Mallory E-Spark to controll bosch 0227100139 igniter

[Perkele]

I'm having a bit different testing going on with my fathers boat and I need some confirmation. This has nothing to do with MS but I know there's many smart persons here who can help me.
So the engine is old basic Chevy V6 4.3L and the dizzy is updated from breaker system to the Mallory E-spark optical.
It has this kind of trigger disk. Vanes 50/10/50/10 deg etc.


It charges the coil when the lip is between the sensor and spark ignites at the start of the gap.
So at idle the charge time is very long like 30ms and at max revs its more sane like 3-4ms.
Originally the coil current is limited with ballast resistor or resistor wire but those makes the spark very weak at start and I don't like the idea to limit current with resistors.
So I want to try older bosch igniter unit with current/dwell control here, but I'm not sure when it will ignite the spark.

Does anyone know if I can control the 0227100139 unit like this so that the input comes from the E-Spark system.
And if so which way does the output work compared to the input? Is the output grounded when the input is grounded?

And if the input dwell time varies from 30-3ms does the spark happen after fixed time after charging starts or does it occur when the input rises at the gap. Because some manuals say that the smart igniter's just limit the current to certain value "5A" and waits for the trigger.

Hope someone had the time to read this and understood what I'm asking.
Thank you.

[Perkele]

First test done and it actually did run.
The timing moved to very late with the bosch igniter so it seems that the controll works in reverse or the dwell starts when it should ingite with the E-Spark.
So now the spark happens the dwell duration later and also the ignition advance does not rise so well with the extra unit, because same dwell is more degrees at higher revs and it seems to fight against the cetrifugal advance. No vacuum advance in boat distributor.

[jsmcortina]

Originally the coil current is limited with ballast resistor or resistor wire but those makes the spark very weak at start

Not if it is wired correctly.

During start, a terminal on the starter motor allows the ballast resistor to be bypassed giving the coil the full battery voltage. That's the whole point on the ballasted coil !

James

[elaw]

I'm with James on this one. On a boat where simple = reliable = less chance of having to be rescued by the coast guard, I'd think twice about using coil driver modules that weren't really meant to be used the way you're using them.

As you've discovered, the drive signal to the module is wrong, both in polarity and the voltage(s) it provides. The module expects to see 5V on its input to turn the coil on, and 0V to turn it off. The Mallory box presumably being designed to hook directly to a coil, would provide a ground (0V) to turn the coil on, and an open circuit to turn it off. It's the opposite of what's required, in addition to never providing the +5 the module wants to see.

[Perkele]

You are both correct, this was just an idea to make the ignition a bit smarter/modern too as we updated the carb to holley bolt on inj kit.
And the original wiring was correct, it got the full voltage through starter motor when starting, but because starter draw quite a lot of power the direct voltage too dropped quite low at the end of those cables.
We fixed that problem by putting a extra relay and a push button on the dash, which can be pressed when starting and the the coil gets good power directly from battery. Now working well and the coil warms only a bit when running normal.