Electronic Fuel Injector for compressed air.

Hi all,

First post and just to clarify I know next to sweet F.A. about electronic principles. I am however decent with a solder gun and know the basics about what various components do.

A friend has decided that because I have a degree in Aerospace Avionics I am the best person to help him with a little project involving compressed air engines. My abilities are in systems engineering – not hardware design.

He doesn’t seem to understand the distinction. Whatever…

Long story short he wants to control the amount of compressed air being delivered each stroke via exactly the same principle as Electronic Fuel Injectors deliver fuel to the cylinders in a regular car: a PWM controlled, high frequency solenoid opening and closing a valve.

I thought for a second that maybe we could just physically modify an actual EFI unit, but not having ever touched one I don’t think it’d be possible to bore out the nozzle to allow for greater air flow too much. So I figure we just build an EFI from scratch – it’s a simple thing to do, but finding a suitable pull solenoid is proving VERY difficult. I have no idea where to look. I’ve tried RS and Farnell here in Australia but I can’t find any information on frequency of operation – unless it’s in a form I don’t understand!

Does anyone know if this would work, if the parts are available or if we’re just wasting our time?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

- Matt