Silicon ChipMotorola's MC3334P High Energy Ignition IC - May 1988 SILICON CHIP
  1. Outer Front Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Publisher's Letter: Lo, the dreaded microprocessor
  4. Restoring Vintage Radio Receivers by John Hill
  5. Subscriptions
  6. Feature: The Way I See It by Neville Williams
  7. Project: Optical Tachometer for Aeromodellers by John Clarke & Greg Swain
  8. Project: Fit High-Energy Ignition to Your Car by Leo Simpson & John Clarke
  9. Feature: Motorola's MC3334P High Energy Ignition IC by Leo Simpson
  10. Project: Walkaround Throttle for Model Railroads, Pt.2 by Leo Simpson & John Clarke
  11. Serviceman's Log: Double or quits - toss ya! by The Original TV Serviceman
  12. Project: Ultrasonic Car Burglar Alarm by Branco Justic
  13. Feature: Amateur Radio by Garry Cratt, VK2YBX
  14. Project: Build the Party Light by Stephen David
  15. Feature: The Evolution of Electric Railways by Bryan Maher
  16. Feature: Digital Fundamentals, Pt.7 by Louis E. Frenzel
  17. Market Centre
  18. Advertising Index
  19. Outer Back Cover

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Articles in this series:
  • The Way I See It (November 1987)
  • The Way I See It (December 1987)
  • The Way I See It (January 1988)
  • The Way I See It (February 1988)
  • The Way I See It (March 1988)
  • The Way I See It (April 1988)
  • The Way I See It (May 1988)
  • The Way I See It (June 1988)
  • The Way I See it (July 1988)
  • The Way I See It (August 1988)
  • The Way I See It (September 1988)
  • The Way I See It (October 1988)
  • The Way I See It (November 1988)
  • The Way I See It (December 1988)
  • The Way I See It (January 1989)
  • The Way I See It (February 1989)
  • The Way I See It (March 1989)
  • The Way I See It (April 1989)
  • The Way I See It (May 1989)
  • The Way I See It (June 1989)
  • The Way I See It (July 1989)
  • The Way I See It (August 1989)
  • The Way I See It (September 1989)
  • The Way I See It (October 1989)
  • The Way I See It (November 1989)
  • The Way I See It (December 1989)
Articles in this series:
  • Walkaround Throttle for Model Railroads (April 1988)
  • Walkaround Throttle for Model Railroads, Pt.2 (May 1988)
Articles in this series:
  • Amateur Radio (November 1987)
  • Amateur Radio (December 1987)
  • Amateur Radio (February 1988)
  • Amateur Radio (March 1988)
  • Amateur Radio (April 1988)
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  • The "Tube" vs. The Microchip (August 1990)
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  • Amateur Radio (January 1995)
  • CB Radio Can Now Transmit Data (March 2001)
  • What's On Offer In "Walkie Talkies" (March 2001)
  • Stressless Wireless (October 2004)
  • “Degen” Synthesised HF Communications Receiver (January 2007)
  • WiNRADiO: Marrying A Radio Receiver To A PC (January 2007)
  • PICAXE-08M 433MHz Data Transceiver (October 2008)
  • Half-Duplex With HopeRF’s HM-TR UHF Transceivers (April 2009)
  • Dorji 433MHz Wireless Data Modules (January 2012)
Articles in this series:
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (November 1987)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (December 1987)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (January 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (February 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (March 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (April 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (May 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (June 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (July 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (August 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (September 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (October 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (November 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (December 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (January 1989)
  • The Evolution Of Electric Railways (February 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (March 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (April 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (May 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (June 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (July 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (August 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (September 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (October 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (November 1989)
  • The Evolution Of Electric Railways (December 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (January 1990)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (February 1990)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (March 1990)
Articles in this series:
  • Digital Fundamentals, Pt.1 (November 1987)
  • Digital Fundamentals, Pt.2 (December 1987)
  • Digital Fundamnetals, Pt.3 (January 1988)
  • Digital Fundamentals, Pt.4 (February 1988)
  • Digital Fundamentals Pt.5 (March 1988)
  • Digital Fundamentals, Pt.6 (April 1988)
  • Digital Fundamentals, Pt.7 (May 1988)
  • Digital Fundamentals, Pt.8 (June 1988)
  • Digital Fundamentals, Pt.9 (August 1988)
  • Digital Fundamentals, Pt.10 (September 1988)
Manufacturer's data on the Motorola MC3334P high energy ignition IC Motorola's MC3334P is designed specifically to suit five terminal ignition systems made by Delco (USA) for the aftermarket (ie, for fitting to older cars). The MC3334P, driving a high voltage Darlington transistor, provides an ignition system which optimises spark energy at minimum power dissipation. By LEO SIMPSON a transient voltage of up to 90 volts for up to 300 milliseconds. Output sink current (into pin 7) is quoted as 300 milliamps (maximum, steady state) but it can take up to one amp for as long as 300 milliseconds. Operating temperature range is from - 40° to + 125°. Fig.1 shows Motorola's suggested application circuit for the MC3334P. This shows input pins 4 and 5 connected to a reluctor pickup with an inductance of 1.35 Henries. Reluctor or variable reluctance pickups are used in many modern vehicles and consist of a toothed wheel (one tooth for each Motorola quote the following features for the MC3334P: • Very low peripheral component count • No critical system resistors • Wide supply voltage operating range (4-24V) • Overvoltage shutdown (30V) • Dwell automatically adjusts to produce optimum stored energy without waste • Externally adjustable peak current • Transient protected outputs Maximum supply voltage is quoted as 24V DC (steady state) although the device will withstand cylinder) which rotates near a permanent magnet which has a coil of wire wound around it. The signal generated by the reluctor is shown on Fig.1 as a spiky waveform which is processed by the IC to give correct turn-off time for the Darlington transistor (MJ10012). The capacitor at pin 3 controls the dwell time which means that the Darlington is turned on after about one millisecond. A sensing resistor, Rs, is connected in series with the Darlington transistor to monitor the coil curVBATT 4-24 Vdc RBATT 300 CFILTER :I 0.1 -::- 6 Vee r-, Reluctor : Pickup 1.35 H : ,,;•.o--......------.--------..N\,--+--.---1 : C1 • Power Output and OVP RL : "<:<>--<1----47_0_ _,_o_k....,_"VV\,-C--l---l----,----~ L-' Ignition Coil Primary 8.0 mH RoRIVE 100 OUT c2• =!;:0.01 *Optional Parts for Extended Transient Protection .. A 350 V zener clamp is requ ired when using the standard MJ10012 . This clamp is not required if a selected version with V(BR)CEO(sus) "" 550 V is used. Dwell Reference Buffer Current Liniit Sense 8 MC3334 Sense 2 1 Power Ground Ground~- - - - - - - ' -::- Fig.1: Motorola's suggested circuit for the MC3334P ignition IC. It uses a reluctor pickup which is typical of electronic ignition fitted as original equipment on many new cars. 42 SILICON CHIP VBATT = 13 2 Vdc 6 .0 5.5A 5.0 }40 ~ .2 30 . 2.0 1.0 bj3 260 I I I I I 133 100 70 50 I I I I I I I 10 0 I I I I I I 15 I I I I 33 Freq (Hz) I I 20 I I I I 25 I I I I I I I I 30 ms Fig.2: the primary coil current diagram for spark rates up to 333Hz. The "flat-topped" waveform shows the effect of the inbuilt current limiting associated with pin 8. rent. Pin 8 of the IC is used as a current sense input to limit the coil current to a suggested value of 5.5 amps. The idea behind this is to limit the coil dissipation at low engine revs. (Our circuit does not have the current limit feature because it will be used mostly with cars that have ballast resistors in series with their coils. The second reason for not using the current limit feature is that it will automatically increase the power dissipation on the Darlington transistor at low engine revs. Finally, the third reason for not including current limit is that we did not want any trimpots or user adjustments in the circuit.) Fig.2 is a rather strange diagram depicting the ignition coil current and transistor conduction times for spark rates from 33Hz to 333Hz (lefthand side). It also shows the coil current being limited to 5.5 amps at low engine revs. 333Hz is equivalent to 5000 RPM for an 8-cylinder motor, 6700 RPM r - - - - - - - - - - - - -, for a 6-cylinder motor, and 10,000 RPM for a 4-cylinder motor. While it may not be immediately obvious from Fig.2, the MC3334P does provide a variable dwell angle feature. It does this by measuring the slope of the reluctor waveform, with the dwell reference buffer, and stores the value on the dwell capacitor at pin 3. Our circuit for points-equipped distributors does not use this feature and the spark duration is fixed at close to one millisecond. ~ .s Vee -- - - - ---7, - ----------7 I I I I I I I I : I I 14V I I I I 5.2 V 2.0 '1> I I I I I 5 .2 V I I ~---~ 5 I X S2 I I I I I I I Input I Comparator I l with 1 Hysteresis I I I Simplified Internal I I Power Supply I I I I 1I I 1 I 1 I I I I I I L _ _ _ _ _ _-=-_ ___ ;::,7 _ I I L ___ __ _ __ _ _ _J 4 , - - -- 7,------ --- -- 7 Sl I I Output Stage with OVP and -=- : : I _J I L_ 2 Current Lim iting _ - - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _j Sense Ground 1 r Powe r Ground I I Charge Up Fig.3: internal schematic of the MC3334P. Not~ that the output at pin 7 is open-collector so it will "sink" current but cannot "source" any current without an external pull-up resistor. I I I 3 C Charge Oown I I I I I 1 I I 1 X I I -::L _____ I I I I I I _ _ _j L __ - ___ - Dwell Referen ce Buffer _ _ _ _ _ _J MAY1988 43