Erik van Gerven
Member
Hi all,
As a proud owner of a Honda CB500F1 (1976) I was looking for a stroboscope to set the ignition timing right.
A simple stroboscope will cost about 60-70 euro's and will do the job fine but much more fun it will be to build my own, using a picaxe of course!
The stroboscope itself is built using common parts (still in development... will post the details later)
First difference is: I will not use the regular xenon flashlight but a sturdy LED.
Because most white LED's are using a fluorescent layer to emit light, they will show an afterglow. They are way to slow for a stroboscope. Instead, I chose a RGB LED.
The forward voltage of the 3 LED's inside will be about 8 Volts and the current will be about 350 mA. The LED emits a lot of light, so I must find a way for eye protection later on. Lots more light as the average standard stroboscope, it might even possible to use it out in the sun!
I also found a nice, small 8 character LCD starburst display. Very suitable for a portable device.
Th picaxe will mainly be used to do some measuring during the test. Besides the use of the RGB LED, the stroboscope itself is pretty discrete and straightforward. It will be connected to the breakerpoints directly to make measurements possible.
Where does the picaxe fit in?
Not directly in the strobe itself because we cannot allow any delay on the flash.
But since we have the ignitionpulse from the engine, we can do some measuring
The picaxe will show cycles per minute, dwell (the time the breakerpoints are opened and closed)
Settings can be made in the menu for number of cylinders, 2 or 4 stroke engine and number of ignition coils (My Honda has 2 of them)
In another modus the strobe will flash by the picaxe and show the frequency on the display. By looking at the reflection and change the frequency until it appears frozen you can determing the speed of the machine you are looking at (Fan or something)
The third modus is just a light to see into the dark areas of the engine you are working on
All can be managed with just 4 buttons (menu,up,down and OK)
In a bit earlier version of the software I made a short movie while testing the functionality
Look at it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6vIzKHuNtg
The programme itself so far (maybe some adjustments are needed after the electronics are built):
View attachment lcd led strobe sgl task dn.bas
As a proud owner of a Honda CB500F1 (1976) I was looking for a stroboscope to set the ignition timing right.
A simple stroboscope will cost about 60-70 euro's and will do the job fine but much more fun it will be to build my own, using a picaxe of course!
The stroboscope itself is built using common parts (still in development... will post the details later)
First difference is: I will not use the regular xenon flashlight but a sturdy LED.
Because most white LED's are using a fluorescent layer to emit light, they will show an afterglow. They are way to slow for a stroboscope. Instead, I chose a RGB LED.
The forward voltage of the 3 LED's inside will be about 8 Volts and the current will be about 350 mA. The LED emits a lot of light, so I must find a way for eye protection later on. Lots more light as the average standard stroboscope, it might even possible to use it out in the sun!
I also found a nice, small 8 character LCD starburst display. Very suitable for a portable device.
Th picaxe will mainly be used to do some measuring during the test. Besides the use of the RGB LED, the stroboscope itself is pretty discrete and straightforward. It will be connected to the breakerpoints directly to make measurements possible.
Where does the picaxe fit in?
Not directly in the strobe itself because we cannot allow any delay on the flash.
But since we have the ignitionpulse from the engine, we can do some measuring
The picaxe will show cycles per minute, dwell (the time the breakerpoints are opened and closed)
Settings can be made in the menu for number of cylinders, 2 or 4 stroke engine and number of ignition coils (My Honda has 2 of them)
In another modus the strobe will flash by the picaxe and show the frequency on the display. By looking at the reflection and change the frequency until it appears frozen you can determing the speed of the machine you are looking at (Fan or something)
The third modus is just a light to see into the dark areas of the engine you are working on
All can be managed with just 4 buttons (menu,up,down and OK)
In a bit earlier version of the software I made a short movie while testing the functionality
Look at it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6vIzKHuNtg
The programme itself so far (maybe some adjustments are needed after the electronics are built):
View attachment lcd led strobe sgl task dn.bas