Stroboscope automobile: purpose, principle of operation, construction

Every car enthusiast knows that the moment of ignition should be set up correctly and work at the right time. This will achieve maximum engine power and, as a result, high efficiency, will extend the life of the engine. But it's almost impossible to perform a tuning without the proper equipment in a qualitative way, that's why we will need a car stroboscope. It is possible to put the ignition without any instruments, but only a long-term practice can help.

Stroboscope for cars

Stroboscopes are used to adjust 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 the automotive stroboscope is used to adjust at idle speed up to 5,000 crankshafts per second.

Today, there is a whole mass of varieties of stroboscopes, from self-made to expensive professional devices. Of course, if you are not an employee of a service station, then there is no point in buying an expensive unit, as it will not be necessary to use it, especially if you can collect a car stroboscope with your own hands in just 10-20 minutes.

It's quite easy to use the device. When the engine is not working, a high-voltage wire from the engine plug (1st cylinder) is passed through the special ring of the stroboscope sensor. Then the wire is connected back, the engine starts, and then the strobe. Further on the sensors the advance angle is determined.

Car LED stroboscope

Most often, LEDs are used for indication. This is due to the extremely short life of the 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 an opening for the LED. It is worth noting that all the elements are assembled on a printed circuit board.

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

The inductive sensor ring 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. Directly on the ring, about 36 turns of wire with a diameter of 0.8 mm must be wound. All this can be covered with a layer of insulation. Thus, we have a ready-to-run stroboscope automobile.

A little about tuning the strobe

If a quality board was used and everything is working fine, then no setup is required. But often this is not so. Therefore, the scheme should be collected sequentially, on a separate node. One must understand that at first one chip is sealed, then the second, the third, etc.

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

To check if the device is working, you just need to take the piezoelectric element from the lighter or something like that. If the lamp lights up at each spark, then the car's strobe was made by hand , if not, then the chain should be checked again. Maybe somewhere the contact went away.