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Glow Control System

Requirement

Design and development of software solution for an 8-bit microcontroller based Glow Control Unit (henceforth referred as GCU). Functionalities included,

  • Logic for controlling glow plug power stages
  • Error handling and diagnosis of glow plugs
  • LIN interface to Engine Control Unit

System Overview

The glow control system has glow plugs controlled electronically through a microcontroller based GCU. GCU communicates with the Engine Control Unit through a LIN network.

LIN interface:  The engine control unit communicates with GCU over a LIN network. In the LIN network, Engine control unit acts as the master and Glow control unit acts as the slave. Glow Control Unit:  GCU receives the glow control logic state, glow voltage etc. from the engine control unit over LIN and based on these inputs, controls the glow plugs. It controls switching of the glow plugs in sequence to minimize the current fluctuations. GCU also does diagnosis and error handling of the system. It detects errors like short circuit to ground, short circuit to battery, open load, over load etc. The diagnostic status is sent over LIN to engine control unit on request. GCU also can switch off glow plugs to avoid damage in case of an error. Flashing of the glow unit can be done over LIN network. For this, diagnostic tester/flashing tool is connected to engine control unit which acts a gateway and communicates with GCU over LIN.
Implementation
  • Design and development of logic for controlling the glow plug power stages. Control of individual glow plugs possible.
  • Design and development of logic for Error handling and diagnostics of glow plugs.
  • Complete software solution for LIN interface.
  • Implementation of flashing routines for flashing the system over LIN
  • Hardware design was done jointly with the customer
  • Resource optimization carried out to avoid run-time problems.
Testing and Validation
  • Standard QA practices were followed to ensure quality of deliverables
  • Standard Testing practices including Unit testing, Function testing etc
  • System testing and HIL testing were performed at customer site
Tools
  • Freescale HCS08 family micro-controller
  • Trace32 debugger
  • CodeWarrior Development Studio
  • Samtec HS+ interface and SamDia for LIN network simulation
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