Solution cathode glow discharge-atomic emission spectroscopy is a novel technology for metal ion detection in the aqueous solution that has emerged in recent years. It has the remarkable characteristics of rapid, real-time and low-cost detection. In this paper, an industrial injection pump was used to realize the flow injection analysis for the solution cathode glow discharge excitation source, and the narrow-band filter was used to extract the metal element spectral signals of Na, K, Ca, Li, Sr, and Cs, and the photomultiplier and ammeter were employed to obtain optical signals to electric signals, to realize the detection of metal elements in aqueous solution. The effects of injection volumes of 100 and 166 μL on the signal intensity of 1 mg·L-1 Na element was analyzed. The relative standard deviations (RSD) of the signal intensity are 4.64% and 1.95%, respectively, indicating that both injections had good repeatability. In order to obtain better analysis performance, the influence of parameters such as DC discharge voltage, slit width and photomultiplier tube supply voltage on signal strength were explored. The experimental results show that a high signal-to-back ratio is obtained when the DC discharge voltage is 1 000 V, the slit width is 70 μm, and the photomultiplier tube supply voltage is -800 V. the detection limits of six metal elements Na, K, Ca, Li, Sr and Cs were measured when the equipment works at flow injection mode, which was 2.78, 4.23, 589, 9.45, 981 and 83.6 μg·L-1. Na and K elements in the mixed solution were quantitatively analyzed and measured, the measurement errors were 7.5% and 6.67%, and the precisions were 1.24% and 0.89%, respectively, indicating that the homemade equipment can detect metal elements with high accuracy.