that's an interesting reply from Standard.
at one time, i had a book from Jacobs, at least i think that was the name, that talked about ignition systems. not sure they are still in business these days.
anyway, i'll have to dig around and see if i can find that book, and review it again.

that's an interesting reply from Standard.
at one time, i had a book from Jacobs, at least i think that was the name, that talked about ignition systems. not sure they are still in business these days.
anyway, i'll have to dig around and see if i can find that book, and review it again.

that's an interesting reply from Standard.
at one time, i had a book from Jacobs, at least i think that was the name, that talked about ignition systems. not sure they are still in business these days.
anyway, i'll have to dig around and see if i can find that book, and review it again.

There are a couple of good articles out there on the ignition system. The ballast does reduce the voltage to the coil, but also that controls the current because Volt =I(amps) x R (ohms). But the other factor is the inductance of the coil. It really is an RL circuit. Higher the inductance the stronger the magnetic field can be, but the longer the time constant of charge rate. The inductor initially resists the current when points close but rises exponentially. Once the coil is saturated any further current into it just creates heat. When points open, the magnetic field starts to collapse. When this happens the primary winding has an induced back voltage that rises to 200-400 volts depending on the resistance of the primary, the inductance of the coils, strength of magnetic field (coil construction and charging time) and the capacitance of the condenser which absorbs the voltage spike. With a turn ratio of 100 or more. The 200-400V becomes 20 to 40K voltage with just milliamps of current on the secondary. Energy is conserved, neither created nor destroyed, just losses from efficiency factors (heat loss, etc).

Points can only handle so much current interruption before they wear from the high current interruption. So the system is tuned for that. Obviously as RPM rises the time to charge the coil drops, the magnetic field is less and secondary output voltage drops off.

So back to your electronic system. The box could have the ballast built in. The box could/can control current and dwell time for output so external ballast not needed. When matched to the coil and there are coils built that can withstand high current better.

Mopar performance Chrome box used a low .25ohm ballast but was not meant for street, because at low rpm dwell was longer and the coil was being saturated and the box would overheat, and the inductive kick back was higher. Box or coil could fail. But at high RPM with less time to charge, the higher current to the coil insured a better magnetic field charge to the coil and kept a higher secondary voltage to fire spark plug. So optimized for racing.

So I think it is best to use the recommended coil that the ECU manufacture recommends, and you can choice to go without ballast if you want.

As far as what standard was saying, I think they were explaining that the pickup coil is not affect by the charge current. It is not. Only the coil is. While in a points system the points are affected by charge current too. The points are the limiting component that set the ballast and coil resistance to keep current flow in spec. Electronic if rated and protected right, only has to limit current for the coil as the limiting component.

Hope that helps.