CDI (Capacitive Discharge Ignition)

Unit-II

Principle:
Instead of slowly charging the coil then
relying on it to generate its own voltage
spike, capacitive discharge ignitions
charge a capacitor with high voltage
which is discharged through the coil to
make a spark. The capacitor can charge
and discharge much faster than a coil
so a CDI can operate at a much higher
speed than an inductive ignition.

Basic Components:

The basic components of a CDI are,

1. high voltage power supply,
2. capacitor,
3. switch, and
4. coil.

 Construction and Working:

The capacitor is connected to the high voltage supply and
charged. When it's time to fire, the capacitor is connected to the
coil. The high voltage applied to the primary causes current to
rise very rapidly and that's where the secondary get the power to
make the spark. So the coil is basically just used to step up the
voltage that the CDI module produces.
The difference between a conventional electronic ignition module
and a CDI module:
A CDI module puts out power where a conventional ignition
module simply switches the power to the coil on and off like a
switch. Some refer to any electronic ignition as a CDI but it's only
a CDI if spark is achieved by discharging a high voltage capacitor
through the coil.It all starts with the high voltage power supply

Generating the necessary high voltage:( Two

common approaches)

1. One is to have a voltage converter built into the

module that converts the 12 volts from the
vehicles electrical system into a high voltage. The
converter consists of an oscillator to convert the
12 volt DC to 12 volt AC, a transformer to step up
the AC voltage to several hundred volts, and a
rectifier to make the AC back into DC. This
arrangement is what makes CDI modules more
complex and costly than a conventional electronic
ignition. You will see voltage converters used
mainly on cars and street bikes where there is a
battery and charging system to power it.

Approach 2:
2. The alternative is to use the alternator to produce a
high voltage AC signal. Then the CDI module only has
to rectify it before it can be used to charge the
capacitor. This design is generally used on dirt bikes
and lawn equipment where there is no battery or
charging system. It's also used on many quads and
enduros, even those that have a battery and charging
system. In a setup like that the alternator has two
outputs, a high voltage output to power the ignition
and a 12 volt output to run the lights and charge the
battery. The high voltage supply is used to charge the
capacitor.

Charging the capacitor:

The characteristics of a capacitor charging are the opposite of a
coil.When you put power to a coil the current starts at zero then ramps
up at a linear rate as high as it's allowed, and you need to keep the
current flowing through it to keep it charged. The amount of time the
power is applied to the coil is critical. Too little time and the coil will not
be charged. Too much time means that the current used to maintain the
charge is being wasted heating up the coil.
CDI eliminates these concerns. When you put power to a capacitor the
current starts extremely high then drops exponentially as the capacitor
charges. When the capacitor is charged the current flow is nearly zero
amps. You can leave the capacitor hooked to the power and almost no
energy is wasted. You can even disconnect the power and the capacitor
will retain its charge. As you can see, with CDI there is no need for a
current limiter or finely tuned dwell time. Generally, CDIs are more
efficient since very little energy is wasted charging the capacitor.The
energy stored in a capacitor is determined by the size of the capacitor
and the stored voltage.

Dumping the charge into the coil:

For that we need a switch. The schematic above is an overly simplified
representation of a CDI circuit. An actual CDI circuit doesn't use a physical
switch. Instead, an SCR is most commonly used as the switch. An SCR is
basically a transistor that when turned on, stays on until current stops
flowing through it. That eliminates the need to control the switch time. All
you have to do is trigger the SCR, it will stay on as long as the capacitor is
discharging and shuts off automatically when the cap is empty.

Stage 1: (Switch open)

The process starts when the switch is open. The high voltage supply
charges the capacitor. Notice how the current flows through the diode,
bypassing the coil. [A diode is like an electric check valve, current can only
flow through it one way.] The diode is not mandatory, many circuits don't
have this diode, I only added it to make it easier to see when the cap is
charging and when it's discharging through the coil. When the capacitor is
fully charged the current flow stops. The fully charged capacitor sits
waiting to be dumped.

 Stage 2: (Switch close)

When the switch closes it connects the positive
side of the capacitor to ground. This in effect
bypasses the power supply and hooks the
capacitor straight to the coil. Notice the
positive side of the capacitor is hooked to the
negative side of the coil. This is why, on many
CDIs, you see a negative voltage when probing
the positive coil lead. Once the capacitor is
drained the switch turns itself off and the
capacitor charges again.

Advantages:
1. An inductive ignition charges a coil then allows the primary
voltage to rise high enough to initiate a spark. CDIs don't wait for
the coil to do the work. The high voltage surge from the capacitor
causes the voltage on the primary to rise much faster and higher
than it would on its own. This creates a very intense spark.
2. Compact in size.
Disadvantage:
Unfortunately to get the big hot spark you have to give up
duration. A CDI spark may last only 50 microseconds (0.00005
seconds) where the spark from an inductive ignition typically
lasts about 1 millisecond (.001 seconds). The short spark can hurt
both driveability and gas mileage. A common approach to
covering up this deficiency is to fire the CDI multiple times at
lower rpm. While a few short sparks are better than one short
spark, it's still not as effective as one long duration spark.