HRR688 Ignition from FBO

[cuda66273]

Let's clarify all these unsubstantiated statements about our new HRR688 Ignition Box and lets go with the actual facts and not this bogus rhetoric.

This is NOT a GM Module in any way shape or form.

The HRR688 was co-designed by us and probably the most brilliant Automotive Electronics Engineer on this planet.  It's 100% assembled in America to extremely rigid electronics manufacturing specifications by one of the best Automotive Electronics Manufacturers in this nation, Daytona-Sensors in Daytona Beach Florida.  The billet housings are made by PRP (Philadelphia Racing Products) The boards were prototyped and are currently built by a company in California (some electronic components are imported).  The pins are also made in California, the labels are printed in Portland Or. with final assembly done right here in our shop. 

The Algorithm REV Limiter is the same Digital Technology that you'll find in the high price units from Crane and Daytona-Sensors CD-1 and CD-Pro and "some" other capacitor ignitions.  It starts at 5200 and adjusts at 200 RPM per click to 7000 RPM. 7,000 RPM is the limit for inductive ignition and if you need more than 7K you should consider the CD-1 or CD-Pro capacitor style ignition systems. You can not "Drive Thru" this REV Limiter. It is a true fully "Digital" ignition and accurate to .01%.  It will NOT drop cylinders, it will NOT retard the timing and it will NOT drop output. 

The LED light on the face is a self diagnostic system, when the power is turned on the box does a systems check and illuminates to show correct operation.  When the engine is cranked it will flash as each cylinder is triggered, once it fires the motor it's still flashing but too fast for you to see with the naked eye.  Film it and watch in slo-mo and you'll see it.  If the LED lights but doesn't flash when cranking then the pickup in the distributor is not sending a signal to the box.

The HRR688 uses voltage amplifier circuitry that when triggered takes that very tiny Voltage signal or trigger signal going to the electronic box up to battery voltage (similar to a relay). This high voltage is then controlled by a voltage regulator on the circuit board which reduces it to 5.5V to run the computer style circuit board to fire the ignition with extreme accuracy.


We challenge anyone with a Slant 6 or V8 to compare this product to any inductive ignition box available anywhere on this planet , in any test this ignition platform will exceed anything you can compare it to.  Show me the certified Engineering data!

Is it 100% fail proof? Of course not as with any mechanical or digital component you must create a Bathtub curve for expected failure rates. This is done by hours of painstaking and expensive testing and calculated by the sum of all components.  All Products whether it's a Road Hazard on a tire or an ignition box have a calculated failure rate based on this formula and every part has a built in cost to cover this tub.  Some ignition companies have a tub that looks more like a bucket and the costs to cover excessive failures are buried in the MSRP.  Send it back for warranty and they send you another, you've already paid for 2 anyhow.

This "Bathtub Curve" is widely used in reliability engineering ours is almost flat or as we refer to it "not much water in our tub" you can read more about the Bathtub Curve and how they calculate it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve


The problem with some ignition boxes or modules is not always the box or module itself but the signal received from the weak and borderline spec pick-up coils produced offshore and used by all current manufacturers of replacement and OE distributors.  The pickup coils are simply a small generator that produces a voltage signal as the reluctor passes over the magnet; this very low voltage signal triggers the box to fire the plug.  As with all generators the slower they spin the lower the output and the harder it is for the box to read the signal.  At low cranking RPM the generator on these cheap and minimum spec generators can't fire what some are referring to as a GM module.  GM pickup coils have a much higher voltage output by design than a Mopar pickup coil.  Stock GM modules under full load will run to 4800-5200 RPM and then fall off, aftermarket modules will run much higher and are exponentially more money.  Imported modules may start to fail as low 3200. 

Think about this..... In the muscle car days these HP engines were covered under warranty, do you think that Mopar, GM or even Ford really wanted you spinning these engines to 6500-6800-7000 RPM?  Change the module on these cars and your warranty was void.  They were designed to run only to the manufacturers safe operating RPM.  Why would Mopar put an ignition system in a 50,000 mile power train warranty program that would spin the motor to 7200-7500?  They would have been replacing engines every Monday morning.  New cars all have rev limiters my old V10 Dodge 1 ton would go to 4800 and right into stutter.


All parts have a minimum and maximum operating range set by the engineers who design these parts, if you're always working to the minimum you will likely get mediocre results.  The issue with the HR688 wasn't the aftermarket 4 pin module but it's inability to read the weak voltage generated by the low quality pickup coils at low crank RPM.  If you build the electronics to read the very low signal then you can get RFI signals that will falsely trigger the ignition. So it's a fine line....too sensitive and you get cross firing or low sensitivity and the low output imported generators don't put out enough to trigger it at low RPM.  It really comes down to the imported offshore low quality parts that this country is plagued with, minimum standards, poor quality control and corporate greed to make everything cheaper whether it works or not.

Between Daytona-Sensors and ourselves we have the most sophisticated ignition related electronic testing equipment available, some pieces we have built ourselves to test max extreme conditions.  Our distributor machines (4) have all been re-geared to run over 8,500 RPM which is common in S/E racing, those guys will shift at 8200-8800 and some even higher, how can you isolate a high RPM issue if you can't duplicate it on the test equipment? 

We challenge anyone to give us factual test data results that disprove any of our performance claims on this ignition box.  If you can't back it up perhaps you shouldn't say it, our Engineer or myself will be happy to answer any technical questions you may have and provide test data that we feel is non-propriotory.

All operational specs on the HRR688 box are on our webpage at www.4secondsflat.com/Ignition.html

[Musicman]

Nice write up Don.

[mhinders]

Each individual electronic component in the system has it's own bathtub curve.
Early system failures can be minimized by running the systems for a certain time before shipping, and sorting out those early failing systems. To make the curve flat and minimize the end-of-life failures must be pretty difficult. I think even the space industry is having difficulties with that.

[Ghoste]

I guess I missed something.  Was there a rash of FBO smack talk around here?

[JB400]

I guess I missed something.  Was there a rash of FBO smack talk around here?

Must be from the Cuda, Challenger guys.

[Musicman]

I guess I missed something.  Was there a rash of FBO smack talk around here?

When isn't there 

[Big Sugar]

I guess I missed something.  Was there a rash of FBO smack talk around here?

Nope.....? Just a Rash I guess.