Autosport Labs

So lately I've been down with a bad cold - actually the beginnings of pneumonia. Last night, while loaded down with antibiotics and prescription cough syrup I collaborated on a 4 channel ignition driver board with our friend Karel Jennings. A fun diversion to keep my body rested.

Read more:
http://www.autosportlabs.org/blog/?p=1536

Wiki page here:
http://autosportlabs.net/IgnitionDrivers

Please share with your friends

Will these not over heat in the enclosure at some point?? What about using the back plate of the enclosure as a heat sink of some sort????

Hi Ryan,

The heat is transferred to the bottom of the PC board to an exposed PCB pad, where it can then be coupled to the enclosure.

Assembled boards are in! Nifty. Now I need something to drive them on the bench

Oh sweet!!! They look rather special!

Admit it, you're drawn to the pretty LEDs

Of course!!!

I am a man of simple means, and if it's shiney or blinky, I'm happy

Anyways... are these going to be available to buy in the store Brent? Or as a self build kit?

I would really LOVE to be able to do away with as much gubbins under the bonnet (hood) as possible...

Yes- we'll have them available. Next up is to work out heat coupling to our enclosures- I think we have a fairly simple solution that puts the enclosure heat-sink finning to good use

ooooh, oooh, oooh... put one aside for me.

Although you might need to offer different LED's... green is Soooooo 80's, haha. I know I'm a picky bugger, lol.

From a personal perpective I'd probably rewire the LED's to a ground switch so that they only light up on the press of a switch to earth them (if that would work) rather than them being on all the time. Just a thought

I agree. Given that the LEDs are indicating sparks/ignition they really do need to be either red or blue. Green is just wrong!

Personally I like white LEDs!

Hey Brent, will there be enough room to install a couple(3 in my case) of these driver boards for twin-plugging possibilities on a 6 cylinder?

You guys are roughing me up on the LEDs

The boards will fit one per enclosure, so if you have room for 3 enclosures...

An alternative is to run the LS4 coil packs, which has the drivers built in. Choices, Choices

COP all the way, 12 of them are going on my 911 motor! We'll figure it out I am sure. There will be plenty of room for 2 or 3 enclosures, btw.

Brent,

I've added metric sizing to the Features section, can you confirm the dimensions are correct please?

I've also found a PCB prototyping service in the UK which is VERY competitive (compared to some) working out at less than $16 per board on quantities of 4 or more, obviously the more units, the lower unit cost incrementally.

Coupla questions on the construction,

- it is a single layer board right?
- I'm guessing the heat sink is bolted to chassis?

Cheers
Rich

Hi Rich,

Thanks for contributing to the wiki1 So it's a double-sided board. The intention of the heat sink is to bolt the board down to a metal surface, like a section of aluminum bar.

The heat sink and the bottom of the board must be insulated- i've designed to work with TO-220 insulators. I recommend the rubbery silicone pads, not mica + heat sink grease, although either would work.

I've measured that a 0.25" bar sandwiched between the PCB and the bottom inside surface will make a tight interference fit after the board has been slid into the case. This part is in progress- The wiki will be updated when I have more pics to take.