring. All this is possiblecover with a layer of insulation. Thus, we have a car strobe ready for use.

A little bit about setting the stroboscope

If a high-quality board was used and everything works fine, then no configuration is required. But often this is not the case. Therefore, the circuit should be assembled sequentially, on a separate node. You need to understand that first one chip is soldered, then the second, third, etc.

In conclusion, I would like to note that a car stroboscope may not have a board at all. It is enough just to take a flashlight, correctly connect the indicator to the high-voltage wire of the candle of the 1st cylinder. This device will also work. If, with the engine running, you press the gas pedal and hear a click after 3-5 seconds of operation, then the ignition is early. If there is no knock or click at all, then it is later. The distributor is adjustable left and right.

To check if the device works, you just need to take a piezo from a lighter or something like that. If the lamp lights up with every spark, then the do-it-yourself car strobe was made correctly, if not, then you need to check the circuit again. Perhaps a contact has gone somewhere.