Installation Instructions on attachment. Fred

Interesting post Fred, thanks for posting this!

fatstax wrote:

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why wont this work with a magnetic trigger?

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 Fatstax, there is no magnetic trigger for a few reasons. First of all, points in this application aren't voltage sensitive and will provide a reliable trigger down to as low as the sensing voltage of this CD unit which is at least as low as 3.7V.  Secondly, points in this application are very reliable with only a couple of failure modes(broken spring, open circuit due to broken wire) which almost never happen. Retaining the points makes troubleshooting ignition problems dead easy and the ability to switch from one kind of ignition to another gives redundancy and reliability that no magnetic trigger could possibly give. A magnetic trigger of whatever variety requires more complex electronics and the possibility of failure increases in proportion to the increased complexity. The trigger circuit in this CDI doesn't get much simpler. The basics are a capacitor (to trigger the SCR gate), a diode to feed the trigger capacitor and block the discharging of the capacitor when the points re-close, and a resistor to bleed off the trigger capacitor slowly between each firing to make it immune to points bounce. It will reliably trigger the SCR down to minus 50C and up to 125C. And since the trigger is being controlled by a mechanical switch that is not temperature or voltage sensitive, you have a solid foundation for reliable triggering.

 For example, some years ago I converted a car that had a Hall effect magnetic pickup in the distributor that triggered a 'transistor switch' type of inductive electronic ignition to trigger a Accel 300+ CDI instead. I had to do a conversion to get the Accel unit to recognize the Hall effect signal but that wasn't the problem. That powerful, multispark CDI did start the car better, but on some very cold mornings it would not start until the starter motor was suddenly disengaged as the battery voltage rose. I reasoned that on those cold mornings the battery voltage was dropping below what the Accel CDI could run at, so I installed a motorcycle battery just to run the CDI. It made no difference. Turns out the Hall effect trigger would not operate well below 10V. Also, the electronics in that CDI seemed to be more temperature sensitive than they should have been. Points aren't like that, and well chosen components in the simple CDI points trigger aren't either. Also, the ability of points to perform their function well is consistent across the range of car makes and years since all they are is a mechanical switch. Fred    

so how much we talking to buy this unit then?

i would like to buy one so how we get this done?

I just scored a half dozen Hyland units while picking an old garage! One is also a 6 volt positive ground unit while the rest are 12 volt negative ground. I had never heard of them before...now on Ebay.

So I found another of your listings (this time an NOS 12V negative ground) and bought it. I am going to have to sell a couple of my units to make up the difference. These old Hylands most likely still work. Unfortunately they were potted, early ones in polyester resin and later ones in epoxy, so they cannot be repaired. The early polyester potted units would sometimes fail as the polyester shrinks with age breaking a lead away from a component or the circuit board. There is not much else that can go wrong unless someone hooked on up backwards. The Hyland did not have reverse polarity protection (mine do). The filter capacitor is an expensive tantalum in these units and will last decades as will the other capacitors. The power supply transformers were wound by Hyland and were very reliable. All of the other components including the discharge capacitor tend to be long lived with these units too. Only the best components available at the time were used. Back then SCRs had to be graded to function well with the CDI. The SCR was the single most expensive component in the unit.  On the unit I build today, the SCR is one of the least expensive components so I can put more money into the case etc and make the unit compatible with positive or negative ground. More efficient than the Hyland too. The Hyland retailed for between $35 and $45 during the period 1963 to 1965 when my father cancelled his agreement with Hyland and the company folded (for various reasons). If inflation is taken into account, my current price of $445 CAD is only slightly more than the Hyland retailed for back in the day, but my profit margin is not as high since there is more labour involved.  Fred    

Fred Winterburn wrote:

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Well I just bought one of your Hyland units from you for way more than it's worth, but believe it or not, I did not have an NOS Hyland in my collection, just some very well used units and some prototypes. This is a great find for me as a display piece. The unit I bought was the only one I saw listed, a 6V positive ground unit. If you have another 12V in pristine cosmetic condition with the box please let me know, Fred

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