^ One of the main reason I dropped was it was proving to be costly. I needed to get a CRO at the least to monitor the signals and it was beyond my budget. But, making a custom TCI is easier than a CDI system.

Refrigerator,ah thats a good idea,bottles and glasses ready,where to come.
Btw freakin awesome spread dude.

what do you want to upgrade to exactly ?
the alternator ??
or the engine stuff ?

i agree with abhi
TCI circuits are much easier to understand as compared to CDI
all the TCI needs is the pulse coil's input.

basically CDI has shorter duration spark compared to TCI, hence the TCI helps in better buring of the A/F mixture.
the working differs as follows

in CDI, the coil sends the current to the capacitor and its step up through the cdi to give out high voltage current to the spark plug.
while in TCI conversion we need to change the ignition coil as well as the TCI unit, what basically happens is that the battery gives voltage to the TCI and it helps in producing high voltage in the HT coil (ignition coil) thus giving that current to the spark plug.

normally (as far as i know) the CDI produces higher voltage sparks compared to TCI
but TCI has longer duration in the sparks, so it helps
apart from that the rev-limiter goes down the drain, so its good for modded bikes as the powerband generally shifts UP in the rev range.
my bike never crossed 7.5k on the Tacho when it was running CDI, now i've reached 10k for the very first time on my tacho today.

the timing as well as the placement of the pulse coil is as stock
the bike revs much easily than before (even with the alternator's load) and as far as my knowledge goes, we don't need to have a TPS or something to run the TCI as it follows a standard curve unlike the CDI which shifts the curves across the revv range.

this is what i've learnt so far, i could be wrong too so please correct me.

another thing, the alternator NEVER works without the battery, so the spark (which cannot be powered through the stator coil as the bike doesn't have it) is powered through the battery itself.
hence it won't work (neighter the spark nor the alternator) without the battery.

so if in case my battery dies out completely i will need to hotwire the terminals and then kick the bike for the spark to ignite, as it happens in cars.
once ignited, the alternator wil take care of the rest.

Nano, the curve is independent of CDI or TCI tech. Both can have the TPS.

Also wanted to ask you something - since the regulator in alternator is somewhat "crude", do you see any voltage fluctuation/spikes at lower rpms with the smaller battery?

how does chnge to tci from stock cdi ignition system i mean which vehicle ignition system can we use??cdi has good tendensy to give rich and better spark as rpm increases and low at low engine speed!i magneto cdi is some time big hektic to start in cold weather and same battry cdi perform very well.TCI has another advantage here!

Nano, its very interesting to follow your simplified narration on ignition systems. I had a vague clue on this before, but am improving my knowledge with these. A special thanks to that

Nano, I would suggest you to start another thread dedicated for ignition systems, so that our discussions will be more focused to the subject. There you can give some photographs of each components and wiring diagrams and other tips and tricks too. I guess other fellow master too can contribute some inputs to that idea. Lets make a mixture of all good devices to get better results.

Slightly OT. still, pls give me the answer in lay man's terms as usual.

So what advantage you guys are vouching on TCI over Digital CDI? If the TCI is offering best results then why the manufacturers are still stcking on D-CDI? Only few like Honda/TVS are using TCI IIRC. Is it because of cost factors others are backing off from adopting this system?

To be honest, you've carried out a series of heavy mods to the engine so it may be difficult to differentiate which one was more beneficial. Or have you done one after another?

Coming back, still am interested in swapping the ignition system, mine is a DTSI machine which uses 2 spark plugs, is it possible to feed both the plugs from the single TCI unit? And will it support TPS? Haven't checked closely with a RTR.

I guess you were referring to the riding rpm which never crossed beyond 7.5K before the mod.

You are using the stock pulse coil with the new ignition or a new one for the TCI? I know pulse coil positions will be the same, what other fine tunings are to be taken care of?

Why don't you use the stator coils to power the TCI with the help of an R may be the old APE RR or even the stock rr would do the job right? I hope this will avoid a jump start procedure fi the battery fails.

You are making more comfortable dude

Hey what makes you to say its crude, every car is equipped with this type of alternator with an in-built regulator/rectifier.

TCI will have longer lasting sparks. CDI will have more intense sparks. Thats the main difference.

BTW Nano, I hope you are not using the CDI ignition coil for TCI. Get A180's ignition coil, if you have not done so.

Maybe crude is not the right word, I meant fluctuations due to spikes generated due to the brush/slip ring structure of the alternator. That does not happen for a bike stator coil.

A noob query: Will a CDI ignition coil work with a TCI system? It may work but will it offer its optimum perfo? I guess he must've already swapped all the components with RTR's.

Abhi, a car ECU is more sensitive than a bike's ignition system as its got hell lot of circuits. So we must take it as granted as a reliable one.

We had a series of bulb changing once we were out for a picnic with a old good amby during my school days. But now things were changed, one of my friend is still using an Amby of his grand father in pristine condition which rarely gives any trouble. Bulb blown rates have came down on new generations which are comparatively lower than the times where separate voltage regulators were installed in the hood. Now its become a neat package and more reliable too.

I meant the alternator not the ECU. AFAIK, alternators still function the same way as before. There has been no change in tech here.

my current TPS have different connectors, they do not go in to the TCI directly, and all the wires are of different colors, all i know is that my old CDI had 2 completely different curves, and it was noticable when you are on one of those curves, there was and indication on the console too viz power mode (advance curve) or economy mode (standard curve)
the bottom end was much better on the standard curve, compared to power mode.

i still did connect my TPS's wires to the cdi (all sockets connected) but i think its running a single curve.
all i know is that the rtr series do not have that power/economy mode, so maybe if i swap to that tps too, i might understand the difference.

regarding the voltage fluctuation, it doesn't seem that voltage is varying a lot, but yes its there.
at lower rpms (below 2000 rpm) the lights turn dimmer (not the hid) but the battery remains completely charged, i did keep the rpms low (less than 2000) and did turn on the hid, it took 5 mins for the hid to flicker and than turn off.

this same flickering hid if used at 2000 rpm, the flickering stops.

i assume that above 2000 rpm since the voltage jumps to 14.3 ~ 14.4 from whatever it was before (13.2 if fully charged), hence the brightness grows.

there's no standard fluctuations as the stator has, like halo doesn't flicker at all, it either is fully bright (14.4v) or slightly lesser than full bright (13.2v)
maybe as its a 3 phase coil, i cannot make out the difference.

i remember that once upon a time i used to blow the horn (on battery load) after a while to know how much battery i've drained.
it used to sound feeble or inaudible if 2 hids were on, but now, no matter where i am, how much load i put on the battery, its always tooo loud and tooo charged.


well, talking in layman's terms, the only advantage is the revs pick up faster than the cdi.
and there's NO REV LIMITER in the bike, so you can rev it till 12k or 14k with same ease as you rev from 2 k to 4k

apart from that, there's no big difference.

i carried 1 mod at a time, i myself wouldn't just make 2-3 changes and then judge, i judged 1 component at a time.
i even judged K&N with karizma's jet, and i was unhappy, so i reverted back.

the most important thing is I HAD TO CONVERT MY BIKE TO TCI, i didn't have a choice.
like i said earlier, there's NO COIL in the bike, the magnet is there to keep the pulse running, that's it.
the coil had to be removed for the shaft to come out firmly.

we had to make 3 different shafts, i didn't wish to swap to TCI as i wanted to retain my CDI (to save cash, as i had to buy the IDI, TCI, Wiring harness, etc) but 2 different shafts were made before the one i am using right now, they weren't upto the mark, one didn't fit well, while the other was wobbling, so we had to remove the stator to get a bigger crank fix area as well as much stable extension.

but this couldn't be done otherwise, so i threw away my coil and used TCI.
was happy to feel the revv happy nature of the machine, coupled with absence of revv limiter.

to change to TCI, you need IDI as well as the TCI unit, the normal ignition coil which is meant for cdi cannot be used.

have changed the entire thing to TCI friendly stuff, even the wiring harness.
the pulse coil is the same though.

actually initially i was having sparking problems, like the entire tci conversion was my headache not my mech's.
we used to get the spark from the battery at times and other times there was no spark at all.
i was soo worried, it seemed as i've done a mistake swapping to the TCI unit.
but later after too much of brain drain i found that the GROUNDING of battery's -ve wasn't upto the mark.
we filed the chassis for nice ground and since then the sparks are tremendous.

as the bike has a 2.5 amp battery in standard, the grounding isn't as good as it is in pulsar series.

i think it will be too much of a headache to run 2 spark plugs using tci, ABHI is the only person here who can possibly do that so its his call.
and he should open the ign thread, not me.

@ PSR
ENLIGHTEN US.

About twin ignition, I guess it should be possible using the TCI. But then, even in the Pulsars, the 2 plugs do not fire for all rpm ranges. The secondary plug is only upto 5k rpm or so. We can not do this using a TCI unit from Apache.

One Word - Awesome

Awesome man. Its totally awesome.

Saw this kinda modification on RXZ in Auto India. There were no HIDs then.

Still the level od detailing is over and above the benchmark.

Keep going dude.

Hey, dont u've some WIP snaps to enlighten us? People like me will get an idea with the help of a pic only Am sure you've plenty and post it here or on a separate thread like I said earlier with enough titles to explain the each and every step. At least thats the min I expect from you. If you dont want to share it here, upload it to picaso or so and send us the link as PM.


It make some sense, once my secondary spark plug coil got disconnected due to loose contact, I felt a very slight drop in power and my mech was not able to find out at the fist shot. Later he found and fixed it. The secondary plug's perfo is not that evident even if @ high rpms too. What I feel is its performance is not that evident all the rpm ranges and may be its just a marketing gimmick by BAL. After the introduction of digital CDI Pulsars offering a better FE than the analogue breeds but still I love to ride a analogue one any day as the throttle response is much better on older ones compared to the UG1-UG2. UG3 onwards its become a different story in terms of refinement.


Almost 10-11 year back I read an article on Auto India, it was like a turbo charger on a RX100. The guy has taken an extended crank shaft and fitted a blower fan on to it.

good work bro....wat next?

Why the need for 2 spark plugs ?A CDI has lower power and shorter duration spark while a IDI has longer duration and higher out put spark.In Pulsar the second plug was added for emission control,so that the entire AF mix can be burnt..With IDI of Apache RTR due to longer spark it is already superior....The IDI can ignite Leaner AF mix than CDI..
CDI is a simple tech..IDI is not.