Stan Meyer's water buggy had a second "laser": the laser distributor, explained

Stan Meyer's 1990 water buggy had a second part with "laser" in its name. On tape, with his hand on it: "We simply take off the conventional gas rotor cap… and we put the laser distributor in between the distributor assembly and the cap. And this now sends the signals to the computer system." His own drawing (Figure 3-44, Laser Distributor) shows what was inside: a GaAs infrared emitting diode, a light gate that spins with the rotor, and an Opto Schmitt detector. No laser. Each time the gate passes the beam, the computer gets a pulse, so it knows exactly when to fire. That is an optical crank-angle sensor, and Nissan's distributors from the mid-1980s used the same trick: an infrared LED shining through a slotted disc. Today a magnetic sensor on the crankshaft does the job in nearly every car. Part 2 of the laser accelerator. The 1990 interview and his drawings are on stanslegacy.com.

About the voices. The narrator is NeuralStan, an AI voice the archive uses for its made films. Where you hear Stan Meyer, it is Stan: every word of his is cut from an original recording, and nothing he says was synthesised.

Sources

• Stan Meyer at his garage · 1990 interview
• Stan Meyer · Figure 3-44: Laser Distributor
• Stan Meyer, 1990 interview at his garage, at 30:07 — transcript on stanslegacy.com
• Stan Meyer, Figure 3-44: Laser Distributor (GaAs infrared emitting diode, light gate 141, Opto Schmitt detector 11), Memo WFC 422 DA; book text: it "functions in similar manner as Laser Accelerator" — stanslegacy.com
• Nissan optical-disc crank angle sensors in the distributor, 1984 onward (Hansen Racing troubleshooting sheet; DIY Auto Tune; US 5,165,380)