Onboard Glow Plug Driver GDL V7

  Thank you for interesting our extremely lightweight robust and easy to use glow driver system.
GDL V7 was designed to eliminate the need of external handheld glow igniters or start panels, traditionally used for starting methanol (nitro) engines of fixed wing RC aircraft. Heart of this device is a specially designed converter that gently conforms the 2S LiPo battery voltage to any standard RC two or four stroke methanol engine's glow plug. Upgrading your aircraft with this device will allow you to totally control your engine's glow plug from your transmitter. By your choice, the glow plug can be remotely turned on, off, or automatically controlled by throttle stick position.

Improvements:
New visual mode check system
  New visual indication system consists from two LEDs located on controller board and optional detachable bi-color external LED that can be installed outside the model for in-flight visual monitoring.
If LEDs are off it means plug heating is switched off on purpose, manually (by TX switch) or automatically (by throttle stick).
Orange color means "Hot" glow plug state, and the blue one means "Cold". Normally "Hot" must lit when controller performs the plug heating and everything is OK. If you engage heating but glow plug fails to heat up (broken connections, burnt plug itself or glow plug battery fails) the blue led will indicate that heating command is executed but actual heating does not happen so you want to check wiring, connections, glow plug battery and finally glow plug itself.

Why us
  There ares several technical solutions invented and implemented by RCM Labs engineers into nitro glow driver systems. Now it's a kind of must-have-features for all devices like this, but we proud to be first!

1  We drive glow plug by proprietary Low Frequency Adaptive Gauss-PWM algorithm. Initially we've spent months searching for correct parameter combination and years for testing and tweaking it after, to avoid RF interferences, battery and plug over-stressing, device self overheating and overall battery charge economy. Now it's perfect!

2  We refused low battery and shortcut cut-off ones and forever! It's logically simple! Battery does not cost the model. The whole glow drive system does not cost the model! Bet you don't want to save cheap battery in a price of dead stick while landing. No low battery cut-off at all and adaptive current limitation on shortcuts to avoid battery inflaming. We'll fight the model life till the end!

3  We use only 2S Lithium batteries for heating glow plug! It's a sweet spot. Less cells - more stress for battery. More cells - more stress for glow plug. Both deviations from 2S - less reliability. What for?

4  Glow plug is tiny but it's connection is a really heavy duty zone! Therefore no fancy hobby connectors or cables. We use robust and reliable industrial grade connector and military grade wiring.

5   The output stage overload capacity is way beyond the regular requirements. Hey, we're talking about aircraft safety here!

6  Our another significant (more then 10 years old) innovation is: total real time control from the ground. No buttons or switches on the model, no need to ruin the model look, no unnecessary points of fail onboard.

7  And finally, 6 stages of QC starting from components input check and up to real load test before packing.

  Usually hobby electronics lives a season or less. Our GDL series products capable to outlive several models or even motors. It's able to work for years on everyday use basis with no fail or degrade. Bet you could even bequeath it to your grandchildren!

Specification
Absolute Maximum Ratings


Other Tech Notes
WARNINGS!

  *** Never use dedicated switch for glow plug battery. It's dramatically decrease system reliability while you don't need it at all. Disconnecting onboard (receiver) power, shuts down the glow plug power immediately, regardless of it's state before.

  *** Never use the same battery for glow plug and receiver. It can cause the control loss due to voltage drop while the glow plug is in the heating up phase.

  *** Wait at least 1 second between switching off and on the onboard power source when recycling RX power.



Where to buy
What's in package
  • Glow driver board GDL V7
  • External LED for GDL or CDIKS devices


What's in package
  • Glow driver board GDL V7
  • External LED for GDL and CDIKS devices
  • Standard F-F servo cable
  • Fire-proof Teflon wiring with Never-Go-Off glow plug clip (50cm approx.)
  • Silicon cable with JST connector for glow plug battery
No soldering required! You can install this kit in 5 minutes right on the field!

What's in package
  • external LED for GDL or CDIKS devices


Any questions on this product: rcmlabs@mail.ru