Knowns:
-the Twin Fire is known working, as I can short an input wire to ground and release it and get a spark (through an AEM short pencil coil & plug)
-the EMU can trigger the stock dizzy/coil setup (12v system - stock Honda h22a4)

The Data:
What I think is the problem is there appears to be a voltage differential between the EMU and TF, and my guess is it's because the eManage is powered (and grounded) with the ECU, whereas the TF is connected straight to the battery. The reason I say this is because testing the voltage on the signal wire to the TwinFire shows a difference of 1.65v to battery positive when the trigger is off, and rises to about 3.5v when triggered. It should be 0v when not triggered and anything above that when triggered for the AEM to work (ie a swing of 0-3v, 0-5v, etc).

This is all when the EMU is setup for a 12v system. I can alternatively switch the output of the EMU to a 5v system, but then I'm still seeing ~6.5v when not triggered, and only falling to about 3.5v (iirc) when triggered. This should be swinging from 5v down to 0v for the system to trigger.

Solutions?
-My first plan was to use a pull-up resistor on the input trigger to pull it up to battery voltage. However, using progressively smaller resistors was still not enough to pull it all the way up. I started at a 10k and moved all the way down to 60ohms, but that was still not enough and I don't really want to go less than that.

-Alternatively I could try switching to a 5v trigger and use a pull-down resistor, but this is a bit more of a pain since I have to pull out the EMU to switch modes (internal jumper setting) to test it out, then switch it back to 12v to run my car until I have a solid solution, and I don't know if I'll have any better luck than the pull-up resistor.

-Third option I'm considering now is getting a 4 channel ignitor to put in between the EMU and TF, since the EMU seems to do fine with the stock ignitor. I'm hoping this might give me a more discreet on-off signal for the TF; I'm looking at the Bosch 0 227 100 211 as it appears to be popular in the standalone EMS crowd (Megasquirt and Motec specifically). It's not horribly expensive at $50 used, but I don't want to throw money away if it isn't going to do anything for me.

Thoughts?

 

Can the emanage drive a 4 channel ignition off the Honda ECU?

 

How do you have your triggers set up in the e-manage? Is this for your prelude? The Greddy E-Manage is a piggy back computer so you essentially have one coil output. Are you just trying to trigger one or all four? How are your dip switches on the side of the Twinfire set?

 

Yes, the EMU can take a single input and remap to a 4 channel output for changing to COP from distributed or wasted spark. This has been verified as I can get a change in signal on different channels when cranking (testing min/max with my volt meter gave the results shown above). I have also tried as just a single channel with no luck either.

I have alternated the DIP switches on the TwinFire between rising and falling edge to go with and against the eManage to make sure that isn't the problem. In all 4 scenarios (EMU & TF set for rising, EMU & TF set for falling edge, EMU set for rising & TF set for falling, EMU set for falling & TF set for rising) I get the same result: nada. Grounding the inputs on the TwinFire will make it trigger, however. I have also read that setting the rising/falling edge incorrectly will potentially cause misfires and bad timing, but the car should still run.

 

What coils are you using smart or dumb coils? Either 2 or 3 wire coils.

I know you tested all the settings, but also did you cycle power everytime you changed the dip switch you have to cycle power each time.

Do you have an ignitor wired in or are you going straight from the factory ECU to the Emanage to the Twin Fire.

 

Dumb coils (AEM pencils). 99% sure I power cycled between dip-switch changes, but it was a couple months ago now.

Currently no ignitor in play; ECU to eManage to TwinFire. The TwinFire is supposed to be able to do either with or without an ignitor, but I'm wondering if it would help putting one in, that's why I was thinking about picking up the Bosch 211 (4 channel ignitor). I'll probably just do it, as that makes the most sense right now. I could try wiring it single channel with my stock ignitor to test the theory, but that's kind of a PITA to wire it back and forth.