This is a question we get a lot. Usually along with a suggestion that we supply a simple "y-adapter" (aka pig tail, piggy back, etc). Or it is in comparison to the way the German competition designed theirs.
I want to acknowledge that the whole pin swap routine is not ideal in terms of making the install "easy". We understand and appreciate that. There was simply no other way of doing it that satisfied these two criteria:
- No wire cutting/splicing/tapping is required (i.e. permanent damage to the car's wiring)
- An electrically solid connection adhering to DOT specifications for automotive environment applications is formed (difficult to explain, but in essence it has to be impossible for the connection to wiggle during operation)
For the cruise control to work, we had to connect basically to three things:
- The accelerator pedal signals
- A CAN BUS signal (this is how the cruise knows when the brakes are pushed or what gear the car is in)
- A power source
For #1 we had two choices: we could be at one end of the cable or the other, which means either at the pedal (front of the car) or the computer (back of the car). Either is fine. We researched thoroughly and discovered that in BOTH cases, a y-adapter would be impossible because in both cases the male plug (which is proprietary and difficult/expensive to get) plugs into a female receptacle that is part of the pedal assembly or computer's case and a plug-version did not exist (in other words,
impossible to get). So to satisfy requirement 'B' above we would
have to make
our own y-adapter by using alternative connector-pairs that used the same pins (i.e.. the red connectors that come with our kit). The
competition chose installation ease over quality of contact. They do use the original OEM male plug, which is good, but they have the same problem that the female mating half of that doesn't exist so instead they designed their circuit board so you plug the original male plug directly into the board. While not trying to be overly dramatic, this is electrically horrific. There is absolutely no mechanical assurance that this method will produce a consistently solid, reliable connection in a high-vibration environment. The DOT, and really the entire engineering community, has standards for this and not following them introduces an unnecessary fire risk and higher probability of failure during use like sudden periodic or permanent dead pedal - especially when encountering bumpy road conditions or simply temperature changes.
#2 and 3 are available from many points throughout the car so that was a lot more flexible. We chose the computer location because it happened to have all three connections in the exact same place so it really was an easy decision. Had we gone with the pedal location it would have saved people from running the long switch cable to the back but it would have meant tapping into the pedal at one location and the power and CAN BUS wires in a second location and that seemed messier. It would have also meant dealing with two different kinds of pins. The pins at the computer side are all the same. But the pins at the pedal side are different than the pins for any CAN BUS source nearby. Two kinds of pins means two kinds of extraction tools and two techniques.
Hopefully with that explanation people will have a better understanding of why our kit installs the way it does, and why it is better to take a little longer at the install to avoid potential problems down the road. If you're considering our competitor's kit... choose it for its features or its cost but not for its apparent ease of installation. Plus, without going into it, I assure you that you will find other elements of their install more difficult than ours so it almost evens out anyway.
Art
