Idea for glow plug controller

[rabbid79]

I’m about to start a 2.0 TD transplant into an Audi 100 Quattro, and was thinking about how to wire the glow plugs.  I’m considering building a glow plug controller instead of using the big aluminum fuse and special glow plug relay.  Tell me what you think about these features of a glow plug controller:

> Individual current sensing capability for each glow plug – the system knows which ones are good or bad.
> Individual mini-blade fuse for each glow plug – eliminates the bus bar, and a single point of failure by having one large fuse.  Also better because these fuses are readily available.
> Glow plug diagnostics to warn of failure of a specific glow plug – could even compensate by leaving the others on longer.
> Individual LED status display for each glow plug – simple Red / Yellow / Green indicators
> Overall LED status display on the controller - Display battery voltage before and during glow plug activation, and overall system status.
> Manual override to temporarily force glow plugs on at the push of a button.
> Direct wire to the battery, bypassing the fuse box altogether.  Makes installation of diesel engines into cars that were originally not diesels easier.
> Special pulse codes could be sent to the factory glow plug light in the instrument cluster.
> Adjustable pre-glow and post-glow timers based on engine temp and other factors.  Other factors could include automatically starting up the glow plugs when the vehicle door is opened (similar to TDIs), and could also vary depending on how long since engine was last cranked.
> Modulate the power sent to the glow plugs, so they can be driven at values between 0 and 100%.
> Probably allow control for engines between 3 and 6 cylinders – maybe even 8 cylinders for those Ford and GM guys.
> Possibly include additional intake manifold heating coil control, such as used on Cummins engines.
> Possibly include coolant glow plug control as used on TDIs.  This will allow extra heat to be added to your coolant to warm up the car faster.
> Microcontroller control, solid state, no relays or other components that can wear out and fail.
> Could possibly even sense whether slow or fast glow plugs were installed, and compensate for each, although I would assume that the vast majority of glow plugs in use today are the fast type.

What do you think of the idea of warming up the glow plugs, and then cutting power to them momentarily when the engine is first cranked, and then powering them up again?  Would this help get the engine cranking at a higher initial speed

I could even create a PC-based application to configure the controller, but I think DIP switches should suffice.

What are your thoughts or suggestions.  Is it too much, not enough, overkill, etc.?  Do you think there would be a market for something like this?  I know this idea has been discussed on this and other forums.  I’m trying to venture off on a career of developing stuff like this, and thought it might make a good starting point.  I actually have a domain name of littleblackbox.com, and am looking for a few projects along these lines to get started with.

[bigblockchev]

Just my opinion but that is way too complex for the purpose. Key goes on timer starts, temp sensor determines on time. Glow plugs go off, engage starter, drive away. Maybe afterglow if it is really cold. Cheers Dan

[AudiVWguy]

Somebody was talking about the relay on the AAZ models that the relay would cycle on/of up to two minutes at start up. I think it uses Bosch Dura Therm glow plugs.

I think you have a great Idea. I'm concerned the cost would limit sales. Maybe have three versions in three price ranges. Maybe one version could plug into the relay socket and still have adjustable glow and afterglow ability.

[Jettagli16v]

my .02 is that I dont need LEDs to tell me the status of 50,000 mile replacement components.
I already have too much data vying for my attention!
Though if you made one that sensed Timing belt wear....

Have you seen Vince's write up on this? (pimp your glowplug wiring)
I did that about a month ago, and it was great, until the motor failed.

-Brad