Using Mallory Unilite distributor with ignition control

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TurboCamaro
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Using Mallory Unilite distributor with ignition control

Post by TurboCamaro »

I have a friend looking into megasquirting his '73 Vette. He has a Mallory Unilite distributor. These distributors have an optical pickup inside of them. They have three wires coming out of them. One is +12, one is ground, and the 3rd is a trigger wire.
The manual for this distributor says the trigger wire can be directly connected to the '-' side of the ignition coil. The other side of the coil is connected to a switched +12.

I'm assuming since this wire can ground the coil directly, that the signal this wire carries is identical to what an old points style distributor would be; ei: just a pulsed grounding signal that pulses 8 times for every one camshaft revolution and every 2 crankshaft revolutions on an 8-cylinder engine. Although it might be a bit cleaner signal since it's electronically generated rather than mechanically.

Now, my question is, how could we use this distributor and have megasquirt control the timing? Could that signal wire be fed into pin 24 on the DB-37 on megasquirt and then if a V3.0 board were used could it control the coil directly?

Is there anyway to get this to work with a V2.2 board? Could this trigger wire be fed into say a GM 7-pin HEI module and then controlled from there with megasquirt? Or are there any other cheap modules that could use this trigger wire as an input? I know the GM HEI module is expecting an oscilating signal from an 8-"pronged" magnetic pick-up that actually is carrying a voltage since it's made up of a coil and a magnet and this induces a voltage. Is there anyway to convert the trigger wire signal on this Mallory distributor to a signal that the HEI module could use as an input?

Thanks for the help!
-Wayne

1994 3.4L V6 Camaro 5 spd.
Custom Turbocharged/Intercooled
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